Denny Hamlin ‘Takes Noah Gragson’s Side’ Over Explosive Kevin Magnussen Confrontation

The NASCAR Cup Series race on Sunday at San Diego Navy Base witnessed some wild moments, including a heated confrontation between Kevin Magnussen and Noah Gragson. On his NASCAR debut in the Project 91 car, the ex-F1 driver had a good race barring multiple run-ins with No:4 Ford, resulting in the post-race profanity laced confrontation.

Gragson didn’t appreciate the ringer being aggressive with him on the track and confronted him post-race. It was an unproductive conversation, with both drivers throwing F-bombs at each other before being separated. One key point, the ex-SHR driver highlighted after the fight is the lack of resect from the part-time drivers.

Magnussen should have given the racer more leeway in the aggressive moments as he was fighting for championship points, while the other was just exploring new opportunities with Trackhouse Racing. Joe Gibbs Racing veteran Denny Hamlin agreed with this claim and highlighted the respect issue on his Actions Detrimental podcast.

If you’re coming over here for a one-off, you’ve got to show the competitors who are here full-time some respect. If I went and did a one-off somewhere else, I mean, I guess that’s stereotyping us and NASCAR as well: ‘You guys just run into each other.’ So, I think it’s okay to just power drive you into turn 12 on lap three. I’m not a huge fan of that.

Denny Hamlin said.

Further talking about the point, Denny Hamlin insisted that he had nothing against Kevin Magnussen, as the ex-F1 driver raced everyone pretty clean throughout the race, with the Noah Gragson incident being the only outlier. But still the full-time drivers deserve more respect from the ringer, hence he is taking the Ford drivers’ side.

And I have nothing against him at all. I raced around him a little bit today. He was fine, and I think what he did was wildly impressive. But yeah, I’m going to have to side with Noah on this one.

Denny Hamlin added via Actions Detrimental.

Kevin Magnussen branded Noah Gragson stupid over the confrontation

On his post-race interview Kevin Magnussen didn’t hesitate to call out Noah Gragson at San Diego. He claimed that if not for the stupid mistakes and decision, the Ford driver could’ve had a solid point paying outing.

No, I have not but I’ve watched NASCAR before, so I know that’s how you guys play it. So, no, it’s what it is. I mean, he was playing a bit stupid out there. He could have had a good race, but he chose not to.

Kevin Magnussen said.

Further talking about the point, Magnussen admitted that he expected the aggression in NASCAR coming in. Stock car racing isn’t as forgiving as other motorsport series when it comes to such moments and the Ex-Haas F1 driver knew the drama was coming.

Look, I felt like I was in a fist fight the whole way the race through. Honestly, everyone was driving so well. And I think, it’s tough racing, but people are respectful. They’re hard. You know, you can’t mess around. You’ll find out. So, I think you know um I like that kind of racing and big respect to everyone except you know that one guy but you know that that’s you know I’ll deal with that.

Kevin Magnussen added.

The comments from the veteran racers shows he lost all the respect for Gragson after the confrontation and doesn’t care about how this affects his reputation, as he most probably won’t race again in NASCAR. It would be interesting to see how everything is going to playout for Gragson after another beef that is showing him in a negative light.

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