Dale Earnhardt Jr thinks Kyle Larson would have done the same to Denny Hamlin with roles reversed
Dale Earnhardt Jr. isn’t willing to crucify Denny Hamlin like many have for his incident with Kyle Larson at Pocono.
During this week’s edition of the Dale Jr. Download, Earnhardt explained why he believes Larson would’ve done the same thing in Hamlin’s shoes, and why fans shouldn’t have a problem with what went down.
“I think so, I really do,” Earnhardt responded, asked if he believed Larson would’ve replicated Hamlin’s move in the latter’s shoes. “And I don’t have a — I don’t really have a problem with it.
“So there’s — there’s something (Earnhardt Jr.’s former spotter) TJ [Majors] used to say on the radio, when you would get in the position that Denny was in, TJ’s line would be, ‘Take what you need,’ and honestly, that’s the mentality of the driver in that moment. The spotter. The crew chief. All the crew guys standing on the wall, or huddled behind the pit box, looking at the TV screen, waiting to see the decision the driver makes. They all want that driver to take what he needs. What he wants. If I owned the race car of either one of those drivers, I’d want them to do what they needed to do, what they had to do to win, right? And so, that’s — your opinion of what you saw, of what happened depends on what side you’re on, and what role you play.”
Evidently, Earnhardt believes your opinion on the matter relies heavily on your opinion of Larson and Hamlin, and if you put yourself in the shoes of the Joe Gibbs Racing wheelman, you can understand why Hamlin did what he did. Either way, NASCAR will benefit from the drama that’s ensued.
“Put yourself in the shoes of the crew chief, or the mechanics or the engine builder for that No. 11 car, what are your thoughts? Change your — try to truly put yourself in that position, and I would expect you, and rightfully so, to have a different opinion, being on the other side of that, being in Larson’s camp, or being on that No. 5 car. I would expect you to be real pissed off,” explained Earnhardt. “So either way — either way, all of this, sells tickets, right? We’re going through Becoming Earnhardt, talking about 1979, and we all know what happened at Daytona and the fight. What we all are learning is how that affected all ticket sales throughout the rest of the year, all the way through May, they’re outselling every track from the years before. This crescendoed and continued, this current, and so we know that. Me and you are learning all about that. That 1979 season, and how that one little spat affected everything.
“All these — fans were buying tickets that have never been to a race before, ‘I’ve got to see this, I’ve got to watch this NASCAR, is this what I’m going to see,’ so it’s absolutely going to have a good, positive effect on the next race and beyond. And we’ve got some storylines.”
That’s a fascinating point made by Dale Earnhardt Jr., and he’ll have a front-row seat to Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson’s drama moving forward, with NBC broadcasting NASCAR. Whether or not we see some retaliation remains to be seen, but it’ll be something to keep an eye on regardless.