Dale Earnhardt Jr. believes something was lost in translation in the back-and-forth between Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch.
The two-time Cup Series champion took exception to comments Hamlin made about him last week on the Actions Detrimental podcast. Specifically, Hamlin pondered if this is the end for Busch as a contender at the highest levels and suggested that Busch needs to consistently outrun teammate Austin Dillon to even make the case that he deserves a championship caliber ride next year after his current deal with Richard Childress Racing ends.
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But Hamlin also called Busch one of the greatest of all time and said he couldn’t compared to his former teammate in talent. Busch took shots at Hamlin over the weekend at Kansas, suggesting that he was ‘bashed’ and that they should trade cars before Hamlin talks again.
Busch said he could ‘make life hell’ for Hamlin on the race track.
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Speaking on his own Dale Jr. Download podcast, Earnhardt believes wholeheartedly that Busch didn’t consume the full argument Hamlin was trying to make.
“I’ll bet you $100,000 his ass ain’t watched the 13 minutes of it,” Earnhardt said of Busch’s reaction to Hamlin’s comments. “If anything, he probably got a text from somebody. Someone said, ‘Man, this guy’s talking shit about you.’”
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With that said, Earnhardt said it’s hard to watch Busch struggle right now, especially with a new crew chief that most recently won races and a championship at JR Motorsports with Justin Allgaier in Jim Pohlman.
“It’s odd to watch them struggle the way they have,” he said, pointing to Busch’s ongoing issues week after week. “Jim Pohlman went over there from here to be the crew chief. They came out of the gate with a great performance and qualifying at Daytona. It’s kind of been tough ever since.
“Kyle keeps having problems every week. I think they would probably run just as good as Austin Dillon if they weren’t having the issues.”
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Like Hamlin, Earnhardt also praised the resume before moving on to the next topic.
“Kyle is a first-ballot Hall of Famer. Dude is still a badass race car driver,” Earnhardt said. “He’s just not having a good time right now.”
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