Denny Hamlin addresses JGR team meeting, fallout from Ty Gibbs New Hampshire incident

Last week at New Hampshire, Denny Hamlin put Ty Gibbs into the wall and the two set off a bit of a firestorm of drama. NASCAR teammates have gotten into each other in the past. However, this one felt different last Sunday.

This week, Ty Gibbs doubled down on his behavior a bit on Instagram by sharing a clip from Kevin Harvick’s podcast about this being the thing that possibly derails Denny Hamlin’s championship run. Then, JGR had a team meeting to settle these issues.

So, what happened? Hamlin won’t say exactly, but believes the meetings this week were productive.

“I think they’re in a good place. You know, we had some meetings this week,” Hamlin said at Kansas to the media. “I thought they were all productive meetings, but obviously, the guts of that obviously, going to need to be confidential.”

Denny Hamlin wouldn’t reveal what was said. He did give a little bit of a glimpse as far as how the meeting went. Everyone was able to speak their piece.

“Yeah, all the drivers had an opportunity to speak and try to come up with a plan, and I think we did our best to come up with one,” Hamlin continued. “That’s it, that’s all I have.”

Of course, Hamlin was asked if he had regrets or if he would do things differently. To no surprise, he said that he would have tried to handle it better.

“I mean, certainly,” Hamlin said. “Absolutely. I definitely got hot under the collar, and it went too far on my end, and certainly there was things that I wish I could have done a little differently.”

Clearly, a little bit of bad blood between teammates. A generational difference between the two drivers of about 20 years. Then you add in the relationships that they have with Joe Gibbs and JGR as an organization.

Joe Gibbs Racing in tough spot with Denny Hamlin, Ty Gibbs

Of course, Ty has the last name. This organization is one day going to be his, ostensibly. However, Denny Hamlin has been there for Ty’s entire life pretty much. His relationship with Coach Gibbs, with JD Gibbs, and the organization runs deep. It is more of a family feud than it may seem on the surface.

Ideally, this will be behind JGR and these two drivers. There are moments when drivers get over wrecks with their rivals quicker than teammates forgive one another. As long as it doesn’t mess with the results on the track, it shouldn’t be too much of an issue.

Denny Hamlin has a lot to race for this weekend. A win would advance him to the next round and make the Roval stress-free. That’s what you want as a driver in the NASCAR Playoffs. Let’s see if the wreck last week decides to linger and cause issues this week in Kansas.