“None of us are going to win”: Denny Hamlin demands JGR leadership to step in after Ty Gibbs controversy

Denny Hamlin shared a blunt take on his controversial shunt with Ty Gibbs on Sunday's(September 21) Mobil 1 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The Joe Gibbs Racing ace expects his team leadership to lay out clear ground rules to prevent such incidents from happening again.

Tensions have been brewing between Hamlin and Gibbs after their run-in at the Loudon track. The two went against each other for more than ten laps and had multiple contacts before Gibbs got spun out by Hamlin.

Hamlin admitted to his faults, but explained how he was just trying to get by Gibbs and that the contact wasn't intentional. The incident, however, left Gibbs out of the race altogether. He suffered a broken toe link and had to retire the No.54 Toyota, while Hamlin ended up with a P12 finish.

On the latest episode of his Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin noted that Gibbs kept aero-blocking him when he wasn't even in contention for the title. Reflecting upon the same, he said (40:37 onwards),

"What I want to happen is just leadership step in and tell us what what do you want us to do? If you want us all to just race each other cutthroat, no matter what your position is in and in stature in the standings, we can definitely do that. Like, I expect myself and the 19 and the 20 to race really really hard because we're all battling each other to get above this cut line."

"If I get eliminated or the 19 gets eliminated or the 20 gets eliminated and then we've established this 'no rules, you guys just do whatever you want to do.' That's just, none of us are going to win," he added.

Denny Hamlin went on to say how non-playoff drivers will soon start conceding to their title-chasing teammates and hoped for the same from Gibbs. He explained that failure to do so will only keep him from winning 'naturally'.

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Joe Gibbs backs off from Denny Hamlin-Ty Gibbs clash

Joe Gibbs, team owner of JGR, addressed the Denny Hamlin-Ty Gibbs feud and kept himself out of the equation. Notably, Hamlin went over the radio when the incident happened and called out Ty for not playing the team game.

Following the whole ordeal, Joe Gibbs told Bob Pockrass that he hopes the two drivers can bury the hatchet by themselves.

"It's always the drivers that have to handle that. They're the ones that got the wheel, and so I think that's always the case.....those guys will get together on their own and figure it out."

The result marked a four-place drop from the playoff standings for Denny Hamlin. He went from the top of the tables to a fifth place position, one spot behind his JGR teammate, Christopher Bell.

Chase Briscoe, the only other JGR driver contending for the title, sits eighth with 12 points above the cutline.