Denny Hamlin reacts to Kyle Larson calling him out at Michigan: 'Nearly took both of us out'

Things got dicey between Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson on Lap 58 of Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway. Battling for sixth, the two made contact with each other.

Hamlin made an impressive save to avoid spinning out, though he did fall back to P11. Larson commented on the contact over his radio and accused Hamlin of mirror driving.

“Look out the fu*king windshield, Denny, instead of the fu*king mirror,” Larson said.

Hamlin, who took the checkered flag at Michigan, addressed the incident during Monday’s “Actions Detrimental” podcast. Contrary to Larson’s belief, Hamlin wasn’t looking at his mirror when Larson got a run on him in the corner, he said.

“Actually, was quite the opposite,” Hamlin said. “I did hear his radio when he was like, ‘Look out your front windshield, not your mirror.’ I’m actually one of the worst defenders in the series because I look out the window too much. The 5 [Larson] just caught me by surprise. I didn’t know he was there until he was all the way there.”

Hamlin wasn’t expecting to see Larson in the corner. He restarted on the bottom of the front row off the Stage 2 restart and quickly lost multiple positions before the contact with Larson. Hamlin said he got put in a “horrible aero position where I nearly took both of us out.”

Denny Hamlin explains what caused contact with Kyle Larson at Michigan

“I just got passed by two cars that passed me on the bottom. So, at that point, I’m running the mid to high lane of Turns 1 and 2 anyway. The 5 sees me getting passed, so he’s trying to predict the corner to figure out OK, I wanna pounce on him as well because I can see he’s lost momentum. Well, I’m not even paying the 5 any attention because I’m just letting off, these guys are clearing me,” Hamlin said. “At that point, I’m coming off the corner and then the 1 [Ross Chastain] and somebody else, you can see they come off the corner a little bit higher and it starts taking air away from my car. I’m starting to have to check up and lift.

“The 5 then comes with a major run and when he gets to my right rear quarter panel and then gets up beside me, he dumps all of this air on my right rear spoiler. Well, of course, I’ve got bad air now in the front and on the side. So, it just makes my car go dead straight. I crank a bunch of wheel in it, I’m off the gas and slow down. The front tires start to bite because eventually you slow down enough to where front tires grab and that’s when you get deadass sideways.

“The effect was that I was getting bad air in the front. Didn’t even pay the 5 any mind, didn’t know he was even a challenger in that corner. But he set up the corner so well, that it caught me off guard. Put me in a horrible aero position where I nearly took both of us out.”

Both Hamlin and Larson made out OK. Hamlin won the race, while Larson finished fifth.