Even though teams and car manufacturers like to mention ‘we’re all in this together’, when push comes to shove, it’s just the drivers. That’s the real deal we saw at Richmond in those last two laps. Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr., who are both on the same team, rocking rides from the same car maker, but hey, only one could win the race.

Thanks to his pit crew’s slick work, Hamlin managed to leap ahead in the final stretch and won the race. Frustrated by the results, Truex Jr. wasn’t just blowing steam at Kyle Larson for some pit road shenanigans; you gotta wonder if he was also ticked at Hamlin. Despite that, Hamlin didn’t just leave it there – he reached out to Truex Jr. to hash it out.

Denny Hamlin gets why Martin Truex Jr. was bummed out after the Richmond race!

Martin Truex Jr. was exceptionally close to winning his first race of the season, but then, bam! A late caution flipped the script. Truex led like a boss, only to get tripped up after a pit-stop shuffle and some on-track drama with Kyle Larson. The guy was leading, only to end up not winning, and even had a bit of a bumper chat with Larson out of sheer frustration. Plus, Truex potentially thought Hamlin jumped the gun on the last restart.

On his podcast, ‘Actions Detrimental’, Hamlin shared that he hit up Truex to see what the deal was. Truex’s vibe was basically, “I just lost my mind.” To that, even Hamlin acknowledged and justified his frustration. “That’s what he said. Paraphrasing- he’s like, No! I, just you’re fine, I just I lost my mind there for a minute. And my response is that well rightfully so. He obviously deserved to win the race. He was, he had the race won um but surely that was a bad five minutes for him and the #19 team. […] I think Martin gets emotional behind um in the headset, nothing like Ryan Blaney. That he loses his psycho, he goes psycho.”

He further acknowledged that Martin Truex Jr. undoubtedly deserved to win because he was consistent throughout the race. He said that Truex dominated the race six times; he led over 100 laps and did not end up winning this race. To Hamlin, it sounded like Martinsville asserting that it’s painful because you do everything right and then something out of your control takes you out. That’s why Denny Hamlin said that Truex was understandably upset and it was worth being sad about.

While Hamlin understood why Truex went after Kyle Larson on the track, he couldn’t help but shout out to his own pit crew for their slick work that got him to the front. Alongside, he also hinted that Truex’s pit crew might’ve dropped the ball a bit there.

#11 acknowledges his pit crew’s efforts; becoming a hero

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Denny Hamlin gave a huge shout-out to his pit crew, hinting that while Martin Truex Jr. might have felt a bit let down in the pits, Hamlin’s crew just nailed it.

“He [Martin Truex Jr] got let down a little bit on Pit Road, I don’t know they let him down or they just we just beat them right? I don’t know where do you characterize this. I think that we just beat them, right? I wouldn’t say that they lost it more than we won it. I mean they had a slow that final Pit Stop was slow. Yeah, I it looked like all the times on the uh pit lap tracker was a little slow.”

Besides that, Hamlin also mentioned how, for a change, he was getting cheers instead of the usual jeers from the stands, a nice switch-up from the villain vibe he’s been tagged with. According to his buddy Jared Allen, 2024 might just be the year Hamlin ditches the black hat for a white one, becoming NASCAR’s newest good guy.

Hamlin was all about it, saying, “I agree with you. I thought Richmond was a nice crowd. I appreciate you, Richmond. I saw a lot of DH gear uh a lot of all-in shirts um, yeah, Hometown cooking. Man! I love love love Richmond.”

Read More: Denny Hamlin Was Left Frustrated by Fiancé Jordan Fish as She Ruined His Weekend Plans During Easter