Things remain a little frosty between Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour co-host Mamba Smith following a recent spat over the NASCAR Cup Series playoff format. Tensions from a driver prank at Daytona appear to be spilling over.
The issue first started when Smith said the point of the NASCAR championship wasn’t to “crown the best driver.” Denny Hamlin and others took issue with that framing.
During the driver intros at Daytona, Smith lined up for a handshake with Hamlin, only to whip his hand away and wipe at his forehead at the last second. All seemed fine then, until the beef spilled over onto Twitter.
Naturally, Harvick asked Smith about the interaction and how things are with Denny Hamlin a week later. Did anything happen at Darlington?
“It was great,” Smith said. “No, someone tweeted, people were asking me backstage, though. They were like, ‘Did Denny respond to you?’ I was like, ‘No, he doesn’t want the smoke.’”
Both parties seemed to want all the smoke on Twitter. Hamlin initially told Smith he was “so cool bro” and to not let the Twitter ratios get to him.
“See you on the stage next week Champ,” Mamba replied ahead of the race at Darlington. Denny hit back.
“[It’s] 3x Southern 500 champ to you,” he said. “Make sure you get it right when you say my name.”
Things continued to ratchet up from there, because Smith wasn’t about to let Denny Hamlin have the last word. He continued.
“You’ll get what you get, smile, and do your princess wave regardless,” Mamba replied, ending the back and forth. Since then?
“No, we haven’t spoke. No, nothing,” Smith said before breaking down driver intros at Darlington. “He came out and he stood right in front of me. I don’t know if he ignored me but he knows I’m there. I’m not going to say he ignored me, but he knows I’m standing there.”
Harvick laughed on the podcast and told Smith he was only going to further inflame the Denny Hamlin beef. It’s fun for the fans.
“Please,” Smith said. “With crude oil. The most flammable.”
