Kevin Harvick and Chase Elliott may have taken the limelight in the Cup Series for their ongoing feud, but a new rivalry seems to be building up.
The rivalry between the Stewart-Haas Racing driver and the Hendrick Motorsports driver was so intense that NASCAR had to intervene and even threaten the two teams with serious consequences if their rivalry on the race track didn’t stop.
While it might not have taken as much attention as this spat, Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe are finding themselves in a similar situation that Harvick and Elliott found.
The two drivers first collided in the Cup Series race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course where Briscoe spun Hamlin without knowing that he was already under penalty. The on-track collision continued after the race when the two drivers had words with each other on the pit road.
The pair came together again at Texas Motor Speedway in the final stage of the Round of 8 opener. While Hamlin came unscathed, Briscoe ‘s car took damage after making contact with the outside wall.
The spat continued after the race but this time on the social media. Referring to the clash, Briscoe wrote on Instagram if only he had “10,000 races worth of experience”.
Hamlin in turn commented on his post by saying:
“Not sure you’ll get there. There’s cars racing for the championship. In case you forgot about taking out the leader and costing him 1 championship already this season. Perhaps when you learn give and take, you will start to finish better.”
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Briscoe in turn hit out at Hamlin’s reference to him being in contention for the championship and Briscoe not. He replied:
“@dennyhamiln I get paid to race, just because you guys are racing in the playoffs doesn’t mean I’m gonna just wave you by. One of the best cars we’ve had all year and I was trying to take advantage of it. I understand you guys are racing for a championship which is awesome for you guys but I’m racing for a job and results let me keep the job.”
Denny Hamlin, in response, said that Briscoe had a lot of races in the regular season to have a spot in the playoffs and asked him to see the matter in a broader sense.
“@chasebriscoe_14 well if your car is better and you are better on that day, you will get the spot back eventually. Risk management is how you optimize your finish each week. Maybe putting yourself in others shoes for 1 min would help. You had 25 races to get a chance to race for the post season. Respect is a underrated trait in today’s world it appears.”
Both the drivers have their stance in this conflict and neither of them will back down from this stance. But hopefully, this feud won’t translate in the race track for the coming races.