What good is a NASCAR race without its own streak of drama? Sunday saw JGR star Denny Hamlin make NASCAR history as well as a new enemy on track. While it was his hard racing that got him his 50th Cup Series win at Pocono Raceway, he also stirred some heavy drama with Rick Hendrick driver Kyle Larson, who definitely made Hamlin grind for the checkered flag. There was a series of door-ing and retaliation involved, which definitely made things sour for Larson, who failed to bag a Top 5 finish.  

While Hamlin is keeping his calm after his victory and saying that it was all for the sake of winning, Larson has earned the title Crybaby from a NASCAR veteran. And fans have also started to express divided takes on the Sunday incident, with Larson receiving the majority of the support. 

The war that broke out in Pocono between Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin

Well, it seems to be a typical ‘rattling the cage’ situation gone wrong. With only 7 laps remaining at the race, it was a one-on-one battle between Larson and Hamlin for the lead at Turn 1. The air was already thick with tension as Hamlin’s No. 11 steadily picked pace and moved up the track. This also led his car to push Kyle Larson toward the wall. Upon seeing Hamlin playing it dirty, Larson felt the need to retaliate.

He went for a solid comeback by door-slamming Hamlin under caution before resuming his spot on the track. While it certainly did not ruin Hamlin’s chance of winning, he definitely got aware that Larson didn’t take the wall contact he caused very well. 

According to SiriusXM NASCAR radio host Davey Segal, Denny Hamlin even labeled Larson’s retaliation as worthy of a penalty, while his crew chief Chris Gabehart labeled Larson a crybaby.

Sure enough, Hamlin had quite a lot to talk about the Larson incident after the race, while Larson’s radio was found to be relatively silent. Larson fans have expressed strongly about this incident. 

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Fans are brutal in their evaluation of the Larson-Hamlin situation

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Last year’s Pocono win was taken away from Hamlin after his #11 failed the post-race inspection. Hamlin seemed to have been intent on not letting history repeat itself as he came out victorious this Sunday. Both Larson and Hamlin are quite in the habit of hard driving as they have had their fair share of wrecks. Whether Larson’s retaliation was worthy of him being called a crybaby, now that is the real question.  

Fans seem to be pretty enraged about Larson getting walled, for their comments are pretty brutal for Hamlin. 

“Larson should have walled him harder to ruin his chance to win as well”, “And the way DH has been driving should be a penalty. Screw this noise”, are some of the comments fans made as a response to the situation. Others, can’t help but observe the irony of the situation. They made comments like “Guy body slams people and cries “that’s a penalty,” lol”, “11 crew chief is one to talk lol” and “Leave it to Hamlin to cry for penalties never see anyone else cry that much”. Hamlin may have won the race, but he has not impressed Larson fans a lot with his feat.

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Last year’s Pocono race saw something similar transpire between Ross Chastain and Hamlin. Not only that. A similar contact was also observed in Kansas between Hamlin and Larson. It seems like Hamlin is making this move his signature. Hamlin fans can only hope that their cheers overshadow the boos that he’ll be attracting from other fans if this continues.