“I Think He Needs Some Therapy” – Denny Hamlin Raises Concerns Over Ryan Blaney’s Overreaction at ‘Brother-in-Laws’ Mistake at Darlington

After the Daytona 500, Denny Hamlin was rather confident that Ryan Blaney would be a great asset to the sport, especially because of his powerful voice. Hamlin, however, is now seeing a less favorable side to that voice due to Blaney’s extreme aggressiveness on the track. A clear example came during the last race at Darlington, where, after being wrecked, Blaney was caught lashing out at his brother-in-law, William Byron. #11 recently brought up the incident on his podcast, delving into the on-track clash involving William Byron, Martin Truex Jr, and Ryan Blaney.

Denny Hamlin shares thoughts on the crash involving Ryan Blaney and William Byron

The drama unfolded when Ryan Blaney, restarting sixth on Lap 129, found himself in a tight spot as the Hendrick Motorsports #24, made a bold three-wide move under Martin Truex Jr and #12. Byron’s maneuver caused Truex Jr to bump into Blaney, sending him into the wall and knocking him out of the race with a busted right rear tow link. Blaney, known for his fiery temper, didn’t hold back over the team radio, threatening, “I’m going to kill both those motherf*ckers, that’s what I’m going to do.“ His words stirred up quite a storm.

Later, Blaney even made a feigned attempt to swipe at Byron on the track during a caution, which he attributed to his car’s steering issues caused by the damage to his Team Penske #12 Ford Mustang Dark Horse. Commenting on Blaney’s outburst, Denny Hamlin recently shared on his podcast, “Blaney lost his sh*t on the radio that’s a shocker I think he needs some therapy no. I’ve never seen anyone so quiet in person and so wild on the radio. Never! He is the epitome of when you strap on the helmet it cuts circulation off.”

However, he called William Byron’s ambitious move on the track responsible for Blaney’s extreme reaction. He explained, “He [Byron] said he ran over some stuff and he was like I almost I wasn’t gonna hit him but I almost damn near did. He was close to swiping at him but yeah I mean it’s interesting because you almost call these racing deals but they’re not because the 24 in my opinion clearly made a mistake by running up the racetrack which by the way the lane he was running there’s a reason people don’t run down there folks is that it makes it impossible for you to exit the corner without washing up into the wall.”

Hamlin noted that Byron took an aggressive line at the bottom of the track, which is great because it’s clean and has a lot of grip. But if you don’t clear the cars above you, you’re going to run into them, or at the very least, you’re going to cause a wreck, and that’s exactly what happened. Meanwhile, Denny Hamlin also weighed in on another major incident of the race involving Tyler Reddick and Chris Buescher.

The #11 Joe Gibbs Racing talks about the Buescher-Reddick incident

Although it was a bummer that his team, 23XI Racing, didn’t win, Denny Hamlin, chose to highlight the positives instead of dwelling on what might have gone wrong. Having been in similar high-stakes moments himself, Hamlin resonated with the intense emotions Reddick and Buescher must have felt during the race, praising the overall team’s performance, saying:

“Certainly, they dominated the day. It looked like they really reaped the benefits. The pit crew did a great job of keeping them up front all day long, and his car was obviously very fast as well.“ 

Well, even though his car wasn’t the fastest, Hamlin still managed to pull off a P4 finish from a P7 start. All in all, it was a goody-goody day for him, if not perfect.