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“He Was Not Afraid” – Denny Hamlin Applauds Todd Gilliland for Not Getting Bullied by ‘Legit Guys’

Published 08/04/2022, 1:30 PM EDT

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USA Today via Reuters

At the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, Tyler Reddick snatched his second career Cup win. Behind him were Austin Cindric, Harrison Burton, Todd Gilliland and Bubba Wallace. In a podcast, Joe Gibbs Racing driver, Denny Hamlin admitted that he was particularly impressed with Gilliland. The 22-year-old made his Cup debut at the start of the season and has notched up a career-best finish.

During the Xfinity X5 More Than Fast Moments segment, Hamlin said, “Gosh! You stole mine. I thought it was going to be out of the blue, but I was going to go with Todd Gilliland. Simply because I think this is the first race he raced up front with legit guys. He was not afraid to be aggressive. He didn’t get bullied by the elder statesmen of the series.”

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How did the race pan out for Denny Hamlin and Todd Gilliland?

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All in all, it was a great day in the office for the #38 Front Row Motorsports rookie driver. Prior to this, his best finish was 15th place at the Darlington Raceway. As for Denny Hamlin, he could only muster 14th place, but can take comfort in the fact that he is under no pressure. This is because his position in the Playoffs, is already secure, but other drivers will be relieved that it was Reddick winning.

USA Today via Reuters

This is because it means that there is one less race remaining in the regular season. For drivers like Ryan Blaney, Martin Truex Jr and Kevin Harvick, it is a bit of a breather, as there are still two spots remaining.

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On the other end of the spectrum, there are two spots remaining and they are running out of races to secure their berths. Additionally, they have to squabble among themselves and make sure that no new driver snatches a freak win from under their noses.

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Written by:

Dhruv George

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Dhruv George is a senior Motorsports author for EssentiallySports, having authored nearly 12000 articles spanning different sports like F1, NASCAR, Tennis, NFL, and eSports. He graduated with a PG Diploma in Journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications. Dhruv has also conducted interviews with F1 driver Pierre Gasly and Moto2 rider Tony Arbolino.
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Edited by:

Jito Tenson