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“What a Bunch of Hacks” – Tony Stewart’s NASCAR Driver’s Rant Goes Viral as Hendrick Motorsports Star Alex Bowman Calls Out “Embarrassing” Scenes at COTA

Published 03/27/2023, 9:08 AM EDT

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USA Today via Reuters

Earlier, the NASCAR Cup race at the Circuit of The Americas wrapped up with Tyler Reddick winning. However, there was plenty of chaos unfolding behind him that disrupted the race, many times.

In fact, the race went into overtime on a few occasions due to first-lap incidents. One of the incidents caught out Stewart-Haas Racing driver Ryan Preece, and he vented his frustrations on social media.

He was not alone, as Alex Bowman was another driver who was fuming.

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From Tony Stewart‘s NASCAR Driver, Preece, the “What a bunch of Hacks” comment was probably a callback to the Denny Hamlin and Alex Bowman rivalry in 2021. That was when Hamlin infamously called the Hendrick Motorsports driver ‘a hack’ after the Martinsville Speedway race.

Speaking of Bowman, he was another driver who was unimpressed with the standard of racing at COTA. He told the media after the race, “It’s so dumb how we have to race each other. It’s not okay by any means, but it’s what we do. It is somewhat embarrassing, but at some point, we’re here to run for your sponsors. It is a matter of losing 10 spots, you can’t be the one clean guy.”

READ MORE: NASCAR Fans Disheartened As Hendrick Motorsports Driver Suffers Unfortunate Setback

What had happened between Alex Bowman and Denny Hamlin?

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Back in 2021 at Martinsville, Bowman spun Hamlin around and later went on to win the race. After the chequered flag fell, Hamlin decided to exact some petty revenge and interrupted Bowman’s celebration. Later on, the fuming Joe Gibbs Racing driver dubbed Bowman a ‘hack’ after losing out on a potential win. Hamlin was actually battling for a Playoff berth, while Bowman was eliminated already.

Now, it seems that Preece is channeling that kind of energy as he expressed his frustration.

via Getty

The Stewart-Haas Racing Driver had a point because he had been caught out by a few Turn 1 incidents, especially during restarts. Come to think of it, most of the overtime restarts were largely down to incidents at Turn one. Safe to say, not many drivers were really happy with how the Cup race at the Circuit of the Americas, played out. This was not including Tyler Reddick, who eventually won the race.

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WATCH THIS STORY: Alex Bowman Disagrees With Teammate Kyle Larson After Publicly Boycotting the Chili Bowl

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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:

Ranvijay Singh