Denny Hamlin is no fan of Ross Chastain.
Chastain, who had a run in with Hamlin earlier this season, caused the Joe Gibbs Racing driver to spin out in the final stage and ended the Quaker State 400 early for No. 11 Toyota Camry team. It was the second time Sunday that Chastain ended a driver’s run, doing the same to Austin Davis in the early going at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Hamlin, to no surprise, was not pleased with Chastain following the eventual win by Chase Elliott.
“Things just work themselves out in the end,” Hamlin said on the NBC broadcast when asked if he’ll be retaliating at Chastain. “We certainly aren’t cutting any brakes going forward, but beyond that, I mean, as a driver you make decisions. I talked about those decisions. Eventually you got to pay for those decisions that you make. And, you know, whatever happens in the future happens. But we’re going to be racing each other pretty hard here for the rest of the year.”
Hamlin added on the broadcast: “It just all works out in the end. There’s nothing, I said my peace the first time around and nothing really has changed this time.”
When talking to reporters immediately after the race, Hamlin shared how he reached his peak in terms of how much more he could tolerate from Chastain.
Davis called himself a “casualty” of Chastain a few hours prior.
“… When you’ve got guys like him (Chastain) wrecking half the field, you might as well take a different strategy sometimes,” Davis said, per NASCAR.
Unlike the previous situation with Hamlin, Chastain did not take responsibility for his actions following his runner-up finish Sunday. Hamlin finished 25th.
