NASCAR couldn't make it one race into the season without having a little off-track drama.
At the end of Sunday's Daytona 500, Darrell "Bubba" Wallace Jr. and Denny Hamlin made contact as the two came to the finish line. Hamlin claims the contact, initiated by Wallace, blew his right-front tire resulting in his car pinching Wallace's car against the outside wall after the finish.
Wallace and his team were upset with the contact after their runner-up finish.
"What's his problem?," Wallace yelled on the team's radio. "Y'all better hold me the f— back." Added his spotter: "Denny Hamlin, what an idiot."
Wallace also took a jab at Hamlin's comments that 70 percent of NASCAR drivers take Adderall in his interview with Fox Sports after the race.
The two shared a heated discussion behind the pits after the race and the drama carried over to Tuesday with Hamlin explaining his stance on Twitter.
Let me clue the idiots on Twitter what I was pissed off about. I had no issue with how the race ended. I was minding my own business on the bottom of the track and out of the blue I get ran into, my tire blown, and perfectly straight car destroyed. I’m good with all that.
— Denny Hamlin (@dennyhamlin) February 20, 2018
Then, I go do media and everything is fine. Then the last question is what was my response to what Bubba said. I had no issue until not only did he place blame on me but then went on to make personal comments about myself. I left the media center and saw Bubba 30 secs later.
— Denny Hamlin (@dennyhamlin) February 20, 2018
Anyone who wouldn’t take offense to the stupid things that was said has absolutely no backbone. I have one
— Denny Hamlin (@dennyhamlin) February 20, 2018
In a SiriusXM interview Tuesday, Wallace said he exchanged texts with Hamlin about the contact and added, "I’m OK, he’s not."
“At the garage, he was upset with me over the (Addreall) comments I made about something he was joking about, which shouldn’t have been joked about," Wallace said on “The Morning Drive. "All in all, that’s all right. We’re actually texting each other right now, we’re still not happy. I’m OK, he’s not. We’re racers, and we’ll go to Atlanta and be battling each other.
“I told him we’ll be racing together for a long time so I wanted to step out and reach out and clear the air. We’ll see how long it takes to officially clear the air."
