LOUDON, N.H. — Denny Hamlin called his contact that wrecked teammate Ty Gibbs a “mistake” but raised questions about how Gibbs drove him, noting that he and teammates Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe “are all trying to win a championship for (the Gibbs) family.”
Ty Gibbs is the only Joe Gibbs Racing driver who did not make the Cup playoffs this season.
The 22-year-old Gibbs, who is in his third full-time Cup season, would only say he was looking forward to the next race when asked by NBC Sports’ Kim Coon about the contact from Hamlin.
Car owner Joe Gibbs, no stranger to teammates upset with one another in his Hall of Fame career as a NFL coach and NASCAR team owner, said: “Those guys are the ones driving the cars, so … those guys will get together on their own and figure it out.”
They couldn’t figure it out a third of the way through Sunday’s playoff race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway won by Ryan Blaney.
Hamlin and Gibbs made contact in Turns 1 and 2 on Lap 110 of 301 while racing for 11th place.
After the incident, Hamlin said on his team’s radio: “Are they afraid to talk to (Ty Gibbs)? That’s what I feel like. They’re just scared of him.”
When asked after the race by NBC Sports about what is the discussion that has to happen, Hamlin said: “I’ll let leadership … quarterback it however they would like to. Obviously, us (Bell and Briscoe) are trying to win a championship for their family. So crazy unfortunate why we are racing the way we are.”
As for the incident, Hamlin told reporters after the race: “I made a mistake in Turn 1. I would have made a mistake with anybody in that position. I was trying to get by him. That was a task in itself.”
Hamlin acknowledged that he has helped mentor Gibbs in his racing career but Gibbs has more to learn.
Hamlin-Gibbs run-in ‘a turning point’ for JGR
Leigh Diffey, Jeff Burton and Steve Letarte discuss how Joe Gibbs may approach the run-in between Denny Hamlin and Ty Gibbs and why it’s “a turning point” for the organization in the final weeks of the Cup season.
“I definitely have more dialogue with him than any of the other teammates I have,” Hamlin said. “He’s just got so much to learn and certainly got a very high ceiling of talent. Just understanding down and distance seems to be the struggle.”
Said Chris Gabehart, competition director for Joe Gibbs Racing: “We’ve just got to have a better understanding of proper racing etiquette in certain situations and the playoffs are a certain situation. We’ll just have to talk through it and get everybody’s point of view and figure out how to move forward as one after that.”
Hamlin explains contact with Gibbs at NHMS
Denny Hamlin believes he will “work through” the unfortunate contact with Ty Gibbs at New Hampshire after both teammates raced hard in Stage 2.
While Hamlin and Ty Gibbs had their issues, a pair of other drivers — one in the playoffs and one not — had no such problems.
Josh Berry, whose Wood Brothers Racing teams is aligned with Team Penske, chased Blaney late in the race for the lead, but there was no incident between the two drivers.
“I 100 percent expect Josh to try to go win that race,” Blaney said after his victory. “That was fun racing with him. He got close a couple times. I appreciate no bumper being laid to me. It was a lot of fun racing Josh. He’s been a great part to this organization this year, and I’m proud of those guys for having a good run.”
