Denny Hamlin explained what happened when he made contact with Michael McDowell at Darlington Raceway, adding detail about the incident that damaged his No. 11 Toyota.
Hamlin entered the Cook Out Southern 500 as the NASCAR Cup Series points leader and had stayed near the front through the first two stages. A slow pit stop then dropped him into traffic. Soon after the final-stage restart, Hamlin and McDowell touched while coming out of Turn 4.
Hamlin’s Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota hit the outside wall and suffered front and rear damage. He went a lap down before recovering to finish 18th. Christopher Bell won the race, while Hamlin kept the points lead, but his championship advantage was cut almost in half. Hamlin later explained how he saw the NASCAR incident from inside the car.
Denny Hamlin Explains Michael McDowell NASCAR Contact
Hamlin said he checked his mirror before moving toward the top of the track and believed McDowell had enough room.
“I only saw it from my perspective, right? And that is, okay, clear, look in my mirror. All right, I’m clear by a ways,” Hamlin said.
Hamlin said McDowell was about a car length away and that he did not believe he suddenly moved across his line.
“It’s, you know, it’s not like, you know, it was at the time almost one car length. And so it didn’t, I didn’t feel like I was like shutting his nose off.”
The NASCAR Cup Series driver compared the situation with slide jobs in sprint car racing, where a driver can move across another car and force it to slow down.
“And there’s lots of slide jobs that can happen. Someone comes in there and they, you know, you see it in sprint cars. They really take your nose off. They force you to lift. I didn’t think that I did that with McDowell.”
Hamlin Admits He Made a Mistake at Darlington
Hamlin also accepted some responsibility for the NASCAR contact. He said his car had a moment coming off Turn 4, and he believed McDowell had enough time to react.
“And then, yeah, I had a bobble off the turn four and I knew I had the bobble. I thought there was enough time for him to react to that bobble,” Hamlin said. “It wasn’t like I was on his hood pins right away. I thought he had time to react.”
Hamlin also explained that his move from the bottom toward the top made his angle difficult.
“I’d went from the bottom to the top. So my angle was not great coming off the corner. So I needed to lift to keep it off the wall.”
He accepted that lifting after the bobble played a role in the incident.
“You know, I had some responsibility in it being that I did lift off the corner because I had a moment.”
Denny Hamlin gives Michael McDowell the Benefit of the Doubt
Despite the costly NASCAR incident, Hamlin said he did not believe Michael McDowell made contact with him intentionally.
“What he’s telling me is not intentional on his part,” Hamlin said. “So, you know, I think my job is to give him the benefit of the doubt.”
The contact came after Hamlin lost track position during the pit stop and returned to the middle of the field. The damage forced him to recover for the remainder of the NASCAR Cup Series race. He finished 18th, while Christopher Bell took the victory.
The result left Hamlin leading the NASCAR Cup Series standings after the opening playoff race, but with a much smaller advantage. The Darlington contact therefore became a costly moment in Hamlin’s championship run as he moved on to the next playoff race.
NASCAR: Denny Hamlin Admits What Went Wrong in Michael McDowell Incident