JGR explains what needs to change after Denny Hamlin and Ty Gibbs collide

“We’re all trying to win a championship for their family. It’s unfortunate that we were racing that way.”

That’s how Denny Hamlin ultimately feels about the incident between himself and Ty Gibbs on Lap 111 of the NASCAR Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday afternoon.

This was the byproduct of roughly 10 laps of really aggressive racing for 11th between Gibbs, Hamlin and Christopher Bell. Gibbs is not championship eligible and is the grandson of team owner Joe Gibbs.

There were multiple instances of contact between Hamlin and Gibbs and it eventually eliminated the latter with a broken toe link. Hamlin was furious over the radio during the entire sequence. At one point, Hamlin accused the only organization he has ever raced for of an unwillingness to challenge the younger Gibbs.

Trying to win a title for Ty’s family

Even after the race, Hamlin just didn’t understand why Gibbs was racing his active playoff teammates so hard that early.

“That was like the fourth or fifth time we made contact, but eventually he got spun,” Hamlin said after climbing out from a 12th place finish.

As for the final contact that sent Gibbs around, Hamlin said it was not retaliatory.

“Well, I made a mistake in (Turn) 1 but I would have made a mistake with anybody in that position,” Hamlin said. “I was trying to get by him and that was a task in itself.”

This becomes a question of race etiquette with Hamlin and Bell needing every championship point possible in each round. This also wasn’t even a race for the win since they were all outside of the top-10.

So what’s the solution?

“I’ll let leadership kind of quarterback however the would like to but obviously, the 11, 20 and 19, we’re all trying to win a championship for their family,” Hamlin said. “It’s unfortunate why we’re racing the way we were.”

For his part, all Gibbs would say upon being released from the infield care center is that he was ‘looking forward to the race next week,’ when asked by both television and deadline media.

How will JGR leadership handle it?

Joe Gibbs Racing competition director Chris Gabehart previously served as crew chief for Hamlin the previous six seasons and also spent time working as race strategist for Gibbs this summer.

Gabehart said this was a ‘racing incident’ but there also needed to be a big picture conversation between all involved.

“I mean, this is the type of conversation that, when you run well, you’re fortunate enough to need to have every so often,” Gabehart said. “We’ll have to have that conversation again. I think there is a reasonable etiquette to follow where everyone can get what they need out of it.

“But at the same time, you can’t create an atmosphere where everyone just has to roll over and play nice all the time or you won’t hang as many (race win) banners as Joe Gibbs Racing has hung over the years. You see this happen with drivers the most, but you have to have those talks with crew chiefs, engineers and pit crews — that everyone has to be selfish.

“It’s a hard thing to balance and we just have to do a little better job of getting that balanced here.”

The incident was nearly a double whammy for the company as Bell only narrowly avoided Gibbs as he sailed backwards into the wall.

“Yeah, we just have to have a better understanding of proper racing etiquette in certain situations,” Gabehart said. “And the playoffs are a certain situation. We’ll just have to talk through it and get everyone’s point of view and figure out how to move forward as one after this.”

Gabehart also did not deny that there was a degree of simmering tension leading up to this.

“Yeah, I mean, sure,” Gabehart said. “But again, like I said, you know every team member on Joe Gibbs Racing wants to win. We have a ‘want to win 38 races a year’ mentality and that makes everyone really competitive and selfish at times.

“So you have to balance that and understand and respect it out of all of your competitors and that includes those within your walls.”

Historically, Hamlin has been a mentor to Gibbs, which makes this all the more frustrating to the veteran.

Hamlin says spinning Gibbs wasn’t intentional

Ty Gibbs, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

Photo by: Meg Oliphant / Getty Images

“I have probably had more dialogue with him than any other teammate I have,” Hamlin said. “But yeah, he’s got so much to learn, and certainly, a very high ceiling of talent but understanding down in the distance seems to be the struggle.”

Hamlin was adamant that he didn’t wreck Gibbs on purpose.

“I certainly did not want to spin out a teammate,” Hamlin said. “I was trying to get space to race, trying to get by the 54, and just got into it.”

That’s how Gabehart saw it too.

“My guess is getting into (Turn) 1, Denny thought he was going to have more space than he had, so he made an entry with that expectation,” Gabehart said. “Then, when he had less space than he had, you can’t just stop these big things on a dime, when you’re loaded up like that … and when you guess wrong, an error can be made.”

And despite the 54 team suggesting ‘game on’ over their radio, Hamlin does not realistically believe Gibbs will retaliate.

“No, I’m not worried about it.”