Denny Hamlin (The Driver) Unapologetic for Last-Lap Move at Kansas

“If they’re wanting an apology, they can turn [it] off now.”

Denny Hamlin will absolutely not, under any circumstances, be issuing any kind of apology for the events that unfolded on the final lap of Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway… and honestly, why should he?

There was no question that Hamlin was the driver to beat all afternoon, leading a race-high 159 laps, but got shuffled out of contention late in the race due to a caution flag for Kyle Busch’s tire carcass laying in the middle of the racetrack – which began a sequence of events leading into NASCAR Overtime.

With Christopher Bell (Hamlin’s teammate at Joe Gibbs Racing) and Bubba Wallace (driver at 23XI Racing, the team Hamlin co-owns with Michael Jordan) in control of the restart, the top two drivers got to battling and opened the door for Hamlin, with the 44-year-old driver doing his best to take advantage of it.

After getting alongside Wallace on the backstraight, Hamlin drove into Turn 3 on the inside of the No. 23 Toyota and slid up the racetrack into the side of the 23XI Racing machine, pushing up both up the track (and Wallace into the outside wall) and allowing Chase Elliott to sneak through on the inside to secure the win and a spot in the next round of the Playoffs.

There was (understandably) some frustration from the 23XI Racing camp, especially from Wallace, who likely needed to secure that victory to advance further into the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs – with the No. 23 being more than 25 points back heading into the Charlotte ROVAL. However, there was also outrage from fans, mostly on social media, asking how Hamlin could do something like this to a team that he owns.

When asked about this, Hamlin gave a matter-of-fact answer: “Because I’m racing for the win, and I definitely won’t apologize for racing for the win.”

“On Sunday, I am the driver,” he added. “The person in the No. 11 car is the driver, that’s where the disconnect, I think, comes from, is that people expect me to be a different person, they expect me to be the guy with the 23XI shirt on when I’m in the No. 11 car, and that’s just not possible. I had zero doubts in my mind, I know because I know where my mind was in that moment, is that I was racing the No. 23 the same as I would race anybody in that moment.”

Hamlin took a significant chunk of Monday’s episode of Actions Detrimental to discuss the final lap of Sunday’s event, his battle with Bubba Wallace for the victory, and more intricacies of his role as owner of 23XI Racing versus driver at Joe Gibbs Racing.

“My responsibility as a team owner comes Monday through Saturday, like, it is not up to me to get 23XI Racing into the Round of 8, that’s not my responsibility, my responsibility is to get the No. 11 into the Round of 8 – I’m the driver of that No. 11, Joe [Gibbs] pays me a lot of money to make sure that car wins the championship, or has a shot to, could you imagine the outrage if I just backed off and let him have it. Holy shit. People would lose their minds.”

The Chesterfield, Virginia-native went even further and backed up his decision-making on the final lap of the event, showing the SMT Data of his No. 11 and Wallace’s No. 23, and saying that he didn’t make an overaggressive move into the final set of corners.

“I’ve got the data to prove it, right here, I’m in the blue, I backed off early. I’m on the brakes, he’s in the orange, I’m in the blue, look at all my previous laps, I drove into the same spot, but unfortunately, what was different is I drove into the corner – I can analyze it now, but I have a second to analyze it as I’m going down the backstretch, trying to figure out – as a driver, I’m trying to figure out angles, what angle am I going to take this corner, where is the guy beside me, all of these things play a factor into how deep you can drive into a corner, or shallow.”

“Now that I can analyze this more out of the car and look at things again, going into Turn 3, I don’t even see the No. 23. I don’t know close he is, I don’t know if he’s a car with up, is he right on my door, those were all factors in how your car is going to take the next corner, so there are things I would do differently, no doubt about it. Had I seen what I see now, I would have backed out early because I would have thought he’s going to overdrive the corner, and then I can just get back by him on the exit, but that’s a Monday Morning Quarterback thing.”

At the end of the day, even if Hamlin says he would do something different if put in that situation once again, the NASCAR Cup Series veteran and future Hall of Fame driver is unapologetic about what happened on Sunday.

“I’m not going to apologize for trying to win the race that the No. 11 team was the most deserving car to win that race, without a doubt. Kyle Busch couldn’t keep it off the wall until the end of the race, otherwise this is a non-story and we go win and move on, but I saw an opportunity going into Turn 3 to win the race, I’m ahead going into Turn 3 thinking we’re money.”

Heading to Charlotte Motor Speedway’s ROVAL, Hamlin remains in a really good position at 48 points above the cutline, while Bubba Wallace – who dropped to fifth in the final corner of that race – leaves Kansas sitting 26 points below the cutline in what could be a must-win situation.

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