As Denny Hamlin crossed the line for a historic win at Pocono, the crowd met him with a series of boos. The Pocono crowd that rallied behind Denny following his disqualification the year prior. The Pocono crowd that watched Denny score his first career win as a rookie back in 2006. The same crowd that watched the Virginia driver win at their track five more times between 2006 and today to become the winningest driver in track history. And he was booed by them.
In addition to the track wins record, Hamlin also scored his 50th career win, tied for 13th all-time, and the 600th NASCAR win for Toyota across the three major series. However, more people seemed to be talking about the way Hamlin went about scoring the win.
With less than 10 to go, Hamlin squeezed Kyle Larson into the outside wall in a similar fashion to his run-in with Ross Chastain at this race a year ago. Larson bumped the side of the #11 under caution a few laps later and gave a fiery post-race interview, but didn’t escalate the situation any further. Hamlin only added fuel to the fire in his post-race interview by claiming he never touched the #5.
The race was an interesting one for sure; Larson and Hamlin weren’t the only two drivers having a feud. Austin Dillon had a scary wreck in turn one after contact with ex-teammate Tyler Reddick. After exiting his car, Dillon took a few steps toward the track and threw his helmet toward Reddick’s #45. The helmet bounced off the pavement and missed Reddick entirely. In his interview with NBC after the wreck, Dillon made it clear how he felt he was wronged and concluded with “I just need to start wrecking some people”.
Ryan Preece (SHR) and Corey LaJoie (Spire) had an issue after the race as well, presumably because of Preece’s spin which ultimately ended the race. Chase Briscoe (SHR) and Ty Dillon (Spire) also appeared to have a run-in late in the going, yet neither driver appeared to have a further confrontation after the race.
As for the playoff cutline, Daniel Suarez took a blow in the points today after a wreck at the beginning of stage two, rendering him a last-place finish and dropping him from 17th (-1) to 18th (-23). Ty Gibbs had a career-best finish with fifth, almost one year to the day of his Cup debut. He stayed in 19th but gained 13 points on the cutline and now just sits 28 points back from making the playoffs in his rookie season.
With the hot heads and turbulent tempers, the short track at Richmond could shape up to be a classic. With now just five races to go until the playoffs, desperation is beginning to set in.
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