Denny Hamlin hits back at NASCAR rival Kyle Larson after post-Bristol comments

Denny Hamlin has responded to post-race comments made by NASCAR rival Kyle Larson following his Food City 500 victory on Sunday.

Larson won the 500-lap race around Bristol Motor Speedway, denying Hamlin three Cup Series wins in a row, with the No. 11 only car coming home in second.

And, speaking after the race, Larson sounded pretty pleased about preventing Hamlin's three-peat: ”It turned into a normal Bristol track there for us. So it really played in our favor."

"Obviously, having the track position helps a lot. You know, if Denny's in front of me, it could be a totally different story and be really hard to pass him.

"But, glad to stop his three-peat. We hate to see him win, as I'm sure you guys [the crowd] do too. But it's just good to be back here in victory lane.”

Denny Hamlin hits back at Kyle Larson

Hamlin was classy in defeat on Sunday, and of course, there was an element of tongue-in-cheek in Larson's comments, which were said with a big smile, but Hamlin has now hit back with his own words.

Discussing Larson's comments on his Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin said: “His post-race comments about keeping me from the three in a row and you know we don't like to see that and you fans don't either, now I’m like p**s on your triple, your sweep."

“I’m glad Chandler Smith beat you," Hamlin joked.

Just before those comments, Hamlin revealed he had been rooting for Larson to do the sweep and revealed that his fellow drivers had been urging the 2021 Cup Series champion to embarrass the Xfinity Series field by lapping every single one of them.

“Chandler Smith wins the truck race on Friday night, holding off Kyle Larson, keeping him from the triple. I was rooting for Kyle and I've always gotten on him and he mentioned to me before the driver intros of the Cup race. We were getting on him for not lapping the field in Xfinity at Homestead," Hamlin said.

“We were just like, ‘Come on man, show the indictment on the Xfinity field, just lap every single one of them’ and he said, ‘I tried to this time at Bristol, but the way the cautions fall, with the stages, the stages are so short’, he’s like, ‘I got as far as I could’.

“If you’re wondering why Kyle was going after it so hard at the Xfinity race, nearly wrecking, it’s [because] his friends were goading him into trying to lap the field.”

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