Denny Hamlin spins Chase Elliott at Martinsville and both drivers get in shouting match in front of grandstand as NASCAR playoff hopes take hit.
Things are heating up in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.
As expected, the paper-clip shaped track at Martinsville Speedway offered a bumper-car finish as the eight remaining playoff drivers opened the three-race third round Sunday.
Again, it appeared Chase Elliott finally was going to get his first career Cup victory.
Again, he was thwarted. But this time, it wasn’t because the Hendrick Motorsports driver made a mistake.
Instead, fellow playoff driver Denny Hamlin bumped the No. 24 Chevrolet out of the way en route to the front. He sent Elliott spinning up into the wall in the closing laps, only to be passed by Kyle Busch for the win.
Most of the field wrecked behind Busch coming to the start/finish line as the .533-mile track turned into a parking lot.
On the cool-down lap, Elliott found Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota and sideswiped him up into the outside wall a couple of times before NASCAR parked everyone.
Then, both drivers got out and exchanged words in a heated argument on the frontstretch in front of the grandstand as fans stood on their feet and either cheered or booed.
Elliott was furious. In the video, he appears to be saying « You wrecked me! You wrecked me! You know you wrecked me!’ Meanwhile, Hamlin, who has five wins at Martinsville, is shaking his head and appears to be disagreeing.
A few minutes later during a live television interview on NBC Sports Network, Hamlin cursed — which probably will draw a fine from NASCAR — in trying to explain what happened at the end.
« I got in the back of him and he spun, » Hamlin said. « I’m trying to get a race win. Everybody wrecked everyone at the end. It was complete (expletive). It was a mess at the end. Everyone was doing the exact same thing. I hate it for his team, but this was a ticket to Homestead. I’m not saying I wrecked him on purpose but I got in the back of him and he spun out. »
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Elliott managed to keep his composure in his interview, but said:
« My mom always said if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all, » Elliott said, in regard to Hamlin. « He’s not worth my time, so we’ll move onto Texas. It was just unneccessary and uncalled for. I can’t control his decisions and whatever the hell that was. »
Meanwhile, two other playoff drivers had an issue. Kevin Harvick took exception to Ryan Blaney’s bump-and-run and they exchanged words on pit road. Their encounter seemed more one-sided, with Harvick speaking and Blaney nodding.
Of the four, only Harvick is in the top four transfer positions. He joins Busch — the race winner, Martin Truex Jr. and Brad Keselowski.
Later Sunday evening, Hamlin issued an apology via Twitter:
So, as the playoffs move to Texas Motor Speedway, tensions will be high.
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