Denny Hamlin has been under a lot of heat after his last week’s shenanigans at the Pocono Raceway where Hamlin took his good old friend Kyle Larson out of the race. Despite it being his 50th win that naturally holds a lot of value to the driver, he was relentlessly criticized for how it was achieved.

The win came in a questionable form, and Hamlin remained unapologetic throughout the aftermath of the incident. However, Hamlin has finally revealed the reason behind him becoming more aggressive on the track.

Ross Chastain gave rise to Denny Hamlin’s aggressive on-track lifestyle

The contact between Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson at Pocono brought the conversation about aggressive driving back onto the table. Some drivers feel it’s part of the sport whereas some aspire for clean driving. While clean and aggressive racing may look like polar opposites, NASCAR’s way of racing has often seen a mix of both. In a sport where fans deem wreckage-free races as “boring,” there are too many variables working in tandem that encourages aggression.

In a recent interview, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver was asked when did he decide to race more aggressively. He straightaway pointed towards the series of incidents between him and Ross Chastain. He said,

“Honestly, I think it was after the (Ross) Chastain thing for sure. Certainly, I was very vocal that I need to do something, I need to do something. At the time, the scales were like three to nothing. I was very frustrated. My team was very frustrated at me for not doing anything.”

He further added, “I think if a guy is going to run into you, you are going to run right back into him. That’s the way I’ve got to change things from this point forward because for the most part it has been tough results for us at the end of races, especially the last three years. I’ve been spun out of the lead three times.”

Although Hamlin might feel bad about being spun out of race leads, his aggressive attitude has ended up with him wrecking other cars in a similar way.

Watch This Story: 23XI Co-Owner Denny Hamlin Favors Rivals Trackhouse Racing Driver Over His Own Driver Bubba Wallace

Denny Hamlin regrets costing Kyle Larson the Pocono 400

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Denny Hamlin confessed that he felt that it was tough being spun out of race leads. However, he has finally admitted that he regretted his action of taking a friend like Larson out of the lead. In a recent interview, Hamlin said,

“Certainly, hate that it came at Kyle’s (Larson) expense, for sure. If there is anyone that I should protect, it’s those guys and my teammates. The win just meant a lot to me at the time. I made an attempt to pass him, and it didn’t happen the way I intended for sure.”

Despite being at each other’s throats for the last week, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson are close friends. In conclusion, it has been a week. We can expect the anger to go down and things to turn back to normal in the coming days.

Read More: Joe Gibbs Discloses Brushing Off 12-Year-Old Denny Hamlin’s Bold Claim Before Making History With JGR