Denny Hamlin admits he was rooting for Kyle Larson to sweep weekend at Bristol

Only one driver — Kyle Busch — has ever completed the weekend sweep of winning the NASCAR Truck, Xfinity and Cup Series races in one weekend. Busch has done it twice, and Kyle Larson looked to join him in pulling off the ultra-rare feat this past weekend at Bristol.

Larson ultimately came up just short, finishing runner-up to Chandler Smith in Friday’s Truck race before winning the Xfinity and Cup races. Even though they’ve had their run-ins on the racetrack, Denny Hamlin said he was rooting for Larson to go 3-for-3, he said on Monday’s “Actions Detrimental” podcast.

“I was rooting for Kyle the whole time and I’ve always gotten on him and he’s mentioned to me before the driver intros of the Cup race because we were getting on him for not lapping the field in Xfinity at Homestead,” Hamlin said. “We were like, ‘C’mon, man, show the indictment on the Xfinity field. Lap every single one of them.’ And he said, ‘I tried to this time at Bristol but the way the cautions fell, the stages are too short, I got as far as I could.'”

Denny Hamlin reacts to Kyle Larson’s post-race shade at Bristol

But then, Hamlin heard what Larson had to say after his dominant win in Sunday’s Cup race. Now, Hamlin is glad that Larson didn’t pull off the weekend sweep.

“His post-race comments about keeping me from three in a row and we don’t like to see that and you fans don’t either, now I’m like, piss on your triple — your sweep,” Hamlin said. “I’m glad Chandler Smith beat you in the Truck race… it’s all good.”

Kyle Larson finished ahead of Hamlin, who was going for a third consecutive victory. Larson took a lot of pride in preventing Hamlin from notching back-to-back-to-back wins.

“You know, if Denny’s in front of me, it could be a totally different story and be really hard to pass him. Glad to stop his three-peat; we hate to see him win,” Larson said. “As I’m sure you guys [fans] do too.”

The same way Larson got in the way of Hamlin’s three-peat, Smith prevented Larson from winning the Truck, Xfinity and Cup races at Bristol. Smith led 127-of-250 laps. Larson failed to lead a single lap but came in second.

It was a different story in Saturday’s Xfinity race. Kyle Larson led 277-of-300 laps, cruising to his 16th career Xfinity victory. Then came Sunday’s Cup race, where he dominated the race from start to finish. Larson led an astounding 411-of-500 laps, taking the checkered flag at Bristol for the third time in his career.