After a final round of pit stops late in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup race, Larson, Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. found themselves battling for the lead on a restart with seven of 160 laps remaining.
Hamlin lined up behind Larson in the outside lane and as the two entered Turn 1, Hamlin dove to the inside of Larson. Hamlin then drifted up the track and nudged Larson into the wall, knocking him off the pace.
With the lead in hand, Hamlin then held off a fast-approaching Tyler Reddick until a last-lap caution secured Hamlin’s victory.
After the race, in which he finished 20th, Larson was visibly irritated with Hamlin’s actions on the restart.
One more look at what everyone is talking about. pic.twitter.com/x8BeVoC8nw
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) July 23, 2023
“It’s unfortunate but I’ve been cost a lot of good finishes by him throughout my career. I know he says I race a certain way, but I don’t think I’ve ever had to apologize to him about anything. Not that I’m sure he’s going to say, ‘sorry’ after this,” Larson said.
“It is what it is. We just move on to Richmond. I guess we won there earlier this year, so we’ll try to get a good run in. Thanks to the crowd here in Pennsylvania. I got a lot of support here in PA.”
Asked if it was a difficult situation to deal with considering the two are good friends off the track, Larson said, “Yeah, we’re friends. Yes, this makes things s---- and awkward. You know, whatever.
“He’s always right. All the buddies know Denny’s always right. So, I’m sure he was in the right there as well. I’m not going to let it tarnish our friendship off track, but I am p----d. And I feel like I should be p----d. I’m sure ‘Actions Detrimental’ (Hamlin’s podcast) will have a long clip about it.”
Will race Hamlin differently now
When it comes to how Larson races Hamlin on the track in the future, he said he plans to take a lesson from Hamlin himself.
“I think at this point I have to (race him different), right? Like I said, I’ve never had to apologize to him about anything I’ve done on the race track. I can count four or five times where he reached out to me and said, ‘Oh man, sorry I put you in a bad spot there’ or whatever,” Larson said.
“Eventually, like he has said, you got to start racing people a certain way to get the respect back. I mean he pulled the same on Ross (Chastain) last year which Ross probably deserved it, right, with all the stuff he’s done to Denny in his career.
“Again, I haven’t done that to Denny. I don’t think I deserve to be run into before I got to the wall. I’m going to race a sprint car on Tuesday night. I’m going to forget about this in a few hours and that’s the best medicine for a tough result.”
