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

Denny Hamlin admitted on Monday’s “Actions Detrimental” podcast that he was rooting for Kyle Larson to complete the weekend sweep at Bristol. “I was rooting for Kyle the whole time.”

But then, Hamlin heard what Larson had to say after his dominant win in Sunday’s Cup Series 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.”

Larson won his second consecutive Cup race at Bristol on Sunday, finishing 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.

Kyle Larson takes jab at Denny Hamlin after Bristol win

“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, Chandler 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. 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.

“Just a flawless race once again here at Bristol for the 5 team,” Larson said. “Really, really good car. That was a lot of fun, you know? However many laps of green we ran there was a lot of fun and I was pretty comfortable with things. Then, Denny came on really strong there before the pit cycle. Then it just kind of kept the pressure on from there. So, I knew I had to make some good moves in traffic.”