Denny Hamlin voiced his opinion on the late run-in between Alex Bowman and Daniel Saurez at Darlington during Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500.
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver said that, to a certain degree, it was the fury of the Mexican driver Suarez that caused the wreck.
With less than 50 laps left in the race, Bowman was in a fierce contest for P8 with Suarez. The HMS No:48 was upfront and declined to let the Trackhouse Racing No:99 Chevy overtake him.
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The confrontational maneuvers from both the drivers while defending and attacking resulted in a wreck with both suffering heavy damage and collecting Harrison Burton along the way.
During his podcast, Action Detrimental Denny Hamlin said that Saurez was trying to prove something in a scenario where he couldn’t get the win.
“It’s really close, I mean, you know, Suarez took himself out, you know, trying to prove a point there, so I don’t know that he really win with that scenario.”
“Yes, he wrecked Alex saying, ‘hey, you don’t block me up.” I mean, I agree with Bowman that they know blocks too, so it’s hard to throw a stone; it’s hard to any of us to throw stones because we all do it,” Hamlin said.
Hamlin also shared that Suarez could have made a better decision.
“You know if you’re pissed off at Bowman for blocking, then I think there’s probably ways to get him in the fence that don’t take yourself out, but you know it’s just I don’t know, it just seems like kinda like a rage thing.”
“Certainly running both of their days, which is unfortunate to both of them,” Hamlin added.
A bad block!
Alex Bowman, Daniel Suarez and Harrison Burton all crash! #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/GS5t9Zyku7
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) September 4, 2023
Trackhouse racing No.99 Daniel Suarez called Bowman a “Dummy” after his day ended early at Darlington.
“I’m a little too heated…I hope I don’t see him in the next 15-20 minutes,”
“He has five minutes of being a Dummy and he used it against the the 99.” Suarez said.