Denny Hamlin educates 'conspiracy theorists,' reveals last person he wants to see win NASCAR races

Kyle Busch looked to be closing in on snapping a 59-race winless streak during Sunday’s race at COTA until a Lap 78 caution changed everything. Denny Hamlin, battling with Austin Dillon for 20th, ran through dirt on the road course and slammed into Dillon.

The final caution of the race brought along the Lap 83 restart and placed Christopher Bell, Hamlin’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, next to Busch, Dillon’s Richard Childress Racing teammate. Some might say Hamlin intentionally ran into Dillon to give Bell a chance at the win. Hamlin said quite the opposite on Monday’s “Actions Detrimental” podcast. Hamlin claims he didn’t intentionally take out Dillon and he had no interest in aiding Bell to his second consecutive victory.

“Let me educate the conspiracy theorists. I am a competitive person as you may know. There is nobody that I hate seeing win more than my teammate because I know they’re driving the same thing that I’m driving,” Hamlin said. “I know every driver is like, ‘Oh, I’m so happy for my teammate winning.’ I mean, I love Christopher Bell. He’s a great dude, but I don’t want him to beat me.

“Like, that’s not a good look for me. You always measure yourself off your teammates and trust me, I never saw the lead all day. I had no f***ing idea who was up front.”

Losing always stings, but losing to your teammates? That’s a whole different level of pressure. 😬@dennyhamlin pic.twitter.com/0lPp1keWjC

— Dirty Mo Media (@DirtyMoMedia) March 4, 2025

Denny Hamlin details reason behind late contact, wreck with Austin Dillon at COTA

Bell did get the win while Hamlin struggled mightily at COTA, finishing P21. Hamlin has yet to crack the code at COTA, finishing 14th or worse in five starts.

As for the incident with Dillon, Hamlin took full responsibility.

“As soon as I went left to pass him, I wasn’t offline or anything. But I could see the track had shit all over it,” Hamlin said. “You can’t see that until you pull out of line. I’m up his ass and we’re going through the esses. I’m like, OK, I’m going to go left here and get on the inside. As soon as I went left, I hear shit hitting the fenders. … As soon as I touched the break, over, spun out.”

So, no. Hamlin did not intentionally try to prevent Busch from winning. That winless streak for the two-time Cup Series champion is now up to 60.

“It was no given that Kyle was going to win,” Hamlin said. “I hated it because Kyle just did an awesome job all day long leading the race. We ended up having a great race anyway, but it was certainly a caution he didn’t want to see, either.”