Family feud

Busch, Hamlin downplay rivalry

Associated Press

NEW YORK

The first sign of a lingering discord between Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch came after their 1-2 finish at Richmond, when Busch made sure to point out how clean he raced his teammate with the win on the line.

A second verbal volley was lobbed during an episode of Busch’s ESPN weeklong reality special, when he made mention of how difficult it is to have a discussion with Hamlin. Fans for sure noticed the back-to-back jabs, and speculation mounted that Joe Gibbs Racing’s two championship contenders were at odds.

Turns out, it’s much ado about nothing.

“I was just making a point,” Busch said Wednesday during NASCAR’s annual visit to New York to promote the upcoming Chase for the Sprint Cup championship.

“There was an opportunity for me to get in there and get dirty, knock him out of the way, but I thought better of it. We all want momentum going into the Chase, not another something to be fighting about.”

The relationship between the two JGR stars will be critical to manage over the next 10 weeks. The teams rely on each other for information and advice during at-track debriefs, and Busch’s crew gleaned an important tip from Hamlin’s crew right before Saturday night’s race at Richmond that contributed to the 1-2 finish.

Managing and maintaining that information flow will be the best shot either JGR driver has at dethroning four-time defending NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson.

But there’s no denying the relationship has had its swings, most notably earlier this season after a wreck between the two in the All-Star race and Busch vented over his radio “I swear to God, I am going to kill [him].”

It led to an immediate post-race closed-door meeting with owner Joe Gibbs, and the issue seemed to be settled. Then Hamlin fanned the flames a week later in one of the more entertaining press conferences in years.

“Each year I think Kyle’s going to grow up and he just doesn’t,” Hamlin said that day. “Until he puts it all together, that’s when he’ll become a champion, and right now he just doesn’t have himself all together.”

Gibbs helicoptered into the track to be present for qualifying later that day, and the teammates have been fairly quiet off the track since.

During a visit Wednesday to The Associated Press headquarters, Hamlin said there’s no issues between the two.

“I think Kyle just has different ways of expressing the way he feels about things,” Hamlin said.

“We have personalities that can be difficult to get through to at times, and a lot of it is just you are afraid to go up to your teammate or another driver and talk about [racing issues]. Me and Kyle have never really had that talk, but I feel like except for the All-Star race, our on-track relationship has been good. Never been any altercations, never really raced each other that hard. And I think what he was doing was just trying to prove a point and show that he’s a clean teammate.”

Busch and Hamlin have been two of the best drivers all season.