Denny Hamlin doubles down on Chase Elliott's 'childish' retaliation at Charlotte Motor Speedway
Denny Hamlin still hasn’t quite cooled off after getting wrecked by Chase Elliott during the Coca-Cola 600 on Monday. He doubled-down on his comments, calling Elliott “childish” for using a right-rear hook to retaliate against Hamlin at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Speaking on his Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin called on NASCAR to suspend Elliott — which it ultimately did. He said the sport set a precedent last year that it needs to follow.
“He threw a hissy fit and hung a left on us in the most dangerous part of the racetrack that you possibly could,” Hamlin said. “It ended my day and his and, in my opinion, he shouldn’t be racing next weekend because NASCAR set a precedent last year on this.”
Hamlin pointed to NASCAR suspending Bubba Wallace last year for a similar incident. Wallace right-rear hooked Kyle Larson at Las Vegas, a move that the sport considers to be one of the most dangerous.
“That is just so immature to right-rear hook someone. It’s just childish and it just pisses me off,” Hamlin said. “You gotta be better than that. … Chase Elliott made comments May 1 about how he felt how unsafe he felt the cars were. But yet, you think that’s OK. It doesn’t make any sense to me whatsoever.
“NASCAR needs to do the right thing and be consistent. I’ve gotten the s*** end of a ton of calls, it’s time to make the right call. There’s no excuse you can make. He was going dead straight and turned 120 degrees with the steering wheel.”
NASCAR suspends Chase Elliott for wreck
Whether or not NASCAR listened to Denny Hamlin’s podcast, we don’t know. But it did decide to suspend Chase Elliott for one race for his actions on Monday at Charlotte.
NASCAR released the news update on Twitter. Elliott will miss this weekend’s Enjoy Illinois 300 from Gateway Motorsports Park in St. Louis.
“Chase Elliott suspended from the next NASCAR Cup Series Championship event following Monday’s race at Charlotte Motor Speedway,” the tweet said.
Hamlin — who hasn’t calmed down much — was furious with Elliott following the wreck on Monday. He had no problem calling out the driver for the right-rear hook.
“I got right rear hooked in the middle of a straightaway,” Hamlin said. “Yeah, it’s a tantrum and he shouldn’t be racing next week. Right rear hooks are absolutely unacceptable. I don’t care, it’s the same thing Bubba Wallace did with Kyle Larson. The exact same. He shouldn’t be racing. Tantrum.”
Hamlin also said that NASCAR needed to “park his ass” for throwing the “hissy fit.”
Turns out, that’s exactly what NASCAR did.