By David Morgan, Associate Editor
Since the dawn of the elimination style Playoff format, the battle between those still alive in the hunt for a championship vs those on the outside looking in during the postseason has raged on.
And on Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, that battle came to a head between Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and Ty Gibbs, in which the two clashed midway through the Mobil 1 301 and eventually saw Gibbs spun as he was racing Hamlin for position outside the Top 10 as the end of the second stage neared.
The conflict arose with Gibbs, a non-Playoff driver, battling hard with Hamlin and Christopher Bell, both of whom are still in the fight for the championship, with the expectation that the non-Playoff driver should yield to those still in the Playoffs.
Gibbs, unfortunately, did not see it that way and found himself spun around backwards as a result. He would ultimately finish the day in 35th place.
Prior to the contact between the two, Hamlin was exceedingly frustrated with his younger teammate over the radio, saying: “Does Ty know we’re racing for a championship? What the f*** is he doing?”
A teammate vs. a teammate. pic.twitter.com/hgn89OKlmR
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) September 21, 2025
On Monday, Hamlin addressed the incident in further detail on his Actions Detrimental podcast.
“I agree that everyone should race to win the race. However, we’re not racing to win the race. We’re racing at the time for 11th place. We’re battling, me, the 20, the 19. We’re all battling, scratching and clawing to try to get some stage points, which is going to be life or death for us. It’s our air that we need to move on.
“I felt as though a little bit wronged in the sense of my teammate out of the Playoffs should not be the hardest car on the track to pass.
“…And so it’s just, this is the racecraft that I feel like is missing that understanding the situation. And certainly I felt as though this thing is hard enough to win anyway. But if you’re going to have to race your teammates harder than anyone on the racetrack, then this will be really, really tough for any one of us to win.”
Per Hamlin, past conversations with leadership at Joe Gibbs Racing has seemed to signal that Playoff drivers should get the nod over non-Playoff drivers, but he noted that needed to be reiterated in the days ahead.
“Well, first, I don’t think we’re on the same page. I have always gone back to what is the last thing Joe has said when it comes to non-Playoff cars and Playoff cars. He has had this conversation multiple times with everyone in the room, but I think it probably needs to be said again.
“And so, what I’ve heard is that if you’re a non-Playoff car, any break that you can cut your teammates, please do.”
He went on to explain that the incident between himself and Gibbs was just the continuation of a previous battle Gibbs was having with another JGR driver in Christopher Bell in which the two of them even made contact at one point, which only drove up the temperature in the cockpit of Gibbs’ No. 54 car.
“Me and the 20 were fighting so hard to get around the 54 that we ended up fighting each other. And then finally when we got singled out, we both ran him down again and I’m thinking, okay, I’m just going to go on by. I am clearly faster,” Hamlin said.
“And it was just aero block this corner, aero block that corner, and then when you get beside, it’s like, okay, what else do I have to prove that we’re clearly faster? I’m definitely going to pass you. We got 60 laps to the end of this stage. What are we doing? You’re not going to hold me off for 60 laps. The 20 is right behind me. These are your two teammates that need these points.
“I didn’t understand where the mindset was there and I still don’t, but it’s possible Ty feels like he doesn’t know us anything and that’s just a different mindset and it’s okay to have, but you would think that one day the roles would be reversed and certainly he probably would be upset if we did not let him go if the roles were reversed and he was fighting to move on to the next round.”
As far as the contact between the two that sent Gibbs spinning, Hamlin reiterated that it wasn’t an intentional spin, but just a confluence of circumstances that put the two cars in position that it was inevitable that someone was going around.
“If you cut across someone’s nose, especially if they’re running really close to you, it’ll make their car kind of lift up and take off,” Hamlin said. “So, I think he was just trying to cut across my nose to make me lose air just to further aero block me.
“And I was so close to him that I’m like, hell no, you’re not going to do that. And so yeah, I tried to shove him up to the next lane to get my position and unfortunately it spun him out.”
So, what happens next?
The weekly JGR competition meeting will be a place for all parties involved to hash things out, but for Hamlin himself, he said that he just wants some clarification on the rules of engagement when it comes to battling with teammates in these situations in the future.
“What I’m asking, what I want to happen is just leadership step in and tell us what do you want us to do? If you want us all to just race each other cutthroat, no matter what your position is in stature in the standings, we can definitely do that,” said Hamlin.
“I expect myself and the 19 and the 20 to race really, really hard because we’re all battling each other to get above this cut line or maintain our status above the cut line. If I get eliminated or the 19 gets eliminated or the 20 gets eliminated and then we’ve established this no rules, you guys just do whatever you want to do, that’s just none of us are going to win.”
Hamlin added that cooperation between teammates will be the name of the game the further we get into the Playoffs and if JGR is having team in-fighting when other teams are working together, their chances of ending the season with the title drop off dramatically.
“You’re racing against where we have seen year in year out and it will continue to happen more and more, like it or not, teammates are going to start giving spots this time of the year,” Hamlin said.
“This is the time of the year and it’s just going to get more and more. You’re not always going to see it. It won’t always be on TV, but starting with about five races to go, you’re going to see those that are out of the Playoffs or those who have affiliations will start heeding spots to those who need it.
“And so if you’re going up against that and not only not being good teammates, but yet being the most difficult ones to pass, none of us have a shot.
“We might as well just hang this thing up because it’s too difficult to win naturally, much less if we’re going to have the everyone just race for themselves and it doesn’t matter whether you’re racing for a championship or not.
“From my standpoint, I would think that Ty would want one of us to win a championship. His name’s on the building.”
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