Dale Earnhardt Jr. reacts to Denny Hamlin sending 'message' spinning out Ty Gibbs at New Hampshire

Dale Earnhardt Jr. watched on as the beef between Denny Hamlin and Ty Gibbs became the top story in NASCAR after this past weekend’s race at New Hampshire. He certainly has some thoughts on the matter.

The NASCAR Hall of Famer didn’t mince his words. He believes Hamlin didn’t have to spin out Gibbs, but the decision from the 22-year-old, coupled with his history, has him siding with the veteran wheelman.

“I think everybody understands what happened here,” Earnhardt Jr. stated, via the Dale Jr. Download. “Did Denny have to spin him out to send his message? Was it necessary for Denny to wreck him into the wall? No, probably not. But, damn it — go to look at Ty’s history of, you know, kind of being a little — I don’t know what the word is. I’m trying to choose here.”

“He’s not been a great teammate at times. He’s had some moments with, obviously, one of the more popularized ones would be Brandon Jones at Martinsville. But, you know, I remember him having some run ins with some other folks that were in the Gibbs’ Xfinity cars. I have a hard time kind of trying to figure out Ty Gibbs.”

As you can tell, Earnhardt Jr. is simply baffled by Gibbs’ behavior. He’s putting the entire organization at risk while not even being involved in the playoffs. That’s unacceptable, and something many in NASCAR can’t fathom.

At the time of their incident, Hamlin and Gibbs were battling for 11th place, before Hamlin spun Gibbs on Lap 110. Gibbs did not finish the race due to the damage suffered to his No. 54 Toyota, and Hamlin sounded off on Gibbs to his team via radio. 

On the Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin claimed he did not intentionally try to spin Gibbs but was looking to move Gibbs out of the lane he wanted. “Well, it was twofold because I was pretty much there into Turn 1, and then he moved down to the middle lane to cut the nose off to make me get really (tight),” Hamlin said.

“If you cut someone’s nose, especially if they’re running really close to you, it’ll make their car kind of lift up and take off. So I think he was just trying to cross my nose to make me lose air just to further aero-block me. And I was so close to him that I’m like, ‘Hell no. You’re not gonna do that.’ So yeah, I tried to shove him up to the next lane to get my position, and I unfortunately spun him out.”

In the end, Hamlin earned a P12 finish at New Hampshire and is in fifth place in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff standings. Gibbs is still looking for his first victory as a Cup Series driver.

It remains to be seen what the end result is, but the brass at JGR can’t be too happy with either driver. This is far from the publicity they’d like, with three of their four cars battling for a championship in 2025.