Denny Hamlin calls out Kyle Petty's double standard amid late season playoff push

It’s been nearly a month since Denny Hamlin won his second race of the season in controversial manner, making contact with Kyle Larson while executing a pass with seven laps remaining in the HighPoint.com 400 at Pocono Raceway.

Hamlin received criticism for his actions, notably from former NASCAR Cup Series driver and current NBC Sports analyst Kyle Petty, who called him out for dumping Larson to pick up the victory. With two races remaining until the playoffs begin in September, and several drivers including 2020 Cup Series champion Chase Elliott and Alex Bowman among others needing a win to be one of the 16 drivers vying for a championship, Petty appears to have now changed his tune.

“I don’t think that Chase Elliott, that Alex Bowman, that anybody that’s on that bubble can go in and race with any respect at all,” Petty said Friday. “They’ve got to disrespect everybody. William Byron, Kyle Larson can’t just pull over. But when they see that [No.] 9 or that [No.] 48 coming, if it’s in a win position, they better be ready to get the horn because they’re getting moved out of the way and it’s not going to be respectful.”

Denny Hamlin calls out Kyle Petty for changing his tune on aggressive racing

It didn’t take long for Petty’s comments to reach Hamlin, who fired off his rebuttal on Twitter.

Wait, isn’t this the guy that.. 🙄 nevermind.

— Denny Hamlin (@dennyhamlin) August 18, 2023

“Wait, isn’t this the guy that.. nevermind,” Hamlin tweeted.

In his original criticism, Petty blasted Hamlin for attempting to portray himself as the victim.

“Denny can’t be the victim,” Petty said. “We played his radio, he was the victim, he puts himself in the victim position. You’re not the victim here, Denny Hamlin. And when I looked at this one and we heard what Kyle Larson said, he said, ‘Denny’s always right, all his buddies know it.’ And he laughed about it. Because he knows Denny’s not going to apologize for this. It was a great race. I enjoyed every lap, I loved the strategy, I loved everything about it. The ending? I don’t appreciate. I don’t appreciate. Even 50 wins, what he’s done I don’t appreciate that because we saw this same move last year and that’s just my opinion.”

Petty would continue his tirade against Hamlin before the end of the broadcast.

“No, he’s not going to; that’s not Denny,” Petty said. “Listen, he’s not going to, I’m not even going to go down that highway with you because that’s not Denny Hamlin’s personality. Kyle Larson said it, Denny’s always right. People that are always right don’t have remorse, they just go ahead and live their life in their world. And that’s what Denny does. And that’s fine, because he is an incredible race car driver. He is able to take that and put it somewhere, and it’s win at all costs and we saw that here.”