Incident With Denny Hamlin 'Definitely A Bummer' For Erik Jones

Erik Jones felt like he had a car capable of contending for a top-five finish in Sunday's Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway. However, a run-in with Denny Hamlin caused him to play catch-up for the remainder of the race.

Erik Jones battled back from a mid-race spin at the hands of Denny Hamlin to finish 10th in the NASCAR Cup Series Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway. | Matt Marrie | Racing America On SI

Darlington, S.C. -- Erik Jones, who has two Southern 500 victories, has become known as a master of Darlington Raceway. Something about the 1.366-mile track just suits the LEGACY MOTOR CLUB driver. And despite a tough result in Saturday's qualifying session, Jones found himself working his way through the field on the long run in Sunday's Goodyear 400.

Jones had clawed his way from the 24th starting position, and was firmly inside the top-10 on Lap 111, when he encountered a bit of unfortunate adversity.

Denny Hamlin, a fellow Toyota driver and Darlington master in his own right, had let Jones by, and then in Turn 3, Hamlin would make contact with the rear bumper of Jones' car, as he didn't expect Jones to go to the inside lane.

"Yeah, I mean, we talked after the race. I assumed it was a mistake, which he said it was. It's an unfortunate mistake for us. But he let me go in [Turns] 1 and 2, and then I went to run the bottom, and he said he went to run the bottom too, and just cleaned me out," Jones said after the race.

The contact would send Jones spinning from his top-10 spot, and the incident would also ruin what had been a decent day for Bubba Wallace.

Trouble for Erik Jones, Denny Hamlin and Bubba Wallace! 👀 https://t.co/C9emrTuqDd pic.twitter.com/uQ2MrFYkVS

— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) March 22, 2026

While Wallace would suffer major damage, which resulted in a 34th-place finish, Jones was more fortunate as he only encountered a loss of track position. But still, at Darlington, and especially on an ultra-warm day, that's tough to overcome at Darlington.

Jones kept his head down and went to work, and by the time the checkered flag was waving in the flagstand at the iconic South Carolina racetrack, the driver of the iconic No. 43 machine was rewarded with a 10th-place finish, his second top-10 finish of the season.

However, Jones was left wondering what might have been had it not been for that run-in with Hamlin.

Hamlin, who finished one position behind Jones in 11th, came up to Jones after the race to apologize for the contact earlier in the race.

"Yeah, he said sorry, it's his bad. It's all you can do. It's definitely a bummer," Jones said. "It didn't help us or our day. I feel like we were a top-five car, and it just took us all day to kind of get back up there."

While it was a tough grind, Jones benefitted from a great long-run car down the stretch, and was able to slowly and methodically work his way back toward the front. Jones enjoyed managing the tire wear with the new higher horsepower, lower downforce package that was used at Darlington this weekend.

"Yeah, I mean, it was fun to manage. It was slick and you had to be really careful on the throttle just not to slip the rear tires. You're kind of balancing on the right rear all day, so I enjoyed it," Jones said. "I like more power, it's not that I don't. I just want the racing to be good. I don't know what the race looked like today. I hope the racing was good, but I definitely enjoy it like that, it was fun."

Jones and LEGACY MOTOR CLUB ended the 2025 season on an upward trajectory, which had many expecting the driver of the No. 43 car and his teammate, John Hunter Nemechek, to be able to take the next step forward this year. However, the results, prior to Darlington had been mixed so far this season.

After displaying solid speed at Darlington, and temperatures starting to rise at the track, Jones feels his team could start coming to life in the coming weeks.

"I mean, yeah, I hope. This is a good stretch for us," Jones explained. "Vegas, we didn't run great. But we thought it was going to be better. Martinsville next week, we run okay there. So, hopefully, getting into the summer months -- usually seems to be where we shine, when it's hot and slick, and we get to go to some good tracks. Hopefully, we can keep it rolling."

With his second top-10 result of the season, Jones vaulted forward three spots in the NASCAR Cup Series championship standings after Sunday's race at Darlington. Jones, now 24th in the standings, sits 36 points behind Joey Logano, who holds the final spot inside the top-16 of the Chase Grid. There are 20 races remaining until the start of the Chase for the Cup.