When you sit behind the steering of a car that weighs over three thousand pounds and has a horsepower of almost 700, you better be prepared for some hardcore racing. And when 40 of these beasts battle for the first place, the chances of contact increase exponentially. Of course, there is a subtle difference between dirty driving and hard racing. But even the latter might taste bitter to the ones on the receiving end. Fittingly, the last race at Pocono Raceway provided fodder for reporters to write on and for fans to debate.

The run saw an array of conflicts: Bowman-Hamlin, Reddick-Dillon, Preece-LaJoie, and the list goes on. However, the one that everyone has been talking about the most is the feud between the number 9 and the number 11 cars. Over the past couple of weeks, this incident has aggravated so much that the other drivers have made up their minds on how they are going to race Denny Hamlin going ahead.

“Race how you want to be raced,” says the 2020 Xfinity Series Champion

Earlier in an interview with FOX Sports, the driver of the #22 Ford Mustang for Team Penske had said that with over a decade of experience behind the wheels, the drivers have their eyes on how they need to race Denny Hamlin after what he did to Kyle Larson at Pocono. They realize that there are high chances of getting nudged by the Joe-Gibbs driver while he is in pursuit of victory. Needless to say, they are also prepared for an on-track tussle.

On a recent episode of Performance Racing Network’s Garage Pass, veteran broadcaster Mark Garrow said, “Whether Larson decides to pay back him at a later day remains to be seen but Austin Cindric hinted all the drivers will now probably deal with Hamlin more aggressively.”

As reported by PRN, Austin Cindric said, “Someone’s racing Denny Hamlin, they’ll know that that’s what he’s wanting to do to win a race. Whether that’s positive, negative depends on what side of the bench you sit on, but race how you want to be raced.”

During the following race at Richmond, Larson did nothing egregious to Hamlin, as the former merely tagged the latter in the bumper to get him out of his way. However, Larson refused to talk to Hamlin at Richmond about their Pocono incident.

Read more: “Losing My Mind in There”: Denny Hamlin Confesses to Testing JGR Member’s Patience to the Limit Days After Being at Odds

Larson might not be ready to talk, but the entire racing community is.

Is Denny taking the pressure off Ross Chastain by being the ‘bad guy’?

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Pit reporter Dave Burns, Motorsports writer Nate Ryan and Hall of Famer Dale Jarrett had a conversation in a recent video uploaded by Motorsports on NBC regarding how Kyle Larson should race his golf buddy in the days to come. When Burns asked if Larson would take some sort of revenge on Hamlin for wrecking him, Nate Ryan disagreed.

Ryan said, “I think they are going to remain friends off the track.” According to him, Kyle Larson has been driving for many years now, and he is ethical enough to keep his professional life aloof from his personal one. “I think that Kyle Larson has this unique ability to compartmentalize what happens on the track versus what he does off the track,” he added.

We all agree. And so did the 1999 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Championship winner, Dale Jarrett. But he also admitted that even though it is not a payback, Kyle Larson has to take a stand for himself and race Denny Hamlin differently.

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He explained, “If he wants respect in the garage area, on the racetrack from not only Denny Hamlin but from other drivers, Kyle Larson must take a stand at this point in time.”

“…it’s just that hey we’re racing on a different level now. You showed me how you’re gonna race me every single time we’re having these battles at the front. Now, I’m basically putting my foot down and saying this is what you can expect back from me,” he concluded.

What Jarrett said is probably true. The NASCAR community knows that when it comes to winning a race, the 23XI co-owner does not care about personal friendships, consequences, or what the fans might say. Jarrett joked about him being the bad guy and Ross Chastain probably being thankful to Denny for taking that pressure off him.