Kyle Larson finally sees eye to eye with frenemy Denny Hamlin as he reflects on a lost friendship.
Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson’s friendship, which was once cemented through monthly golf tournaments with roughly 20 other pals, has come under intense scrutiny ever since. Kyle Larson has recently requested greater respect from Denny. Denny also informed Kenny Wallace that their “friendship was always better before” they began fighting for victories against each other.
Some term it hard racing, while others consider it damaging to the sport.
Regardless, as EssentiallySports arrives in Pocono, our team speaks directly with Kyle Larson about his once-heartwarming story with Denny Hamlin, and he reveals a completely different story.
From golf buddies to racetrack rivals: the Larson-Hamlin rivalry.
In 2017, Hamlin & fellow Cup driver on Ricky Stenhouse Jr. formulated the idea of an informal monthly golf tournament on Saturdays, commonly known today as the Golf Guys Tour. Other notable names to have been involved in that group of 20+ friends teeing off on the greens with Hamlin & Stenhouse for the last six years are Michael Waltrip, Steve Letarte, Bubba Wallace, & Kyle Larson.
All these NASCAR icons, plus a few members from Hamlin’s home course in Cornelius, NC, engage in some friendly rounds of Golf competition, with even a points system that pays tribute to the scoring setup of both the PGA Tour & NASCAR.
However, the name that stands out the most in that esteemed group is Kyle Larson’s. Hamlin’s Hendrick Motorsports rival is a relatively new golfer but has managed to win a single edition of the Golf Guys Tour in 2018. The following year, the GGT was won by none other than Denny Hamlin. Those are only a few instances of how deep Larson & Hamlin’s competitive off-track friendship truly runs. But competition & friendship seldom intersect.
And, when the duo meets on the track, that is evident in their close-quarter battles. Add to that the recent amplification of the Larson-Hamlin rivalry, and most wouldn’t be surprised to know that the former hasn’t been attending the Golf Guys Tour for at least a year and a half. That’s what he revealed in an exclusive chat with EssentiallySports, before his 21st dance this season at Pocono against Denny Hamlin.
Our dedicated NASCAR journalist, Bharat Aggarwal, asked Larson: “So you obviously share a friend group with Denny Hamlin of the track. When you guys meet over dinner or you know, go out as a group of friends. Do your friends pull your leg or Denny’s over your growing rivalry?”
Larson made a gut-wrenching revelation that quite understandably stems from his on-track commitments. In his own words, he told EssentiallySports, “I’m sure we probably both get it on each side. But honestly, I haven’t had a whole lot of time to hang out with him over the last you know, a year and a half probably. Maybe even a couple of years. I’m not in the Golf Guys tour anymore. Just because I’m so busy. So naturally, I am just not around him as much. But yeah, I am sure I get people joking with me about him, and I’m sure the same goes, and vice versa. So yeah, it’s just funny and annoying sometimes but it just is what it is.”
Indeed, it feels unnecessary to watch these “best friends” drift apart slowly after over a decade of competing against each other. After all, even Denny Hamlin recently opened up to Kenny Wallace about how their “relationship is not as close as it once was” but he also wishes that it was. Denny slammed that nail in the coffin when he followed that sentence up with, “I’m also OK if it isn’t because I think that we need to continue to push as much as we can to win for ourselves and our own team.”
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