NASCAR Cup Series driver Denny Hamlin and his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Ty Gibbs made headlines with their violent clash at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway last weekend. Gibbs was eventually knocked out of the race, and now, JGR has addressed the incident involving its drivers.
Notably, Ty Gibbs is the grandson of team owner Joe Gibbs, while Hamlin is a veteran NASCAR driver who started his career with JGR 20 years ago, in 2005, and is likely to part ways with the sport in two years.
However, the aggressive driving between the pair of drivers prompted JGR’s competition director Chris Gabehart to speak out. The clash between Hamlin and Gibbs went on for around 10 laps, surprisingly for the eleventh spot. This, despite the championship being beyond the reach of Gibbs this season.
The clash led to a broken toe link on Gibbs’ car, which put him out of the race. However, it led to questions about how Joe Gibbs would treat the matter, given the clash between a high-profile veteran driver of his team and his grandson.
Hamlin finished the race in P12. Explaining the incident when Gibbs was knocked out, the 44-year-old driver said:
“That was like the fourth or fifth time we made contact, but eventually he got spun.”
“Well, I made a mistake in (Turn) 1 but I would have made a mistake with anybody in that position. I was trying to get by him and that was a task in itself.”
Hamlin expressed disappointment with the way Gibbs was racing him. He said:
“I’ll let leadership kind of quarterback however the would like to but obviously, the 11, 20 and 19, we’re all trying to win a championship for their family. It’s unfortunate why we’re racing the way we were.”
Gabehart emphasized that there will be a “conversation” within the team to ensure all drivers are on the same page. He said:
“I mean, this is the type of conversation that, when you run well, you’re fortunate enough to need to have every so often.
“We’ll have to have that conversation again. I think there is a reasonable etiquette to follow where everyone can get what they need out of it.
“But at the same time, you can’t create an atmosphere where everyone just has to roll over and play nice all the time or you won’t hang as many (race win) banners as Joe Gibbs Racing has hung over the years.
“You see this happen with drivers the most, but you have to have those talks with crew chiefs, engineers and pit crews — that everyone has to be selfish.
“It’s a hard thing to balance and we just have to do a little better job of getting that balanced here.”
He added:
“Yeah, we just have to have a better understanding of proper racing etiquette in certain situations. And the playoffs are a certain situation. We’ll just have to talk through it and get everyone’s point of view and figure out how to move forward as one after this.”
Addressing Hamlin’s misjudgment, Gabehart ruled out a deliberate contact between the cars. He said:
“My guess is getting into (Turn) 1, Denny thought he was going to have more space than he had, so he made an entry with that expectation. Then, when he had less space than he had, you can’t just stop these big things on a dime, when you’re loaded up like that … and when you guess wrong, an error can be made.”
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