Dale Earnhardt Jr. baffled by Ty Gibbs behavior toward Denny Hamlin at New Hampshire: 'I can't figure it out'

Dale Earnhardt Jr. said he is having a “hard time trying to figure out” Ty Gibbs after his actions during this past Sunday’s Round of 12 opener at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Gibbs — a non-playoff driver — battled Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin — a playoff driver — for 11th position in Stage 2.

Gibbs did not make it easy on Hamlin, who made contact with him on Lap 111, sending his teammate into the wall. Just before that, Gibbs was seen racing hard with another JGR teammate who is in the playoffs, Christopher Bell. Earnhardt did not understand what Gibbs was thinking in those moments at New Hampshire.

“I have a hard time trying to figure out Ty Gibbs,” Earnhardt said on Tuesday’s Dale Jr. Download. “Listen, I’ve been around Ty Gibbs before and every time I’m around him, he’s OK, he’s cool. But I’m having a hard time understanding like, what was his motive. Denny was right in saying, ‘You’re not in the playoffs, we are, you’re our teammate,’ like, totally let him go. Look, if I’m racing my teammate and he’s in the playoffs and I’m not, I’m not even thinking about him in the car. I’m letting him go because of all of his crew, the crew chief, the engineers, the team owner, all of the employees of the team, team manager, general manager, everybody who is present is seeing this.

“I’m totally gonna make myself an assh*le by running him hard, even for a couple of corners. All the people that are building these cars every week are going to see you do that, the people at home, the people that work in the engine shop… they’re going to go, ‘What the hell is he thinking?'”

Hamlin was frustrated with Gibbs as he turned him, as he said on his radio, “what the f*ck is he doing?” Despite how it looked, Hamlin said he did not intentionally wreck Gibbs. Hamlin had a conversation with Joe Gibbs and Chris Gabehart on pit road after the race, and you can guarantee those discussions have continued this week at JGR’s shop.

Ty Gibbs fires shot at Denny Hamlin citing Kevin Harvick take on New Hampshire beef

Joe Gibbs said he wants the drivers to take care of it; Hamlin would prefer if JGR leadership stepped in and handled it. Ty Gibbs, grandson of Joe Gibs, added further fuel to the fire on Tuesday. Gibbs reposted a clip of the incident on his Instagram account, taken from the “Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour” podcast. In it, Gibbs added a hand emoji that pointed toward the subtitles on the post.

Those subtitles? They read: “Is that the moment that derails Denny Hamlin’s 2025 championship?”

Perhaps this isn’t settled between Gibbs and Hamlin. Earnhardt questions if they have a relationship at all, despite being teammates.

“I can understand that maybe he’s not a huge fan of Denny. Maybe him and Denny don’t have much of a relationship,” Earnhardt said. “I don’t know, maybe they have a great relationship, but it doesn’t seem like it. Maybe he doesn’t have a good relationship with any of them.

“… That’s why this feels so silly — talking about the commonsense approach to this. It’s absolutely obvious what Ty should have been thinking or doing, but he didn’t. I can’t figure it out. You can’t justify it.”