Riley Herbst’s 2026 season has had its share of hard lessons. His August crash with Michael McDowell at New Hampshire had lasting consequences, and the tension between the two drivers never fully faded. Few in the garage believed that chapter was closed. Heading into Phoenix Raceway, the 23XI Racing driver had real pace and a team that had been fast all weekend. Then came a moment on Sunday that put that history back in focus, and the reaction from inside 23XI proved just as revealing.
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Denny Hamlin has made his stance on Riley Herbst’s Phoenix payback attempt clear: if the contact with Michael McDowell was intentional, the timing and the result left plenty to be desired. Even so, the 23XI Racing co-owner stopped short of condemning the instinct behind it, and he used his platform to defend his driver against what he sees as a pattern of rough treatment.
“That was not the brightest moment if it was an intentional payback,” Hamlin said on Actions Detrimental. “I don’t have an issue with it. I don’t think Riley should get bullied. He’s been bullied a little bit by some guys.”
Hamlin acknowledged that the contact mirrored the earlier incident between the two drivers, but he pointed to the difference that mattered most to him.
“He absolutely ran in the back of McDowell, in a very similar fashion that McDowell ran into him. The difference is Herbst wrecked himself in the process. And if you paid attention to practice, Herbst had a top-10 car.”
The incident unfolded on Lap 44 of the Freeway Insurance 500 NASCAR Cup Series race, with Herbst’s No. 35 Toyota and McDowell’s No. 71 Spire Motorsports entry battling hard for 19th position.
The two made door-to-door contact off Turn 2. Entering Turn 3, Herbst hit McDowell’s rear bumper, sending the Spire driver sideways into the wall. Herbst then wrecked his own car as McDowell bounced off the wall.
Hamlin did not suggest Herbst should absorb every hit without responding. His point was that any retaliation has to be weighed against the larger goal of getting the best possible result for 23XI.
With 23XI performing well all weekend, the contact amounted to a missed chance to build on that progress.
“But you just got to do a little better job than that and not do it when you have a car that’s been one of the better-performing cars that you’ve had all season. And obviously 23XI as a team was very good this weekend. So that was disappointing.”
The tension traces back to the Dollar Tree 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in August. Herbst and McDowell were racing for position late in the event when contact from McDowell sent Herbst’s No. 35 into the wall, and Connor Zilisch then hit the stopped car.
The fallout went beyond the crash itself. Herbst later confirmed he had suffered a concussion and missed the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway, despite qualifying fifth for the race.
Hamlin made clear he had not forgotten that episode.
“I definitely did not approve of the McDowell wrecking him intentionally at New Hampshire and bumping the guy’s head.”
That history gave Hamlin some understanding of why Herbst might feel aggrieved, even if he did not agree with how the 23XI driver chose to respond. For a co-owner whose team had finally found real speed, the priority was converting that pace into results, not trading paint over an old debt.
Herbst’s season adds another layer. Heading into the August Daytona weekend, he had three top-10 finishes and no wins in 26 starts, including an eighth-place run in the Daytona 500 in which he helped push teammate Tyler Reddick to victory. Against that backdrop, a weekend with real speed was one worth protecting.
The timing sharpens the point. Only three races remain in the 2026 Cup season, and for the first time since 2019, the fall Phoenix race is not the finale, with Homestead closing out the year. With so little runway left, every weekend of real speed carries a steeper price when it is wasted.
The caution did help Hamlin, though. On the podcast, co-host Jared noted that the caution flag from the incident had helped Hamlin gain track position. Hamlin joked about the team’s desire for a yellow.
“We gave him the old signal, the bat signal. Need a caution.”
Podcast producer Travis Rockhold followed up by asking why Hamlin would not have preferred the caution to come later in the race.
“Yeah, I wish”
The yellow didn’t help him for long. Hamlin, who drives the No. 11 for Joe Gibbs Racing, started fourth and scored points in both stages. Then a right-rear tire went flat on Lap 221, he was caught speeding on pit road, and he finished 28th, a lap down.
Still, the helpful caution did not change Hamlin’s verdict: Herbst should not be pushed around, but he has to choose his moments better.