“They don’t know what they’re talking about”: Denny Hamlin refutes the blame for Chase Elliott wreck in the Bristol elimination race 

Denny Hamlin said he was not responsible for the contact that took out Chase Elliott on Lap 301 of last week’s playoff race at Bristol. The night ended early for Elliott, who had to settle for a DNF, his second this season.

Several fans have been blaming Hamlin for Elliott’s misery, much to the surprise of the Joe Gibbs Racing driver. The way he saw it, John Hunter Nemechek hit Chase Elliott first, who then veered to his front, leaving the JGR friend with no option but to ram into his Hendrick Motorsports rival.

Reflecting on the fans’ side of that incident, Hamlin said (30:44, Actions Detrimental),

“I don't know what they're talking about. I was the second guy in contact.”

“What it looked like happened is the 9 tried to get in a hole, and he was running significantly slower than the cars running the bottom,” Hamlin further explained. “John Hunter didn't see it coming or didn't check up in time...he hit him and when he hit him he stopped in front of me, so I then hit him.”

Despite how it worked out for Chase Elliott at Bristol, the former Cup Series champion still has a 5-point cushion on the playoff cutoff line. He is placed seventh in the standings with 3013 points to his name. Denny Hamlin is currently the points leader with a 21-point advantage over Elliott.

Next up for the drivers is the Mobil 1 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Elliott has been there on 11 occasions, but he has never won. However, the Dawsonville native does have two top-fives (one being a runner-up finish) and one top-10 at the racetrack.

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When Chase Elliott said “it sucks” to hope that his teammates do not win

While Chase Elliott was ejected from last week’s race at Bristol, there were other Hendrick Motorsports drivers still racing for the win. Among them were his teammates Kyle Larson, William Byron, and Alex Bowman.

Both Larson and Byron were already placed above the cutoff line, so it wouldn’t have affected Chase Elliott’s playoff run if one of them had won the race. But if Alex Bowman had won, it would have gotten a bit tricky for Elliott.

Furthermore, Bowman was running on the lead lap at the time of the crash despite being the only driver below the cutoff lines. So Elliott perhaps had to hope that his teammate didn’t win.

“I need to understand where everybody's at," Chase Elliott said after exiting his car. “You know, I'm sure people have to pit and those numbers can certainly change, but cross our fingers and hope we get lucky. But it sucks.”

With days remaining until the Round of 8 kicks off at New Hampshire, Elliott is left with two ways to keep himself in the playoff picture. He has to either survive through the next three races or win one of them and bag an automatic ticket to the Round of 8.