Denny Hamlin issued an apology to J.J. Yeley after spinning him out as the two were battling at the rear of the field during the Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond Raceway on Sunday.
Denny Hamlin during Grid Walk at NASCAR Cup Series Race at COTA via Skewcar YouTube
Hamlin spun Yeley towards the beginning of the race after he found himself mired at the rear of the field due to a pit road speeding penalty. He got underneath Yeley, made contact with his left rear quarter panel and sent Yeley into the outside wall, ruining his day.
Following the conclusion of the race, Yeley called out Hamlin for spinning him out telling Frontstretch, “It’s pretty simple. I mean he just ran me over and got me out of the road. I’m assuming he wanted a caution. I mean there was no sun in his eyes. I don’t know there could’ve been anything.”
He continued, “From a guy who’s been preaching respect for the last couple weeks seemed really silly on Lap 32 knowing it was going to be a short run. And obviously, he had no worries or issues.”
“Restart we’re running two-wide and he just got in hurry and ran me over. So wasn’t much I could do.”
“Hate it for the sponsors, hate it for my guys. This was one of the better cars we’ve had this year,” Yeley added. “They’ve been working hard on giving me a better product and they did that part. We made some adjustments, made the car better, and just had to nurse it to the end.”
Denny Hamlin wrecks J.J. Yeley during the first stage of the Federated Autoparts 400 at Richmond Raceway via NASCAR YouTube
On his weekly podcast, Actions Detrimental, Hamlin apologized for taking out Yeley. He first said, “It’s very, very obvious, people, that I had no intention to wreck J.J. Yeley. Why would I wreck J.J. Yeley for 30th place? I was dead last in the back of the pack trying to make my way through. A caution didn’t help us. I don’t think we pitted because we didn’t have tires anyway. So it’s not like I needed a caution.”
Hamlin went on to explain his view of what happened, “I got pinched off of — so I got to the outside of J.J. off of turn 4. You can see that a little bit on the in-car camera. And I had somebody, I think the 38 or 21, somebody on the outside of me, and he pinched me up into them. So I checked up real quick and I was like, ‘Damnit J.J.'”
“And so what I was trying to do, I was trying to get right behind him and then go in the corner and show my left front and kind of just get him wedged off the bottom so I can just take the bottom on him because I couldn’t complete the pass on the outside,” Hamlin elaborated.
Denny Hamlin and Michael Waltrip during Grid Walk at NASCAR Cup Series Race at COTA via Skewcar YouTube
He went on, “But really I went back and I couldn’t realize because it happened so quick like, ‘What the f*** happened? How did I misjudge this that badly?’ And I looked at the data and I saw that J.J. checked up about 100 feet early and got on the brake quite a bit sooner. But it’s still my responsibility.
“Don’t get it twisted, I’m not blaming J.J. for any of this whatsoever,” he asserted. “He’s just out there trying to get a good finish for his team, and they’ve been making that 15 car quite a bit better. I’m definitely not one of those guys that tries to hurt one of the lower teams. I do my best to help lower teams all the time.”
Denny Hamlin wrecks J.J. Yeley during the first stage of the Federated Autoparts 400 at Richmond Raceway via NASCAR YouTube
Hamlin then admitted, “But I just made a mistake. And I tried to drive in there right there on his bumper and then start to cut low, but I never got to the cut low part. Because when I drove in there I was up his ass anyway. Soon as he checked up I just ran right into the back of him.”
“I mean I slammed on the brakes as hard as I could, but it’s just one of those deals that I f***ed up,” he said. “It certainly wasn’t deliberate. I hate it for J.J. We were teammates together at JGR early in my career. He’s a great dude and I like everyone on that Rick Ware team.”
Denny Hamlin via Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Dirty Mo Media YouTube
“We were pitted right next to him and I knew J.J. was going to be super pissed because when you are in his position, right, you’re just trying to make laps, make your program better, get a good finish that day, and all of a sudden you just get jacked from behind. He never had a chance to catch the car because I went into him with such a rate of speed,” he stated.
Hamlin then reiterated I looked and I didn’t drive it in any differently than I had any other lap, but I was just too close to him and when he hit the brakes and I was still in the gas it was game over for him.”
“I apologize to them,” Hamlin said. “I’ll reach out to J.J. and/or the team and figure out if I can do anything to help them recover from this. So that’s my bad for sure.”
J.J. Yeley after being wrecked by Denny Hamlin at the Federated Autoparts 400 at Richmond Raceway via NASCAR YouTube
Later during the segment, Hamlin noted he appreciated Yeley communicating to his team to focus on repairing the car rather than trying to enact revenge against Hamlin.
He went on to reiterate, “What motivation do I have to wreck someone running 30th when I’m running 31st. It didn’t benefit me whatsoever. It just screwed their day up.”
“Again, everyone makes mistakes. I say it every week. And I’m going to be the first to always admit when I feel like I totally had a blunder and that was a dramatic blunder, just a huge miscalculation,” he concluded.
Denny Hamlin via NASCAR YouTube
What do you make of Hamlin’s apology and his explanation of what happened?