Kyle Petty vs Denny Hamlin
My take on the Petty vs. Denny Hamlin accident.
Petty was laps down but had just let the first, second and third place cars by before Denny Hamlin came up behind him. So the whole "blocking" perception by Denny Hamlin was just wrong. This guy was being told all day long by his spotter and crew chief the calm down and keep the fenders on it and be there at the end.
Denny Hamlin did deliberately lay his front bumper to Petty to move him. This is a multi groove track and Denny Hamlin had room and the faster car to go around and not through Petty. I love Denny Hamlin's quote after the race "Let’s look back at my career. I’ve never wrecked anyone my entire career, never has anybody spun off my front bumper. It’s not like I’m a guy who runs into everybody". I am pretty sure that you hit Petty in the back and he ended up in the wall.
Denny Hamlin believes he is entitled to the track position due to his chase status. Trouble is that both Denny Hamlin and Petty are fighting on different ends of the spectrum for things precious to both teams, POINTS. Even Denny Hamlin admits it, "Yeah, I think a lot of it was his frustration over this whole top 35 thing, but we’re racing for bigger and better things. Hopefully, one day, if they get it turned around, I can exchange the favor. But right now, we’re the guys racing for the championship, so you know, heed a little bit." Somewhere, sometime, King Richard will get him for that one. Belittling the teams trying to make the top 35 in owner standings is either clueless or just arrogant. Joe Gibbs needs to check his boy on that one.
Petty was out of line going into Denny Hamlin's garage area while his crew was working on his car. Time and place for everything. Petty was even more out of line when he slapped Denny Hamlin's helmet though. I know Kyle deserved to be angry, just not that way at that time. Of course Denny Hamlin's quote to this was "Don’t smack me on the helmet. You smack me on the helmet and I’m going to punch you in the face, bottom line. So I’d like for him (Kyle Petty) to call me sometime this week, before next week."
My first take is that Denny Hamlin owes Petty a call to apologize. Next, Joe Gibbs needs to tell Denny Hamlin to be a little more gracious to lower tier teams since that move to Toyota next year might produce some qualifying hiccups on the Gibbs team as well. He also might find that he is raced harder when trying to pass those lower tiered cars in the future. Three, one day Denny Hamlin is going to mess one to many times with an old school racer like Stewart, Petty or whoever else and truly get an old fashion (expletive) kicking.
I still would put my money on Kyle kicking Denny's butt in a throw down.
