J.J. Yeley called out Denny Hamlin for hypocrisy after Hamlin dumped him early on in the Federated Autoparts 400 at Richmond on Sunday.
Denny Hamlin wrecks J.J. Yeley during the first stage of the Federated Autoparts 400 at Richmond Raceway via NASCAR YouTube
Hamlin was penalized for a pit road speeding penalty coming out of the race’s first competition caution at Lap 30. Due to the penalty, Hamlin was sent to the rear of the field.
Once the race went green, Hamlin seemingly expressed his frustration by dumping J.J. Yeley sending his car rear-first into the outside wall and severely crippling Yeley’s car for the rest of the race.
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Yeley was able to repair his car, but he ended his day at the back of the field in 36th multiple laps down and just one spot ahead of last place finishing Noah Gragson, who exited the race following an accident.
Following the race, Yeley shared his thoughts on Hamlin with Frontstretch saying, “It’s pretty simple. I mean he just ran me over and get 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.”
Speaking specifically to the wreck, Yeley said, “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.”
J.J. Yeley after being wrecked by Denny Hamlin at the Federated Autoparts 400 at Richmond Raceway via NASCAR YouTube
When asked if he wanted to pay Hamlin back during a caution, Yeley replied, “What’s the point, right? He’s damaged my car. I’m obviously upset. We’re not out there playing chicken and mouse for me to go out there and destroy his racecar. I doubt that he apologized. I doubt that he really even cares.”
“There’ll be a point where he may be in a different position and then obviously as a race car driver you never forget those things,” Yeley concluded. “You just chalk back up and go on from here.”
Denny Hamlin wrecks J.J. Yeley during the first stage of the Federated Autoparts 400 at Richmond Raceway via NASCAR YouTube
To Yeley’s point about Hamlin preaching respect and dumping him, on his podcast Actions Detrimental, Hamlin discussed post-race comments made by Alex Bowman at Circuit of the Americas (COTA), where he called the racing “embarrassing.”
Bowman said, “The problem is if you don’t peek out and bomb the guy in front of you, the guy behind you does it to you. So what do you do there? It’s not right.”
“The way we race is embarrassing and if twelve year-olds were doing it we’d be yelling at them, but here we are saying it’s the best thing in the world on TV,” Bowman asserted.
Reacting to these comments, Hamlin said, “Bowman afterwards called it an embarrassment. If you want to race clean you will get used up. I agree with that statement. I try my best not to be on this list of responsible for these wrecks, but honestly, I’m the one that gets the s**t end of the stick.”
He would go on to state, “I personally think it’s a bad look. I think that — do we want our NASCAR fans — I’ve got a clock on my dash just to know [the] time of day for debriefing with my team and whatnot and when the track changed, but it shouldn’t take an hour to run the last two laps of the race, green flag laps of the race.”
He then suggested, “I’m going to go out on a limb here and say maybe we should explore single file restarts at the end.”
On Twitter, Hamlin indicated he went through some of the most blatant incidents at COTA on the podcast in order to call out his fellow competitors for the way they drive.
He tweeted, “Again, I can’t dissect it all and there’s plenty of other contact worth noting but these were the obvious ones that caught my attention. A lot of the reason drivers do it is because they don’t get called on it.”
Denny Hamlin Twitter
Hamlin also responded to fellow competitor Josh Bilicki who tweeted, “Thx for not wrecking me yesterday Denny. Love this podcast and couldn’t agree with everything you said more.”
Hamlin tweeted in response, “I try to have respect for everyone. Sometimes i mess up. Doesn’t matter where you run.”
Denny Hamlin Twitter
Hamlin finished the race at Richmond in 20th after a late-race pit road speeding penalty. He did end up winning the second stage, but he would never recover from the speeding penalty and got mired back at the end of the lead lap.
What do you make of Yeley’s comments directed at Hamlin?