Kansas Speedway got the latest round of a feud on Saturday when Kyle Busch fired back at Denny Hamlin after the veteran driver critiqued his recent NASCAR form on a podcast. Busch, who has spent nearly three years searching for another win, said Hamlin did not know what he was talking about.
“People don’t know what the hell they’re talking about, and in this instance, I don’t feel like Denny Hamlin even knows what the hell he’s talking about,” Busch said. “So he can bash me all he wants — and I can certainly make his life hell.”
Hamlin had spent a 12-minute segment on his weekly podcast, “Actions Detrimental,” laying out why Busch’s results have fallen off. He said Busch had struggled for five years and should not be expected to suddenly return to victory lane on a regular basis. He also said Busch could not be held to his helmet talent-wise and should be finishing better than his teammate Austin Dillon, even though the two were only seven points apart in the Cup Series standings and both carried an average finish of 22nd.
“Clearly, RCR is not good right now, but you’re a Hall of Fame, Mount Rushmore driver,” Hamlin said. “Carry it better than your teammate then, OK? If you’re the greatest, carry it better than your teammate who has won (six) races. Find a way. I think that’s what he should be able to do, but it’s not happening.”
The back-and-forth landed at a sensitive moment for Busch, who left Joe Gibbs Racing after sponsorship did not present itself later in 2022 and moved to Richard Childress Racing. He won three races in his first four months with the team, then stopped winning altogether. He is now in the middle of what could be a third straight winless season, a stretch that has fueled debate about whether the problem is the car, the team or the driver.
Many pundits have pointed to NASCAR’s Next Gen car, which debuted in 2022, as the reason Busch cannot find the feel he needs. Hamlin pushed back on that idea, saying Busch had adapted successfully to previous generations of cars and that the feel of the Next Gen is similar to the earlier Gen 6 car. “Something is just not registering,” he said, adding, “We cannot ignore the fact the Gen 6 car his last few years at JGR was not good. I don’t think he’s at the age where the light switch has gone off for him, but something just doesn’t feel right.”
Busch answered with a challenge that turned the criticism back on Hamlin and the equipment. “If Denny wants to switch cars, I’ll switch cars with him any day of the week, anytime,” he said. “I would love for him to show me that he can carry it better than I can.” It was the kind of reply that made the issue bigger than a podcast take. Busch and Hamlin were former teammates at Joe Gibbs Racing, and their public split now centers on a simple but unforgiving question: whether Busch can still lift Richard Childress Racing higher than Austin Dillon, or whether the results say the decline is real.
For Busch, the numbers are the problem, and they are not going away. For Hamlin, the argument is that elite drivers are judged by what they do in weak equipment, not by what they might do in better cars. Kansas only made the disagreement louder.
