Denny Hamlin defends Ty Gibbs in Sam Mayer incident, says critics can 'f*** off'

Denny Hamlin is taking the side of his Cup Series teammate in Ty Gibbs over that of Sam Mayer when it comes to their incident in the Xfinity Series race at Watkins Glen.

It looked as if Mayer wrecked Gibbs for the win, after the latter dominated the race throughout the day. While the two made contact earlier in the race, Hamlin doesn’t believe it was enough to warrant what looked to be like retaliation from Mayer, who claimed his car wheel-hopped into Gibbs, causing the wreck/

“I think that you might be using too much of people’s words literally. I think that he was anticipating, ‘I’m going to go get to him,’ and he had to over-drive the corner to get to him. Ty was already driving in plenty deep enough, he already had a gap. The only way Sam was going to wheel-hop is he had to over-drive it, to make sure he got to him. You’re saying the chicken came first, I’m saying the egg came first, and that is the wheel-hop. He’s blaming it, ‘I wheel-hopped, so I just got into him.’ No, you wheel-hopped because you were trying to go in there and run into him. That’s what happened, and I don’t care what he says, but that’s what happened,” explained Hamlin, via his Actions Detrimental podcast. “And I personally, I like Sam. I sang his praises after Road America, ‘Man, he’s trending in the right direction.’ He was doing a lot of foolish things early. He’s cleaning it up. He’s doing a good job. His road course finishes have been very, very good lately. I think road course racing is a good indication of where you’re somewhat at on talent, I really do. I think that that’s a pretty good indicator.

“But I don’t know. Him or his team completely overreacted to what happened in the esses. Ty is in front in the esses. It is hard to run side-by-side in the esses. Now people are going to call me a homer, because I’m sticking up for Ty, they can f— off. Because I will call it as straight as I can call it. It doesn’t matter who’s involved.”

Evidently, Hamlin is steadfast in his opinion on the matter, and doubled-down while explaining what exactly happened.

“Sam made the decision, ‘I’m going to run side-by-side with him in the esses,’ and ‘I’m going to stick it.’ I slowed it down. I watched many times,” the Joe Gibbs Racing wheelman said. “When they made contact, I felt as though Ty was pretty far against the curb to the left. There was a lot of room to the right. Now again, you can’t be all the way to the right in the esses, because there’s a wall about to come out, but the rule of thumb in the esses is this, whoever is ahead pretty much has the right of way. They have the ability to take the space that they need to make the corner. Now, they need to leave you a lane and all of that stuff, but Mayer put it right against his right-wheel corner panel. Ty is way up against the curb over on the left-hand side. So Ty has to let his car switch directions eventually. It just seems like, yes they make contact there.

“Was it crazy, egregious? No, it was no egregious. Ty did not open up the wheel and just say, ‘Sorry buddy, I’m using your space.’ Sam made the decision to, ‘Hey, I’m not going to give up this spot here in the esses. Even though you’re ahead and I’m barley hanging on, you better give me full space.’ That’s just not the way it works. I think then he got goaded by his team, and I think that isn’t good at all.”

Alas, Sam Mayer still got to celebrate in Victory Lane, and Ty Gibbs had to eat another loss in what could’ve been a victory. Denny Hamlin isn’t thrilled about it though, and he’s going to continue calling it as he sees it moving forward.