Hamlin Blasts Childress' Grandson Following Texas Nationwide Race; Crashes Austin Dillon Into Pit Wall!

He may be wearing a black hat and driving a black #3 car, but Richard Childress' grandson, Austin Dillon obviously didn't intimidate Denny Hamlin at Texas in the Nationwide race Saturday night. The best part of the entire Texas race telecast was ESPN's post-race inteview with an animated and agitated Denny Hamlin talking about Austin getting his ride because of his name and how he ought to be made to fix his own car.

I note in their story that Sporting News has cleaned up the language a little from what I heard Denny say on ESPN that Austin ought to do, though. Wonder how many Sporting News readers know the definition of "Nepotism," lol. Boys have it!

By the way, I couldn't agree with Denny more... the kid may have a #3 on his car and drive a black car, but we all know who he's not.

Denny Hamlin-Austin Dillon feud: Hamlin levels nepotism charge against Childress driver

Bob Pockrass

Sporting News

FORT WORTH , TexasAustin Dillon thought Denny Hamlin didnt race with a whole lot of respect late in the Nationwide Series race Saturday night at Texas Motor Speedway.

Dillon, who finished sixth while Hamlin was fifth, showed his displeasure by crowding Hamlin on pit road following the race. Hamlin responded by putting Dillons car in the wall and then making what could be considered quite a disrespectful comment.

He got his ride because of his name, Hamlin said.

Dillon is the grandson of team owner Richard Childress, whose daughter married former driver Mike Dillon.

My last name is Dillon, Austin Dillon said. If you look back in the books, there isn't really anybody named Dillon that ran real well.

My dad hit the wall a lot so I'm going to blame it on him. But no That's a good comment for him (Hamlin) if he wants to think that way. Ill take the high road.

Hamlin said that Dillon has a history of not giving anyone room and thats why Dillon has gotten into wrecks earlier this year.

If hes points racing, you cant crowd a guy thats running (just to win), Hamlin said. Im on the bottom. Im all the way to the apron.

Im doing everything I can and after the checkered flag he wants to run into me? So I ran him into the fence.

Dillons crew was angry with Hamlin after the race and surrounded him by his car but there was no altercation.

(His crew chief) says, Look, he aint got to fix it, Hamlin said. Maybe (Dillon) needs to take his little (butt) over there and fix the racecar if he wants to keep wrecking.

He needs to learn a lesson.

Sitting third in the standings at 21 points behind leaders Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Elliott Sadler, Dillon said he needs to race hard for every spot.

He put us four-wide and it wrecked (two other cars), Dillon said. I was just letting him know I wasnt happy about it so we got into it after the race.

Dillon said he and Hamlin have played basketball and golf together and he didnt think they had a history of bad blood.

With where were at in the points with (now two) races to go, I need to get everything I can get. I have nothing to lose right now, Dillon said. You dont get these opportunities to race for a championship very often.

Denny knows that, too. So Im just trying to take as much of an advantage of it as I can.

Hamlin wasnt impressed and made a comment about Dillon driving the No. 3 made famous by seven-time Cup champion Dale Earnhardt Sr. at RCR.

After the checkered flag, he runs into meI dont know if he feels entitled by the number on his door to think hes tough, Hamlin said.

If hes going to start it, Im going to finish it.

Dillons response?

Im sure it would be all right, Dillon said. Im running races next year, too. So Ill still be here.

Quite frankly, I was surprised, but silently cheered when Denny put the cocky little twerp into the pit wall.

Two very spoiled punks duke it out verbally! Sounds like a "Presidential Debate" to me. I respect Richard Childress and wish him the best. I think Austin is a decent driver. Hamlin is flat out a "punk". My opinion and not necessarily that of the management.

Nor mine, but we're buddies, lol!

And, I do hope you are contiuing to improve & feel much better!

Thanks, Dave. I am feeling better, but as warned by the doctor, it is going to take sometime to recover fully. This has been an incredible sickness to deal with. I appreciate your good wishes.

Yep, I know Hamlin is a Virginia boy from around Richmond, and I have a lot of Virginia friends. But I still think he's a punk. Seems like Coach Joe loves punks. Guess that comes from all those years around those spoiled prima donnas in the NFL.

