Dale Earnhardt Jr unloads on NASCAR star who is ‘not a great teammate’

Denny Hamlin vs Ty Gibbs was the ONLY storyline in town as NASCAR left New Hampshire on Sunday, and the fallout continues some three days on.

That ugly battle between the two Joe Gibbs Racing stars saw a team which had dominated the Round of 16 in this year’s Cup Series playoffs quickly descend into chaotic meltdown.

Gibbs [who is not in the playoffs] decided it would be a good idea to race Hamlin [who is very much in the playoffs] hard for a sustained period of time, before Denny eventually sent him into the wall.

This was not a good look for one of NASCAR’s most powerful teams, and this has the potential to be very messy for a few more days at least.

In the immediate aftermath some of the sport’s biggest names aired their hot takes on what had gone down in the Mobil 1 301, with former Cup Series king Kevin Harvick saying he was shocked by Hamlin’s actions. He says it was a moment which has the potential to ‘blow up’ JGR.

NASCAR HEADLINES: Michael Jordan drivers react to 'gut punch' as Hamlin sends brutal team message

Dale Jr goes in on Ty Gibbs

One man who absolutely laid the majority of blame at Ty’s door was Dale Earnhardt Jr, who also said Gibbs has previous when it comes to this.

“Was it necessary for Denny to wreck him into the wall? Probably not. But damn it, gotta look at Ty’s history," he said on the Dale Jr Download.

“He’s not been a great teammate at times - one of the more popularized ones would be Brandon Jones at Martinsville [Gibbs wrecked teammate Jones in an Xfinity Series playoff race in October 2022].

“So Denny is right in saying ‘look man, you’re not in the playoffs, we are, you’re our teammate’, like you’ll totally let him go.

“If I’m racing my teammate and he’s in the playoffs and I’m not, I’m not even thinking about him in the car. I’m letting him go because all of his crew, his crew chief, the engineer, the team owner, all of the employees of the team, like the team manager, the GM, everybody who’s present, is seeing this.”

'A******' move that was 'so silly'

As well as not agreeing with Gibbs’ actions on Sunday, Dale Jr just cannot get his head around why the 22-year-old did it.

“I mean I’m totally going to make myself an a****** by running him hard, even for a couple of corners.

“That’s why this feels so silly - talking about the common sense approach to this - like it’s absolutely obvious what Ty should have been thinking or doing, but he didn’t.”

Now we wait to see how Joe Gibbs Racing handles this ugly situation in the shop this week. Hamlin has already said he felt ‘wronged’ by the incident, and expects JGR leadership to ‘quarterback’ how things are handled moving forward.

Team owner Joe Gibbs meanwhile said he expects the drivers to handle this, so go figure...

The playoffs now head for Kansas this weekend (Sunday, 3pm ET, USA) and all eyes will be on how the team tries to get its championship bid back on track.

READ MORE: Foreign racing series looking to sign MORE Cup Series drivers

Related