Denny Hamlin Says He Has No Problem With Bubba Wallace Flipping Him Off As A Competitor – But He Better Not Do It As His Employee

As long as the bird stays on the track.

It’s been an eventful couple of weeks for Denny Hamlin. Last week, the driver of the #11 car for Joe Gibbs Racing found himself in a feud with his own teammate after wrecking Ty Gibbs during the NASCAR Cup Series race at New Hampshire after he wasn’t a fan of how Gibbs was racing him.

But this week it wasn’t a teammate who was mad at Denny after the race: It was his own employee.

Denny dominated most of the race at Kansas Speedway, but suffered power steering issues late in the race that made it a struggle to stay up front. Meanwhile, the #23 car of Bubba Wallace for 23XI Racing struggled during the first half of the race, running in the back of the pack and expressing his frustration over the team radio before the team seemed to find something in stage 2 to make the car quite a bit better, allowing Bubba to run up front for the second half of the race and compete for a win.

In fact, Bubba was leading the race coming to the white flag and appeared to be on his way to a win and locking himself in the round of 8 in the playoffs when a caution flag flew for a bizarre wreck that saw Zane Smith riding on his side around the wall before eventually flipping over and coming to rest on the inside of the track.

Luckily Smith was ok and walked away from the wreck. And on the ensuing restart, Bubba once again started from the top spot, with teammate Tyler Reddick behind him and Christopher Bell to his outside.

Hamlin, meanwhile, restarted in sixth position. But while the cars in front of him battled it out, Hamlin managed to sneak through to challenge Bubba for the lead on the final lap.

As the cars went into turn 3, Hamlin got tight and slid up the track, putting Bubba’s #23 car into the wall and allowing Chase Elliott to hold it wide open and pass them both coming to the checkered flag for Elliott’s second win of the season.

But after the race, Bubba was clearly not happy about the move from Hamlin. And to make things more awkward, Hamlin also happens to be Bubba Wallace’s boss and the owner of his 23XI Racing team alongside NBA legend Michael Jordan.

As the cars made their way back to pit road after the race, Bubba held his middle finger out the window to show his frustration with his team owner:

And he also had some harsh words for Denny on the radio:

“He’s a f—ing douche.”

Yikes.

After the race, Bubba seemed to have calm down a little, though he still expressed his frustration with Hamlin in his postrace interview:

“He’s a dumb–s for that move for sure. I don’t care if he’s my boss or not.”

Well Denny addressed the incident yesterday on his podcast, Actions Detrimental, and if you were expecting him to apologize to Bubba…well, I’m not sure you know anything about Denny Hamlin.

“If they’re wanting an apology, they can turn off now… I’m racing for the win, and I definitely won’t apologize for racing for the win. On Sunday I am the driver. The person in the 11 car is the driver.

That’s where the disconnect comes from, is that people expect me to be a different person. They expect me to be the guy with the 23XI shirt on when I’m in the 11 car and that’s just not possible.”

Denny said he raced Bubba exactly the same as he would have raced anybody, but that when he’s behind the wheel he’s not focused on getting a win for 23XI. And he also pointed out that he has a lot more time to win a championship as an owner than he does as a driver.

But when it comes to his own employee flipping him off? Well as it turns out Denny doesn’t have a problem with that either – as long as it stays on the track:

“If he were to flip me off in 23XI as the car owner, we’d have employer-employee problems. But as a competitor, he’s flipping off the driver of the 11. I don’t have an issue with that…

Anything directed to me as an owner, I would certainly, certainly have exception to that. Because as an owner, I know the tremendous resources that myself and Michael give Bubba every single week to go out there and compete. We have invested a ton to make sure our drivers have the best cars possible. We’re constantly looking to improve.

I don’t take that personally as the owner. I’m assuming that we got someone that’s in the game, on the field, in a heated moment, and I give him grace on that.

On Sunday we’re competitors. We compete on Sunday.”

Makes sense. It’s a unique situation where your boss is also your competitor, and driving for a different team.

Denny also has the added pressure of having never won a NASCAR Cup Series championship, and he’s in the last couple of years of his career so he’s really down to three opportunities to take home the final trophy before he retires.

But for Bubba’s sake, I hope he doesn’t try flipping Denny off around the race shop too.

The post Denny Hamlin Says He Has No Problem With Bubba Wallace Flipping Him Off As A Competitor – But He Better Not Do It As His Employee first appeared on Whiskey Riff.