Denny Hamlin breaks down late move from Tyler Reddick at Darlington

Denny Hamlin believes Tyler Reddick didn’t mean to wreck Chris Buescher at Darlington Raceway, but it certainly was an aggressive move from the No. 45.

During the latest episode of his Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin elaborated on what was going through his 23XI Racing driver’s mind late in the race, while looking for the win against Buescher, where he accidentally slid into him, ruining both of their chances to win the Goodyear 400.

“I don’t think he went in there to fence him. I think he went in there legitimately thinking that he was going to slide up in front of him. And I think he legitimately realized, halfway through the corner entry, ‘I am screwed and I’m not going to make it.’ Because you saw him get loose, well before they made contact, and you could see that he tried to slow down, but it was way too late,” Hamlin stated. “There’s no grip in the middle of the race track there, and he just overcooked it. I think, when you look at it, you’d say, ‘Did he do it too soon?’ The answer is yes and no, because these cars are tough in traffic. We just explained, for a very long time, that it’s really hard to pass someone. At the time, there’s probably 25, 20 laps on tires. So no one’s really falling off huge, like we haven’t had that light switch, as Kevin Harvick talks about, about the tires falling off, but we started to see the No. 17 start to struggle, at the time.

“If I put myself in Tyler Reddick’s shoes, I’m thinking, this is as close as I’m going to get to him. … Because once at No. 17 starts ripping the fence, it’s really going to be hard, because the bottom is just going to keep getting worse and worse. … Tyler was probably thinking, my opinion is he was probably thinking, ‘This is as close as I’m going to get, and I’ve got to make my move now.’ I think the move was very ambitious. I think that it was a very low percentage move. … I think trying to do it when you’re not beside him was very low percentage, and obviously it did not work out, and ended both of their days.”

Continuing, Hamlin believes the way Brad Keselowski raced Reddick prior to that set the No. 45 off, “I think it certainly put him on tilt,” he added. “I think that it definitely played a factor in his give-a-damn being busted. More than likely.”

Of course, Chris Buescher wasn’t happy with Tyler Reddick, and Brad Keselowski took advantage and won the race in the end. Denny Hamlin knows Buescher owes Reddick moving forward now, and it’ll be interesting to see how the No. 17 and No. 45 race each other moving forward.