Denny Hamlin reveals what he wants to happen at JGR in wake of Ty Gibbs incident at New Hampshire

Denny Hamlin was frustrated with Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Ty Gibbs during Sunday’s Round of 12 opener at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Racing for 11th in Stage 2, Gibbs gave Hamlin all he could handle and as a non-playoff driver, didn’t just let Hamlin, a playoff driver, roll on by.

The situation reached a boiling point on Lap 111 when Hamlin, running the inside lane going into Turn 1, made contact with Gibbs and sent him crashing into the outside wall. Hamlin said Monday he hopes JGR leadership steps in and clarifies how they want to navigate racing around each other throughout the rest of the playoffs.

“What I want to happen is leadership step in and tell us, what do you want us to do?” Hamlin said on his Actions Detrimental podcast. “If you want us all to just race each other cut-throat, no matter what your position is in the stature of the standings, we can definitely do that. Like I expect myself and the 19 [Chase Briscoe] and the 20 [Christopher Bell] to race really, really hard because we’re all battling each other to get above this cutline or maintain our status above the cutline. If I get eliminated or the 19 gets eliminated or the 20 gets eliminated, and then we’ve established this ‘no rules — you guys just do whatever you wanna do,’ none of us are going to win.

“You’re racing against where we have seen year in and year out, and it will continue to happen more and more, like it or not, teammates are going to start giving spots this time of the year. … If you’re going up against that and not only not being good teammates but yet being the most difficult ones to past, well then none of us have a shot. We might as well just hang this thing up because it’s too difficult to win naturally, much less if we’re going to have the ‘everyone just races for themselves, and it doesn’t matter whether you’re racing for a championship or not.’ From my standpoint, I would think that Ty would want one of us to win a championship. His name’s on the building.”

Denny Hamlin calls on JGR leadership resolve issue with Ty Gibbs

This was a major moment in Sunday’s race, one that will create plenty of conversation this week at the JGR shop. Hamlin admitted that he doesn’t think JGR is on the same page. Asked after the race about the incident involving two of his drivers, Joe Gibbs said it’s up to them to handle it.

“It’s always the drivers that have to handle that,” Gibbs told Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports. “They’re the ones that got the wheel, so I think that’s always the case. That’s what we’ll do. … Those guys are all the ones driving the cars and so, those guys will get together on their own and figure it out.”

Hamlin believes that a challenge exists in him talking with Ty Gibbs about the incident. He would prefer to see leadership say, “this is how we want it done.”

“The challenge is that I think me and Ty are going to have different opinions,” Hamlin said. “Therefore, you need leadership to step in and say, ‘Well, this is how we want it done.’ And then we will play by those rules. Whatever those rules are, I will play by those rules. But I have been told in the past, if you’re not in it, you do everything you can to help your teammates that are in it.”