Kyle Larson appeared to be racing Denny Hamlin harder last weekend at Nashville Superspeedway, and that’s because he was.
Larson and Hamlin have a long history of friendship, but it has been put to the test in recent years as both are at the top of their games and competing for victories every week. In general, Hamlin has gotten the best of their previous clashes, with both his crew chief and spotter recommending that Larson should push back harder.
He did at Nashville, drawing the ire of Hamlin in the middle of the race and even attempted to push him up the track on a late restart.
“Where I’m at I think, you know, Nashville’s is really the first time that I’ve got to, you know, I feel like in my mind, show that I’m over it,” Kyle Larson said on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “Or like over the way that I’ve been raced. Now going forward I think I’m ready to move on, I’ve got zero issue at this point. I would like a little bit of respect on the race track and a little bit more room than maybe I’ve been given.
“Yeah, I think if we do that we can go back to racing fair and challenging each other fairly for wins. … I think that we are the two top teams in the sport right now so we’re going to be battling for a lot more wins together and all that throughout the races and all that.
“So, I’ve enjoyed racing him in the past, it’s just we’ve had a few run-ins. Like I said, I’m ready to just move on and go back to having fun racing each other. Nashville is what it is and like I said, ready to move on.”
“Sure, if you want to call it that,” Hamlin said on his Actions Detrimental podcast this week.
It’s a rivalry and no matter what anyone calls it, Hamlin says he’s fine with the status quo.
“I’m in this for the long haul,” Hamlin said. “I’m fine with the way we’re racing and it’s going to keep going and it’s going to keep getting raised.”
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