Denny Hamlin Reopens 10-YO Chase Elliott Wounds With 3-Word Defends as He Defends Sheldon Creed’s Vegas Antics
Mar 17, 2026 | 1:42 PM EDT
Denny Hamlin Reopens 10-YO Chase Elliott Wounds With 3-Word Defends as He Defends Sheldon Creed’s Vegas Antics
Mar 17, 2026 | 1:42 PM EDT
There are certain things and incidents one simply doesn’t forget. Yes, the way one looks back on them changes, but the memory remains. For Denny Hamlin, one of those incidents is his 2017 confrontation with Chase Elliott, which he remembered once again after an incident in the O’Reilly Series race in Las Vegas.
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Denny Hamlin had flashbacks of his infamous Chase Elliott mistake
During the race on last Saturday, an eager Sheldon Creed made contact with the car up front of Taylor Gray on lap 148. But while Creed got through, Gray hit the wall and saw his race come to an unfortunate end. This reminded Denny Hamlin of his almost-decade-old incident with Chase Elliott.
In 2017, during the Cup race at Martinsville, Hamlin made contact with Elliott with two laps to go, which left the #9 spinning and hitting the wall. To make things worse, the #11 lost the led eventually and finished 7th. Following the race, Elliott confronted Hamlin, leading to one of the most iconic beefs in modern NASCAR history.
Speaking about the Creed-Gray incident on his podcast, Hamlin said, “It looked like me and Chase Elliott in Martinsville, just get to the back bumper, push all the way in.” As he recalled that night in Martinsville a bit more, Denny Hamlin claimed that it wasn’t as malicious as it was portrayed.
“It didn’t feel as egregious in the car as it looked on TV. I was just barely on his bumper. I’m telling you, it was not hard contact at all. Barely on his bumper, but that is such a vulnerable part of the racetrack for the rear getting stuck, and I unstuck him,” he elaborated.
Hamlin mentioned that his Elliott incident is similar to the Creed-Gray one in that regard. There wasn’t a huge contact by Creed on Gray, but it happened at a certain part of the racetrack.
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There are more similarities between the Hamlin-Elliott incident and the Creed-Gray incident
Following his incident with Chase Elliott in 2017, Denny Hamlin took to social media to express his views and apologize. He claimed that he had raced a lot of races since he was very young. But there hadn’t been a time when he spun the leader.
“I regret the outcome because it was not intentional the way it turned out, but I’m responsible for my own car and take the blame. Nothing I say now can turn back the clock but it’s a life lesson and hope no kids out there who aspire to race think that’s the way you should do it,” he wrote as per Autoweek.
Hamlin claimed that such incidents were becoming normal in NASCAR. And he hated to be in that discussion as the guilty party. But he hoped, he, Elliott, and his fans would move on and accept his apology.
Now, as it turns out, Hamlin’s hope in 2017 that young drivers don’t repeat his mistake of spinning out the car in front to advance, didn’t put an end to such incidents. But just as the Joe Gibbs Racing driver admitted his mistake in the incident, Sheldon Creed did the same.
Immediately after he made contact, he admitted that it was his fault on the radio. After the race, Creed doubled down on his stance as he mentioned he misunderstood Gray coming down to block him.
“That was totally on me, that was bad,” he said in a post-race interview.
With that said, do you think NASCAR should penalise the drivers who spin out their rivals on track? Let us know in the comments below.
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