Dale Earnhardt Jr. rips Denny Hamlin for lack of Chase Elliott response: 'That's not what anyone f*cking wanted'

Dale Earnhardt Jr. wanted to see more from Denny Hamlin when he and Chase Elliott battled at the Clash on Sunday. On Dale Jr. Download, Earnhardt ripped Hamlin for not going after Elliott in the first race of NASCAR’s 2025 season.

“I didn’t want Chase to get spun out, but Chase didn’t get roughed up for the win,” Earnhardt began. “Chase kind of leaned on [Hamlin] a little bit, and then Denny just fell in behind him. Next corner, never f***ing touched him. I’m like ‘What are we doing?'”

Dale Earnhardt Jr. then reacted to Hamlin’s saying that he thought he could pass Elliott straight up. “That’s not what anybody that bought a f***ing ticket to the place wanted,” Earnhardt stated. “That to me is nothing we can really do about. We can’t really fix that. …The driver mentality over the last several decades has shifted toward racing a lot more clean.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Denny Hamlin talk about the Clash

“I think it’s due to the size of the tracks we go to and the speed that we typically run these cars. They’re not at tracks the way you race at Bowman Gray. If there were multiple Bowman Grays in the schedule, there would be lots more bumping and banging that would carry over into other weekends, and there would be a lot more drama and feuding. There would be really really good ratings.”

Earnhardt added that veteran drivers like Hamlin drive “cleaner” and that he didn’t have the “killer instinct” at the Clash since he’s already won four of them in his career.

On Denny Hamlin’s Actions Detrimental podcast, he explained his strategy at the Clash after losing the lead to Chase Elliott. “That was kind of one of the pivotal things that happened to me, once I lost the lead. When Chase got around me, I spent five laps really trying to get it back,” Hamlin said. “I should have, in hindsight — I was like, I should have just kind of moved him out of the way, like he moved me out of the way, but I was like, I don’t know.

“I just thought, ‘It’s all right, I’m good enough — I’m good enough to get them the natural way,’ but I wasn’t. And then once I sat back there, I just — I lost the grip in the car, and those guys just pulled away.”