Nobody is as fierce as Denny Hamlin when it comes to defending Joe Gibbs. The JGR driver does not play about his team either. There is no denying that the lawsuit the team has found themselves in hasn’t gotten ugly. With Spire Motorsports’ Jeff Dickerson recently making some comments, Hamlin isn’t going to be on the sidelines this time.

What started as a routine interview with NASCAR Journalist Jeff Gluck quickly turned into something far more personal once Denny Hamlin caught wind of the comments made by Dickerson.

“Yeah, okay buddy. You hired someone who stole tens of millions worth of information, lied about communications y’all had after you deleted them and now is getting paid double to work on your truck program?” Hamlin wrote on X. “GTFO. What was it you called Richard again? Was it you who was leaking information after RTA calls?”

Hamlin’s reaction comes as the lawsuit between JGR, Chris Gabehart and Spire Motorsports continue to heat up in court.

JGR alleged that their ex-competition director, Gabehart, walked away with confidential competition data after leaving the organisation and later joining Spire as a chief motorsport officer.

In the latest hearing, a federal judge ruled that Gabehart can remain employed by Spire but placed restrictions on the duties that overlap with his former role at Gibbs.

The court also stated JGR showed a stronger likelihood of success against Gabehart than against Spire itself.

During the interview with Gluck, Dickerson pushed back hard against the accusations, making it clear. He believes that the organisation has been unfairly dragged into the fight.

“And so if the point is to try to hurt us, or try to burn us down, okay,  I don’t think they’re gonna beat us, you know, but it’s just like, you know, they might win something, but you know, I’ll make sure that they wish they hadn’t,” he threatened.

“They know who our alliance partner is, they just don’t have the balls to say it in court, you know what I mean, and so that’s what I mean, it’s just like, they wanna diminish all these things.”

And he constantly argued the despite repeated claims made against them; no concrete proof has surfaced publicly.

However, the frustration from Hamlin’s side becomes easier to understand when you look at the big picture.

Dickerson’s text messages were not pulled from the job gives Racing case, they originally surface during NASCAR anti-trust lawsuit involving 23XI Racing, the team Hamlin who owns.

Several screenshots shared from court exhibits last year showed Dickerson discussing charter negotiations and NASCAR leadership during private conversations with Scott Prime.

In one of the exchanges, Dickerson joked about nearly being “thrown out” of the RTA meeting while another message reference permanent charters during tense discussions around ownership, power and negotiations.

For Hamlin, those messages likely added another layer to his response. From his side, this is no longer about Gabehart or Spire, it ties back to a larger battle. Recently, Hamlin warned the rival team against an attempt to mock Joe Gibbs.

And while both sides defend their own teams, the lawsuit has been nothing short of a through long fever dream.

Hamlin has never been one to stay quiet when something bothers him and this latest response fits that pattern. Whether it’s a courtroom battle or garage politics, the veteran driver rarely filters his opinion.

And just recently he showed the same energy on the competition side too, refusing to hold back after tensions flat with a fellow driver following the chaos at Talladega Superspeedway.

Hamlin switches on the ruthless mode

Hamlin left Talladega with a 15th place finished but the result hardly told the full story. A speeding penalty early in the race trapped the No.11 car a lap down forcing Hamlin to spend most of the afternoon trying to recover track position instead of fighting near the front.

The frustration grew after the race when Hamlin learned that staying a lap down may not have been accidental and that it was caused by Noah Gragson.

During his podcast, Hamlin discussed hearing that radio chatter from the No.4 team suggesting the intentionally stayed out to keep him and others from getting back on the lead lap. That strategy worked in Gragson’s favor, but it clearly did not sit well with the 45-year-old veteran

“Really? This is the same Front Row team that I let back on the lead lap last week?…Really? Ok. Well, when it comes back around, when I go to lap Noah at one of these races, I’ll make sure I have no mercy then.”

What likely made it sting more was the timing. Just one week earlier at Kansas Speedway, Hamlin had shown patient after leading much of the race, helping FRM’s Todd Gilliland avoid losing a lap.

At Talladega, he felt that same respect wasn’t returned and judging by his reaction, it is something he probably won’t forget any time soon.