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“Not a Victim”: Denny Hamlin’s Lack of Remorse Angers Kyle Petty as His Tony Stewart Surpassing Sour Feat Gets Snubbed

Published 07/24/2023, 4:25 PM EDT

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Ross Chastain is best known for his aggressive style of driving. However, NASCAR fans saw Denny Hamlin beat the Watermelon Man in this regard last year at Pocono on Sunday.

Chastain was seen crashing against a wall after Hamlin’s #11 drove him up the track. He wasn’t seen feeling any remorse then, and neither did he feel any remorse about the Kyle Larson incident. Hamlin felt he did what he had to do to bag the lead, nothing more. However, when Larson retaliated, he called it a penalty.

NASCAR veteran Kyle Petty, known for his honest opinion about racers and their performances, gave his honest take on Denny Hamlin’s attitude toward Tony Stewart after the crash on Sunday. 

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Kyle Petty detected the difference in Kyle Larson’s attitude

Kyle Larson was previously walled by Hamlin this season at Kansas. However, Larson was seen to take it pretty sportingly. However, the change in his attitude after Sunday’s crash and his heavy frustration did not go unnoticed. In fact, even fans were enraged to the point where they started booing despite Hamlin’s 50th Cup Series win. Larson’s change in attitude also did not go unnoticed by Kyle Petty, as was evident in a post-race interview. 

I think the one point that stood out to me, you never, never see Kyle Larson that mad. He can blow off things that happen to him and say, ‘Hey, it’s racing. It happens.’ He did not do that today against one of his better friends in the garage area Denny Hamlin,” said Petty.

Hamlin was quite clear about his take on the hard driving that led to his victory. He seemed significantly at ease with the way things played out and even complained about how Larson’s retaliation was worthy of a penalty. Kyle Petty found that unsettling.

Read more: “I Didn’t Appreciate That” – Kyle Petty Calls Out Kyle Busch for Leaving Him for an Odd Reason

Denny can’t be the victim! We played his Radio, he was the victim, and he puts himself in the victim position. You’re not the victim here, Danny Hamlin. And when I looked at this one and we heard what Kyle Larson said. He said, ‘Denny’s always right. All his buddies know it.’ And he laughed about it because he knows Denny’s not going to apologize for this,” predicted Petty. Larson doesn’t seem to be a stranger to Hamlin’s ways, both on the track and off-track. 

Petty doesn’t care about Hamlin surpassing Tony Stewart’s record

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The Tricky Triangle can now boast of having hosted one of the most eventful Cup Series races of the season. Denny Hamlin bagged his second victory of the season and his 50th Cup Series win, which is exactly one more than what NASCAR veteran Tony Stewart had made.

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Despite Hamlin crossing Stewart’s record, Kyle Petty was not impressed. It meant nothing to him if it meant that Hamlin would make a practice of wrecking people for the sake of winning.

“I enjoyed every lap – I love the strategy, I loved everything about it. The ending, I don’t appreciate. I don’t appreciate even 50 wins. What he’s done, I don’t appreciate that because we saw this same move last year and that’s just my opinion,” he said, referring to the Ross Chastain crash Hamlin caused last year.

Denny’s refusal to admit that the crash was his fault and his apparent lack of integrity when going for the win have left quite a negative impression on the 1995 Miller Genuine Draft 500 winner.

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Watch this story: ‘They got it half the way right’ – Kyle Larson discusses the big pile up in Chicago and how NASCAR can avoid it in the future

People that are always right don’t have remorse. They just go ahead and live their life in their world and that’s what Denny does and that’s fine because he is an incredible race car driver. He’s able to take that and put it somewhere in its win at all cost and we saw it here,” he concluded. What started as fans booing after Hamlin’s victory can turn into something quite serious if he decides to make this his signature style of racing. 

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Written by:

Anjori Mukherjee

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One take at a time

Anjori Mukherjee is a NASCAR writer at EssentiallySports. A journalist and storyteller by heart, Anjori has gained significant experience in sports journalism in the past four years. Being thorough in research and unbiased in her pronouncements, she lives by upholding journalistic integrity.
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Edited by:

Nischal Kandpal