Where Things Stand In NASCAR Feud Between Denny Hamlin, Corey LaJoie

What the heck is going on between Denny Hamlin and Corey LaJoie?

The two NASCAR drivers have engaged in a bitter feud since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, there is a lot of ground to cover, but we’ll try to give you the “cliff notes” version, as well as an update on where things stood as of Thursday afternoon.

So, Hamlin won the inaugural race of the iRacing eNASCAR Pro Invitational Series, which was created after the suspension of the 2020 Cup Series season. LaJoie, someone who regularly defends his own driving abilities while citing lower-tier equipment as reason for mediocre results (fair), essentially said doing well in a virtual race proves nothing. Hamlin responded by challenging LaJoie to join the Pro Invitational Series, and LaJoie responded by finishing second in a race at virtual Talladega Superspeedway.

The gloves have been off ever since, particularly upon the resumption of the season last month. It nearly boiled over last weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Here are some notable tweets:

It helps when you can lower the realistic effects of dirty air and give everybody 2 brand new cars to smash up.

— Corey LaJoie (@CoreyLaJoie) March 23, 2020

For years we’ve been hearing about how bad your cars are.. Now’s your chance. Log onto https://t.co/XGwNzVC3cy to learn more.

— Denny Hamlin (@dennyhamlin) March 23, 2020

Real pressure begins when you have all that and still don’t win.. it ain’t all about having a fast car buddy. https://t.co/vTkC3rw7yg

— Denny Hamlin (@dennyhamlin) June 8, 2020

Aged like a fine wine. https://t.co/AarWv1kX3o

— Corey LaJoie (@CoreyLaJoie) June 11, 2020

Gimmie the cliffs notes. What did the analytics say? https://t.co/aKuoq7k1o5

— Denny Hamlin (@dennyhamlin) June 13, 2020

Don’t engage with him Chris. We are a WINNING TEAM. Something most will never sniff. Talk is very cheap but in the end someone still has to pay for it.

It’s nothing more then a reach for some attention.

— Denny Hamlin (@dennyhamlin) June 13, 2020

Hamlin won Sunday’s Dixie Vodka 400 while LaJoie finished 29th. The trend of one driver shading the other after finishing higher in the standings predictably continued.

That brings us to Wednesday night when LaJoie, during his “Sunday NASCAR” podcast, accused Hamlin of threatening him and the No. 32 Go Fas Racing team before the Homestead race. LaJoie claimed that NASCAR stepped in and held a meeting with the drivers before Sunday’s race.

Hamlin denied the allegations in a reply to a tweet from The Athletic’s Jeff Gluck, who confirmed a meeting between Hamlin, LaJoie and NASCAR took place.

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“He texts me on Friday night ‘Congrats on getting your car crashed.’ Talking about how he’s going to wreck me on Sunday,” LaJoie said. “Premeditated threat. So I just hit the like button like this, I had a little thumbs up on it. So then he proceeded — this was like at 11:30 at night, he proceeded to text my car owner, Mason (St. Hilaire) the general manager, as well as my crew chief and says, ‘Hey congrats on getting your stuff crashed. Your driver’s got to learn a hard lesson.’

“ … So my owner’s like, ‘Hey, that’s not how this is going to work. Because this is a $300,000 race car for something that was a Twitter beef that he started.’ So he sends the stuff to (NASCAR vice president Steve) O’Donnell and O’Donnell is like, ‘OK look, like if you’re going to wreck the guy don’t just premeditate it because we already suspended Matt Kenseth for two races (in 2015) for wrecking Joey Logano on purpose. Now something’s premeditated so we’re going to have to hit it even harder, right? So do what you’ve gotta do.'”

.@CoreyLaJoie gives a full timeline of his beef with @dennyhamlin including NASCAR getting involved. Timeline starts at 10:45 (via u/slowbaja) https://t.co/PYX0yCdN7K https://t.co/KFaz5xjBHx #NASCAR

— r/NASCAR on Reddit (@NASCARonReddit) June 17, 2020

Lol. Man. Guys just can’t help themselves. The above statement is FALSE btw.

— Denny Hamlin (@dennyhamlin) June 17, 2020

Can confirm NASCAR held a meeting with @CoreyLaJoie and @dennyhamlin at Homestead. Officials had them meet to make sure nothing escalated into an on-track incident. There was no discussion of further penalties.

— Jeff Gluck (@jeff_gluck) June 17, 2020

Still with us?

With buzz around the feud at an all-time high, LaJoie on Thursday issued a statement to his social media followers. In addition to explaining his side, LaJoie also apologized to Hamlin, NASCAR fans and wished Hamlin well going forward.

Read the full statement below: