Denny Hamlin hits back at critics following last-lap contact with Bubba Wallace at Kansas

Following last-lap contact with Bubba Wallace that caused both him and Wallace to miss out on a shot at the win at Kansas on Sunday, Denny Hamlin is clearing the air. He’s not a fan of those insinuating he handled the situation poorly.

A user on Twitter accused Hamlin of being “not smart,” explaining his view of the contact. He wrote the following:

“I know a lot will bring up on how Bubba and Bell raced and how Denny raced Bubba are the same and while I understand that, I think what Denny did was more careless,” Jett Kraus on Twitter wrote. “With no power steering I feel like Denny drove it in with the mindset of ‘if he’s in the wall so be it.’ Not only did he take himself out, he took out his driver and possibly a shot at any 23XI driver in the R8 and gave the win to a Chevy. Not smart.”

Hamlin hit back hard on Twitter. The driver of the No. 11 and co-owner of 23XI thought his team should have won.

“Give me a break,” Hamlin wrote. “I was off the gas and on the brakes 100yds before the 23 let off. I was turning as hard as I could given the aero situation. 11 team deserved that race. It didn’t work out.”

The race was an interesting one for Denny Hamlin. He led for much of the early going, and he did his best to maintain the lead into the final stage.

But Hamlin lost his power steering at some point on the final run, making turning for him very dicey. That surely played into things on the contact with Wallace.

After the race, Hamlin explained that his car was really tight at the time of the contact with Wallace. He tried to pass Wallace to the inside, only to make contact door-to-door, sending Wallace into the wall. In the moment that followed, Chase Elliott slipped to the inside, doored Hamlin hard, then charged into the finish line for the win.

“Just super disappointing, obviously. I wanted it bad,” Hamlin told NBC Sports. “It would have been 60 for me and you know, the team just did an amazing job on the car. Really, really fast, gave me everything I needed. Got the restart I needed, just couldn’t finish it there on the last corner. Obviously, got really, really tight with the 23 [Wallace] and I got really tight, and we let the 9 [Elliott] win.”