While Corey Heim was celebrating his first Cup Series victory, two backmarkers –Kevin Magnussen and Noah Gragson– became the spotlight of NASCAR’s first-ever Cup race inside an active military installation. And turns out, it was not an accident. And after everything was said and done, Denny Hamlin revealed what pushed Magnussen to do what he did.
“If you’re coming over here for a one-off, you’ve got to show the competitors who are here full-time some respect,” Hamlin said on his podcast Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin. “If I went and did a one-off somewhere else, I mean, I guess that’s stereotyping us and NASCAR as well: ‘You guys just run into each other. So, I think it’s okay to just power drive you into turn 12 on lap three.’ I’m not a huge fan of that.
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“And I have nothing against him at all. I raced around him a little bit today. He was fine, and I think what he did was wildly impressive. But yeah, I’m going to have to side with Noah on this one.”
F1’s Magnussen put up an overall impressive performance in his Cup Series debut. He posted a time of 132.49 seconds — the race’s fastest lap — and ran inside the top 20 for long stretches before eventually fading to 27th. But what he did earlier in the race became the talking point.
On Lap 25, Magnussen hit the back of Gragson’s No. 4 Ford after pulling brakes late. However, Gragson blocked him as the two banged doors. Things only got worse from there. In late Stage 2, with a few laps remaining, Magnussen went into the inside on Turn 4 and sent Gragson’s car into the wall. With his right-front toe-link breaking, the full-time racer’s day ended at the 35th.
“It was dumb,” Magnussen said after the race. “I think what pissed him off was that I bumped him, but I went in, I dived in, and after I dived, he closed the door, and I bumped him. So I said, ‘Okay, fine,’ but then that ruined his whole race, and he basically was messing around under the caution and slamming my door. I thought maybe we could get it out, out of his system and carry on, but he didn’t, so he ended up where he ended up.”
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However, there was a history here.
“I’ve watched NASCAR before, so I know that’s how you guys play it,” Magnussen said when asked about why he wrecked out Noah Gragson.
It was no better than a complete stereotype, claiming that the entirety of NASCAR is about wrecking each other out and ruining each other’s races. That’s why Hamlin sided with Gragson, too.
Still, being the fastest around a technical circuit like San Diego — which leveled the playing fields among the drivers for being a new track — does prove that Magnussen might be able to do better than his debut race if he ever got another opportunity.
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The post Denny Hamlin Publicly Slams F1 Ringer For ‘Stereotyping’ NASCAR As He Picks Sides In Noah Gragson Controversy appeared first on EssentiallySports. Add EssentiallySports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
