Denny Hamlin defends NASCAR legend after Kyle Busch comments

Denny Hamlin has come to the defence of Dale Earnhardt Jr. after a special weekend at Pocono.

The NASCAR legend jumped in for Connor Zilisch's suspended crew chief at Saturday's Xfinity Series race, with the teenager racer taking his first ever oval win in the series with Earnhardt Jr.'s guidance.

Kyle Busch talked dismissively about the veteran's impact ahead of the race though, calling it 'all publicity' and claiming that Earnhardt Jr. was little more than a 'warm body'.

Busch also took to Twitter to follow up on those comments once Zillisch had headed to victory lane after some criticism, insisting: "This has nothing to do with with any animosity towards Dale Jr.. I'm referencing how silly the suspensions for crew chiefs are these days with all the technology they have to stay in contact with their teams. I'd say the same thing if (Jeff Gordon) went on a (Hendrick Motorsports) box as a crew chief."

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Hamlin: Have to give Dale Jr. his due

Hamlin weighed in on the conversation on his Actions Detrimental podcast this week, saying: "I think we've got to give Dale Jr. a little bit of due and certainly, don't want to undersell the fact that the team was doing the heavy lifting.

"I think that the answer can be somewhere in between of Kyle Busch says he's nothing but a warm body up there - the TV sells it as if he's an actual crew chief - I think the answer is probably somewhere in between. But you still got to be responsible, right?

"You got to get the messages to the driver, and he saw opportunities, strategy wise, and he's probably talking to the engineers about the strategy. The result was he was walking to Victory Lane at the end of that race and obviously, Connor drove that car fantastic."

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