Tim, in the summer of 1973, I was working rotating shifts managing the jeans cutting facility at our Wrangler headquarters in Wilson, NC and hanging out every other waking moment night and day at the race shop, getting hardly any sleep. Got to feeling horrible and was diagnosed with pneumonia and sent to bed 4th of July week.

I always thought pneumonia was a wintertime deal, but it knocked the heck out of me. My mom came down to eastern NC and spent a week with me. Joyce had gone down to Florida and brought me back fruit. I didn't want to see her or anybody else. Just sleep. Really put me on my back.

There's a story about Joe Gibbs in todays Charlotte paper... Panthers play Redskins today. I began pulling for the Green Bay Packers in 1958 and was a fan before their Vince Lombardi glory days. How I would like to see Vince come back and be turned loose among the corn row and earring wearing "athletes" of today, with their Gatorade towels hiding their heads after a bad play and their stupid touchdown celebrations. By the way, the famous pulling guard of the Packers' first two Super Bowl winning squads of 1967 and 1968, Jerry Kramer, married the 2nd Pure Oil Co. "Miss Firebird" - Winkie Louise!

I guess it would take about an hour before a civil rights suit was filed and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commisssion got rid of Lombardi if he came back from the grave to discipline today's pro athletes.

I equate those stupid burnouts and fence climbing of today's NASCAR drivers with the tacky prancing football players in the end zone. We all know it started in racing with DW's "Icky Shuffle" in the Daytona 500 victory lane. I was there in victory lane that day representing Plast-Kote spray paint and I thought it was a stupid demonstration. I am a dinosaur says my wife and I won't adapt to change.

Yeah, I was telling Joyce last night how shocked my mom and dad were in Richmond the day the price of bread at our local Safeway grocery store went from 18 cents to 21 cents per loaf.

But, it seemed like the price of a Coke stayed 5 cents forever, then spiraled out of control.

I worked weekend nights in high school and every night in summer at a Richmond dairy bar and restaurant named the Clover Room (owned by the Luck family) that made its own ice cream every night from its own dairy herd in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.

That ice cream had a heavy butterfat content. We charghed 25 cents per cone in 1964 when evrybody else in town charged a nickel. Wouldn't we all love to see a 25 cents ice cream cone today?!

Agree with you both!

I am not one of the retire the #3 guys. My best times with Dale were spent around the #2 and #15. The number belongs to RC and he can run it anywhere he sees fit.

I still have many great memories of the many talented #3 drivers who wheeled cars for Ray Fox and will never forgive Cale and Sam McQuagg for costing LeeRoy a shot at the 1965 Southern 500 win in that 1965 Ray Fox Chevy #3.

When folks talk about Dale Earnhardt and the #3, many forget (as you folks have already indicated) that the number was assigned to car owner, Richard Childress. Before he ran the #3, however, RC ran the #96.

When Wrangler took Dale and our sponsorship to RC for the final third of the 1981 season, it wasn't the Childress style #3 on the car, but the same stylized number font as the #2 that had been run on the Osterlund car.

During 1982 Childress fielded the Piedmont Airlines #3 for Ricky Rudd and used a totally different stylized #3.

When Wrangler and Dale rejoined Richard for 1984, Dale didn't want the car to look like the Bud Moore/Ricky Rudd # 15 Wrangler sponsored car and Richard wanted to still use a #3 like the one he had used on the Piedmont sponsored cars. The result, which debuted at Daytona in 1984, was one of the ugliest (IMHO) cars to ever grace a racetrack.

The appearance of that 1984 car was later changed to the look below, but still without the #3 that came to be associated with Dale:

It wouldn't be until the 1985 season that the Wrangler/Earnhardt/Childress car would carry a #3 resembling the one Richard had used during his driving career.

When Wrangler was replaced by Goodwrench for the 1988 season, the original Childress style #3 continued. There was even a small Wrangler ID on that car.

What goes around comes around.

