The Denny Hamlin/Brad Keselowski post-race press conference
posted by Tania Ganguli on May 25, 2008 12:47:33 AM
As expected, the post-race press conference between Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski was tense. Hamlin finished the race second and Keselowski finished third. While this transpired behind him, Kyle Busch picked up another win under caution.
Hamlin and Keselowski might talk about it more later, but they did a lot of it in front of the microphones. Hamlin basically said he was teaching the youngster a lesson and Keselowski replied that he doesn't have much time to prove himself.
A little more clarification on the actual incident: During the caution, the No. 88 got behind Hamlin and then Hamlin turned into Keselowski's car, damaging it. The No. 88 is owned by JR Motorsports, Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s Nationwide team. Hamlin had been annoyed with Keselowski racing him too hard before that, not following racing etiquette, and retaliated.
The press conference ended with Hamlin glibly saying, "Maybe I should race all Junior Motorsports cars differently."
Click below to read more from the conference and decide for yourself. Which driver out of line here? Were both? Or is this just good, emotional racing?
"My complaint was and I was fully intending on talking to him after the race regardless of anything that transpired the caution before all that," Hamlin said. "There's situations where, give a guy two inches to let him clear and don't hang on his right-rear quarter panel because they get frustrated then they get pissed off and they're going to race you hard.
"I said at the end of that race -- I want to do whatever it takes to make that 88's (Brad Keselowski) job the hardest to get around me. I'll block to let the 32 (Kyle Busch) win if I have to because of the way he raced me earlier in the race. If a guy has got everything but two inches on me, let him go because he's got there for a reason and I got there many times on him earlier in the race. Then he would slide up in the middle and then he would get a good run off the corner, but besides that it was almost at the end of the race and I had a great run on the top on him. I was up there next to his door and he slid up all the way from the bottom, all the way to the top and cut my nose off.
"That pisses drivers off and I learned as a rookie that if you make a guy that's been doing this a little bit longer and you make their job hard then they're going to make yours 10 times harder. Brad has enough talent to be in this Cup series, no doubt he'll be there in a few years, but I don't know if it's just these short races that he's been in -- you just shouldn't race like that. You can, but it will hurt you in the future."
Keselowski was asked for his response and defended his racing vehemently.
"I race one day a week," he said. "I don't race twice a week. I have one day a week to prove myself. I have 200 laps. I don't have 400, I have 200. I have to take every opportunity to prove myself, to prove myself not only to Junior Motorsports, but to the Navy and my competitors and fans and I have to make the most of every lap."
The incident happened under caution and a reporter asked Hamlin if it was ever OK to get into it during a caution.
"Ask him first," Hamlin said. "I retaliated. I did retaliate based on what had happened in the race."
When asked for his response, Keselowski said, "I don't think it does me any good to respond on that."
The next question asked more about what exactly "racing too hard" means. Asked the reporter, isn't that what you're paid for?
"Yeah, I agree, 100 percent," Keselowski said.
Hamlin ended the press conference probably no less frustrated.
"I don't know," he said. "Yeah, I definitely think under caution is completely inappropriate."
There was a bit of a pause after he said that, and I couldn't hear if someone else said something, but Hamlin closed his remarks with this: "Maybe I should race all Junior Motorsports cars differently."
-- Tania Ganguli
posted by Tania Ganguli on May 25, 2008 12:47:33 AM
As expected, the post-race press conference between Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski was tense. Hamlin finished the race second and Keselowski finished third. While this transpired behind him, Kyle Busch picked up another win under caution.
Hamlin and Keselowski might talk about it more later, but they did a lot of it in front of the microphones. Hamlin basically said he was teaching the youngster a lesson and Keselowski replied that he doesn't have much time to prove himself.
A little more clarification on the actual incident: During the caution, the No. 88 got behind Hamlin and then Hamlin turned into Keselowski's car, damaging it. The No. 88 is owned by JR Motorsports, Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s Nationwide team. Hamlin had been annoyed with Keselowski racing him too hard before that, not following racing etiquette, and retaliated.
The press conference ended with Hamlin glibly saying, "Maybe I should race all Junior Motorsports cars differently."
Click below to read more from the conference and decide for yourself. Which driver out of line here? Were both? Or is this just good, emotional racing?
"My complaint was and I was fully intending on talking to him after the race regardless of anything that transpired the caution before all that," Hamlin said. "There's situations where, give a guy two inches to let him clear and don't hang on his right-rear quarter panel because they get frustrated then they get pissed off and they're going to race you hard.
"I said at the end of that race -- I want to do whatever it takes to make that 88's (Brad Keselowski) job the hardest to get around me. I'll block to let the 32 (Kyle Busch) win if I have to because of the way he raced me earlier in the race. If a guy has got everything but two inches on me, let him go because he's got there for a reason and I got there many times on him earlier in the race. Then he would slide up in the middle and then he would get a good run off the corner, but besides that it was almost at the end of the race and I had a great run on the top on him. I was up there next to his door and he slid up all the way from the bottom, all the way to the top and cut my nose off.
"That pisses drivers off and I learned as a rookie that if you make a guy that's been doing this a little bit longer and you make their job hard then they're going to make yours 10 times harder. Brad has enough talent to be in this Cup series, no doubt he'll be there in a few years, but I don't know if it's just these short races that he's been in -- you just shouldn't race like that. You can, but it will hurt you in the future."
Keselowski was asked for his response and defended his racing vehemently.
"I race one day a week," he said. "I don't race twice a week. I have one day a week to prove myself. I have 200 laps. I don't have 400, I have 200. I have to take every opportunity to prove myself, to prove myself not only to Junior Motorsports, but to the Navy and my competitors and fans and I have to make the most of every lap."
The incident happened under caution and a reporter asked Hamlin if it was ever OK to get into it during a caution.
"Ask him first," Hamlin said. "I retaliated. I did retaliate based on what had happened in the race."
When asked for his response, Keselowski said, "I don't think it does me any good to respond on that."
The next question asked more about what exactly "racing too hard" means. Asked the reporter, isn't that what you're paid for?
"Yeah, I agree, 100 percent," Keselowski said.
Hamlin ended the press conference probably no less frustrated.
"I don't know," he said. "Yeah, I definitely think under caution is completely inappropriate."
There was a bit of a pause after he said that, and I couldn't hear if someone else said something, but Hamlin closed his remarks with this: "Maybe I should race all Junior Motorsports cars differently."
-- Tania Ganguli
