Denny Hamlin weighs in on Chase Briscoe's role in Kyle Busch's spin at Kansas

Denny Hamlin weighed in on what role Chase Briscoe played in Kyle Busch’s spin from the lead with 32 laps left in the race at Kansas Speedway.

Busch seemed destined to break his winless streak, which would’ve extended his streak of winning in consecutive NASCAR Cup seasons to 20, but some intense racing while trying to lap Briscoe sent him into a spin. Afterwards, Hamlin tried to make sense of why Briscoe didn’t let Busch by, and why his former teammate should have no qualms with his future teammate.

“Chase obviously did not want to give up (the) lead lap. Simply for the reasons of, you know, if a caution comes out, he’s back in the game, and can make up some spots on restarts, and put himself in a better points position,” Hamlin said, via the latest episode of his Actions Detrimental podcast. So, everyone’s fighting for something, it’s just everyone’s fighting for something different.”

As for whether Briscoe did anything wrong: “I don’t think so, no. He’s just trying to protect the lead lap, which is a very, very important thing to fight for, especially at the end of the race,” Hamlin added.

Evidently, Hamlin simply believes it was a racing deal, and he put it all into perspective, letting the average fan know how the No. 8 ended up sideways late in the race.

“I think (Busch) got a bigger run on the corner exit than what he was expecting,” Hamlin stated. “Like, he wasn’t really close to being up beside Chase, until Chase pulled down the race track. From what I remember, they both entered up high, and then Chase pulled down the race track. What that does is give the car behind you lots of air on the right side of their car, that then charges your car again, and then you’ve got downforce.

“Well, as that gap starts to close, it happens really quickly, but then it all shuts off in one instances, and that’s when he hits the wall. … They both entered high, and then Briscoe pulled down, because that’s what his car needed. The reason he pulled down there is because you can use the seams to kind of manipulate your car to help it do something that you need, so that was the optimum line for him

“Then, Kyle saw an opportunity, he’s like, ‘Oh, there’s a hole here, and now he gave me some air here on the outside. I’m going to stick it on the outside here, and get position on him,’ but it just wasn’t going to work.”

Perhaps Kyle Busch should’ve been content to race Chase Briscoe for a couple of laps, and maybe he wouldn’t have ended up spinning on Sunday afternoon. As it stands, the veteran wheelman came home P19, and he’ll have to look elsewhere to extend his streak of winning in consecutive NASCAR Cup seasons.