Denny Hamlin isn’t backing down from Kyle Busch one bit.
Denny Hamlin Has Strong Words For Kyle Busch Following All-Star Incident
In his strongest comments about his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate to date, Hamlin said he has no desire to participate in the drama Busch “brings (upon) himself.”
Hamlin said Busch "gets mad at the media for asking him questions about his blow-ups and stuff, but he does it to himself."
"I don't want to be part of it," he said. "Any drama that he wants to create or anything is on him. Anything he says on the radio is on him. Each year I think Kyle's going to grow out of it, and he just doesn't. Until he puts it all together, that's when he'll be come a champion. Right now, he just doesn't have himself together."
As for the All-Star race in which Busch felt Hamlin didn't give him enough room, the driver of the No. 11 said he wouldn't have changed anything he did on Saturday night. In fact, he said, "Nobody in my position would."
“I challenge anyone to be in that position and to change the way I drove,” Hamlin said. “The thing is that he was never there (alongside the 11 car), there was never a hole for his car to fit in.
“He has a gas pedal and a brake just like I do. He could choose to check up and pass me in the next corner or put his car in the fence like what happened.”
Hamlin continued by saying “I didn’t wreck him” and placed blame for the incident on Busch, adding, “He just didn’t let up when he probably should have.”
“But moving forward, I don’t expect anything different,” Hamlin said. “That’s why Kyle has the attention that he has, because he’s fiery and everything like that.
"He has a blowup about once every two or three weeks and then it fires him up for the next two or three weeks until something happens and it simmers down and then he starts something else again. I think that's what kind of fuels him and he feeds off that. He really does."
Hamlin, though, reiterated his desire to work together with Busch and make sure anything between the drivers didn’t poison the chemistry between the crews.
“I’m still going to need him,” Hamlin said. “We’re going to need to still work together.”
Hamlin perhaps felt the need to reassert his leadership role on the team – a role he took over following the departure of Tony Stewart.
“Somebody’s got to be the leader,” he said. “It ain’t going to be Kyle.”
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