{"id":145605,"date":"2025-09-15T12:27:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T12:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/145605\/"},"modified":"2025-09-15T12:27:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T12:27:07","slug":"denny-hamlin-responds-to-claim-he-caused-chase-elliott-crash-motorsport-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/145605\/","title":{"rendered":"Denny Hamlin responds to claim he caused Chase Elliott crash &#8211; Motorsport &#8211; Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Denny Hamlin hilariously clapped back at accusations that he caused a massive wreck involving John Hunter Nemechek and <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.the-express.com\/latest\/chase-elliott\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Chase Elliott<\/a> at Bristol Motor Speedway.<\/p>\n<p>On Saturday, Elliott <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.the-express.com\/sport\/motorsport\/183692\/chase-elliott-bristol-nascar-wreck\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">did little to hide his frustration upon crashing out<\/a> of the Bass Pro Shops Night Race, which saw <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.the-express.com\/sport\/motorsport\/183688\/nascar-drivers-eliminated-playoffs-bristol\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Alex Bowman, Austin Dillon, Shane van Gisbergen and Josh Berry get officially eliminated<\/a> from the <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.the-express.com\/latest\/nascar\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">NASCAR<\/a> Cup Series Playoffs.<\/p>\n<p>On Lap 310, Elliott was running in the top lane when he attempted to sharply turn down into a quickly closing hole in Turn 4. The risky move swiftly backfired, as the No. 9 Chevrolet driver was hit hard from behind by Nemechek, who didn\u2019t check up to provide him a break.<\/p>\n<p><a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.the-express.com\/latest\/denny-hamlin\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Hamlin<\/a> provided the finishing touches on the collision, ramming into the back of Nemechek once the No. 42 Toyota eventually checked up. Elliott, meanwhile, suffered heavy front-end damage after crashing hard into the wall.<\/p>\n<p>Following the on-track dustup, Nemechek told his crew chief to apologize to Elliott while laying blame for the incident on Hamlin. &#8220;Tell the 9 I&#8217;m sorry, I got run over [by Denny Hamlin],&#8221; he explained.<\/p>\n<p><a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.the-express.com\/newsletter-preference-centre\/?view=Solus&amp;mailingListId=9761f86a-69c1-4771-b7da-6a7feddacc61&amp;utm_source=solusarticle\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sign up to our NASCAR newsletter here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Upon catching wind of Nemechek\u2019s message over the radio, Hamlin wrote on social media: \u201cSay what? Lol.\u201d Several fans insisted that the 44-year-old was not at fault, with one X user writing, \u201cTv later showed it started before your contact with them. You\u2019re good,\u201d and another adding: \u201cFrom what I saw the 42 hit the 9 when he tried to fit in the hole and Denny hit the 42 as a result of their contact\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A third chimed in, \u201cThe 9 spotter and JHN threw you under the bus and then backed over you. You didn\u2019t even hit anybody till JHN punted the 9.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to reporters on the heels of his early exit from the Playoffs Round of 16 elimination race, Elliott provided his side of the story. \u201cYou know, it was a game of just how quick could you get to the bottom after a few laps to preserve your tire,\u201d he began. \u201cAnd I thought I was doing the smart thing \u2014 the Penske guys had got position on me, so I was just trying to get back down in line.<\/p>\n<p>DON&#8217;T MISS:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYeah, I got a huge shot from behind and I don&#8217;t know if maybe he had gotten hit or I just stacked the lane up that much or what. But yeah, nonetheless, it happened and it&#8217;s done. We&#8217;re in a bit of a pickle here now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Similar to Elliott, Hamlin\u2019s evening came to a premature end when he clipped AJ Allmendinger after losing his right-front tire, which continued to roll down the track. The No. 11 Toyota driver was swiftly issued a two-lap penalty, with two of his pit crew members expected to receive a two-race suspension.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Denny Hamlin hilariously clapped back at accusations that he caused a massive wreck involving John Hunter Nemechek and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":145606,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[29779,49,48,4387,3932,2332,634,45826,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-145605","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-bristol-motor-speedway","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-chase-elliott","12":"tag-denny-hamlin","13":"tag-motorsport-section","14":"tag-nascar","15":"tag-nascar-cup-series-playoffs","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}