Denny Hamlin Explains Why He Flipped Off Joey Logano During The Daytona 500: “Just Pointing To The Cars Below Me”

Hamlin and Logano NASCAR

The Daytona 500 was relatively tame last weekend, that was, until the end…

And after several late-race wrecks and a big crash that brought out a caution on the final lap, Stenhouse was the last man standing to bring home the Harley J. Earl Trophy at the Great American Race.

A late caution when Daniel Suarez spun out stacked up the field just as Busch in the lead during his first race for RCR, and sent the race into overtime.

On the ensuing restart, Stenhouse managed to go from 7th to the lead just as a big crash broke out behind him when Austin Dillon got turned and collected nearly half the field.

The race went back to green on lap 208, making it the longest Daytona 500 in history.

When NASCAR threw the yellow flag, Logano and Stenhouse were neck and neck, and the finish came down to who was in the lead at the moment NASCAR threw the caution flag.

However one of the moments of the race that kind of flew under the radar?

Denny Hamlin flipping off Joey Logano on pit road.

The pit road incident occurred following the completion of Stage 1, where Denny, Joey and a handful of other drivers were all scrambling off of pit road at the same time, sending it 4-wide upon entry.

Joey Logano was run into the grass and wound up giving Denny Hamlin a little shove. Denny responded with a big ol’ middle finger that was caught by Clint Bowyer, Tony Stewart, and the rest of the coverage crew.

However, according to Denny Hamlin, it was due to the log jam coming off pit road.

He explained the scene on a recent episode of his new podcast, Actions Detrimental: 

I accelerate, I get to pit road speed and I’m on the outside of… I pull out of the pit stall and I’m halfway down and I’m on the outside of someone, I think it might have been Gilliland, it was another Ford.

But then Joey, he always picks the very end on pit road at Daytona because he likes to come in hot, get to his stall, then get down to business, and accelerate.”

Here is where it gets tight on pit road:


“He was just barely on my right rear corner. I’m being respectful, know he’s there. Clearly, he knows I’m no dumbass, I know he’s there. So I’m giving him room, but then somebody comes out, leaves their pit stall, and squeezes Gilliland.

Gilliland pushes me up and I’m literally grinding the side of my car against Gilliland because I know Joey is on the outside of me so I’m trying to be a nice guy and not run him completely into the grass.

I got nearly run in the grass so he probably dipped a tire in the grass. And he came off pit road and he gave me the bumper and was shoving me. And I was like, ‘f*ck you, pal. How do you not know that we’re four-wide here?’”

That’s when Joey had learned what was going on from someone on his team, whether it was his spotter or his crew chief:

“Ten seconds later he pulled up beside me and gave me the old hand wave like, ‘Okay, I got it. I know. They told.’ That’s the sign of like, ‘Okay, they told me what happened. We’re good.’ And so we’re good.”

Then he said that he actually didn’t flip Logano off, but was rather pointing to the cars below him on the track:

“Well, I was just pointing to the cars below me. I pointed to those cars that it’s their fault, not mine. But it was good.”

Sure Denny… sure.

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