Denny Hamlin reveals if he'd use the same move again that he used to win at Pocono

Now that we are a week removed from the Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson incident at Pocono, Hamlin is weighing his decision. It seems that the Joe Gibbs Racing driver has a different outlook on what went down. But will that matter in this week’s NASCAR race?

You can ask people if they have regrets, or what they would do differently, but NASCAR is different. Drivers don’t get a lot of time to make a decision.

When asked if he’d do anything differently, Denny Hamlin couldn’t say that he would. Given all of the emotions and quick thinking that the race had, it was a “split-second decision.”

“I mean it’s really hard to say you’d do anything different,” Hamlin said, via Bob Pockrass of Fox Sports. “It’s so split second and the win meant so much to me at that time. You know, again, so many different records that we could accomplish with that one win. With the track, with Toyota, with myself personally, it’s hard to say in that moment if I would do anything differently for sure. Certainly, I didn’t like the outcome for him. I wish that he could have finished second but it was just one of those things where we just flat-out ran out of room and I made a split-second decision to try to clear him instantly.

“You can see from my onboard, I don’t see him right, I see him go up the track and I don’t know where he’s at when I start to throttle up and I say alright I’m going to clear him but when I didn’t I knew we were going to be in a bad spot.”

Denny Hamlin on whether he would do the same move again that he used Sunday to win at Pocono: pic.twitter.com/SgUpwu9kcL

— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) July 29, 2023

Denny Hamlin will likely be involved in this week’s race as well.

Denny Hamlin has a target on his back

While the other drivers might not see it, at least Kyle Larson has a target on the 11 car. If the two drivers are in the top-5 at the end of this race, then things could get really interesting, really quickly. This is a track both drivers have a good history at.

Larson won the Richmond race earlier in the season. However, Hamlin has multiple Richmond wins. This is his home track and that could give Hamlin enough incentive to make a hard move on his competitors if the win is up for grabs.

Denny Hamlin might deny he made contact, but that just isn’t true. Others have called him out and said they know he made contact with the 5 car. I’m not sure we’ll get the same fireworks we had last week. Then again, I don’t think anyone saw that move coming last week at Pocono.

So, with the hindsight he has, Hamlin isn’t sure what he’d do differently. It doesn’t sound like he would have done anything else at that moment except race hard and force Larson into a tough position.