Denny Hamlin might be cocky and brash. But he’s also a good sport — and can take the same treatment from others that he so often dishes out. Ty Dillon learned this first-hand on Monday.
That’s when Hamlin, as previously reported, used his weekly “Actions Detrimental” podcast to actually commend Dillon for playfully mocking him after last weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series race at EchoPark Speedway (Atlanta).
On Saturday at the Chicago Street Course, Dillon let everyone know how much he appreciated Hamlin’s good-natured reaction to his post-race roast of the Joe Gibbs Racing driver.
Ty Dillon-Denny Hamlin Comments Have Been All The Rage This Week
Just to quickly recap: Ty Dillon, seeded 32nd and last in NASCAR’s first-ever In-Season Challenge, eliminated top-seeded Denny Hamlin as a contender to win the five-race, bracket-style showdown by finishing better than Hamlin at Atlanta in the Challenge’s opening round.
After the race, Dillon — who finished eighth — had a message for Hamlin fans after the driver of the No. 11 Toyota finished with a DNF resulting from his involvement in a 23-car crash.
“All you Denny fans out there: I just knocked your favorite driver out,” Dillon, beaming from ear to ear, said during his live postrace interview on TNT. Of course, anyone who follows the sport knew immediately that Dillon’s words were a play on Hamlin’s “I beat your favorite driver!” line that he loves to spew at fans of other drivers when he’s just won a race.
But upon learning of Dillon’s deed — and receiving an unsolicited text message from Dillon to clear the air — Hamlin made sure Dillon and the rest of the NASCAR world knew he took no offense.
“He was ahead of me the whole (expletive) race,” Hamlin, speaking on his podcast Monday, said of Dillon. “I was 33rd until we crashed. Just let him have his moment. … He texted me, and he was like, ‘Hey, I was just playing around’. I was like, ‘Bro, I loved it.’”
All this brings us back to Saturday at the Chicago Street Course, where Dillon put a bow on the whole exchange.
Respect the 💩 talk @tydillon https://t.co/VMsitJqppo pic.twitter.com/kuMgswgylc
— Denny Hamlin (@dennyhamlin) June 30, 2025
Ty Dillon Heaps Praise On Denny Hamlin For Handling Of Atlanta Mockery
Make no mistake about it: Ty Dillon has the utmost respect for how Denny Hamlin rolled with his comical post-race jab in Atlanta.
“Denny gets it, you know, and I think that’s something for our drivers to continue to grow from,” Dillon said in Chicago. “Denny’s grown, I think, in his comfort level of who he is in the race car and around the track to where he’s leaning into that little bit of a villain role. I think we should all see that a little bit. I think we get so focused, as drivers, on our own performance, and we beat ourselves up.
“But we don’t lean into the fact that so much of what we do isn’t just about us. It’s about the entertainment level that we provide to our fans. Denny has done a great job of that and given me, also, the opportunity when I excel, to play off of him to show some of my personality.”
Dillon, who competes for Kaulig Racing, is 0-for-263 in Cup Series starts. So, naturally, he wanted to relish his surprising In-Season Challenge victory over Hamlin — a three-time Daytona 500 winner and one of NASCAR’s elite drivers. Dillon is glad Hamlin was willing to roll with the punches.
“I like trash-talking,” Dillon said in Chicago. “When I play sports, it’s kind of the fun thing that I do. I don’t mean anything by it, but I like to see where people’s minds are inside the game. So, that was just a fun moment (with Hamlin).
“He gets it, which is cool, and there’s a level of people that kind of understand there’s another level to this whole game — once you’ve been around long enough — that really matters as far as leaning into the fan side of this thing.”