And during the 1965 Southern 500 at Darlington, here's third running LeeRoy Yarbrough in the #3 Ray Fox 1965 Chevy getting caught up in the mess created when Cale Yarborough cleared the guardrail in Banjo Matthews' #27 Ford after colliding with the Betty Lilly #24 driven by Sam McQuagg as Darel Dieringer in the Bud Moore #16 Mercury takes evasive action. That Ray Fox red #3 on a white body remains my favorite #3.

Walt, just a note. I wasn't intending negativeism as to the Dillon boys. But re-reading my post, I understand I messed that up. I respect Richard Childress (long story there) and I am proud of what he's doing for Austin and Ty. I expect them to be really big someday. Hamlin is a punk, pure and simple. Always has been and I see no indication of change. As I said, Coach Joe enlists punks because of his long association with the NFL. As Dave said, if Lombardi would come back from the grave, football would be different. Back in the 70s, I worked for a national company who brought Vince Lombardi in for a motivational talk. He was awesome. I got to shake his hand, that's all. Don't even think we exchanged "hellos"

As for the discussion of the "3" coming back, I think it is long overdue. As I understand the rules, NASCAR owns the numbers and allows owners to apply for them. If an owner doesn't apply, the number can be reassigned at NASCAR's pleasure. Further, if a certain number is not used by the applicant for ONE full season, the owner can only get it again IF no one else applies first. When the King retired and used number 44 for Rick Wilson, he was told by NASCAR to either use the 43 next year or lose it. I have never quite understood how Childress got away with all these years without using the "3". The lame excuse that "Dale died in number 3" doesn't hold water. Joe Weatherly died in number 8, Fireball in number 22 just to name two very famous numbers associated with very famous drivers. Dale was Dale. Thanks to his wife, he obtained copyrights on many things like his autograph, etc, but the number 3 is NASCAR's to give out. I'm pleased to see Richard Childress is using it, even if not yet in Cup.

Any implied disrespect for the Dillon Boys from me is hereby worthy of my sincere apology.

A few more pre-Richard Childress Ray Fox #3 cars below include David Pearson, Junior Johnson, Buddy Baker and another shot of LeeRoy Yarbrough in the #3 Ray Fox Chevy Impala I pulled for in the 1965 Southern 500:

Little Joey doesn't have much time before he goes to Penske if he's gonna be the third Gibbs' driver to tangle with the RC bunch does he?

I agree with you Tim. Hamlin is a spoiled brat and as you say a flat out "PUNK."

I don't like to see race cars wrecked but I wish that someone would stuff Hamlin every race. Not hurt him just put his spoiled a-- in the garage.

NASCAR should not even let Cup drivers in the Nationwide series or the trucks. But we know that they will. They sell tickets I guess.

That is also my opinion.......and not that of the management.

Thank you.

WHO WAS THE CAR OWNER/DRIVER THAT DROVE AN #3 PAINTED BLACK CHEVY MONTE CARLO?
WHAT YEAR?

I would guess that be RC, but don't know that for sure and if it is I don't know the year.

dave - this is a blast from the past - but didnt rc drive a black and gold #27 car i think it was sponsored by black gold - i think it was rc - do you remember this car .

That's a Chevy Laguna S3, an ordinary Chevelle with "race-ified" body panels. A precursor to the Monte Carlo Aero-coupe. I think the #2 is a Monte Carlo, I'm guessing Bobby Allison driving for Roger Penske.

David, I remember Rusty driving the #27 MGD car for Raymond Beadle in 1990 and then that sponsorship following Rusty to Penske with the #2. I'm surprised how many fans pulling for Brad today don't know it was the "Black Duece" before it was the "Blue Duece." I much prefer the black car myself.

Funny thing about Dale Earnhardt. He fought tooth & nail for his Wrangler cars to have yellow hoods and not blue. He was convinced he'd have an advantage to keep the engine from overheating with the light colored hood. After he fouight so hard for the yellow hoods, I laughed my ass off when he started driving the black car. Used to rib him about his black hood with Goodwrench.

You got that right. As much as I don't like Kyle Busch, he's one of the very few top drivers in NASCAR that actually get involved with working on the race car, and I have to have some respect for that.

I think the whole Hamlin/Dillon incident is a good thing for NASCAR as a sport. I don't care much for either driver, but I can't help but think that Dillon is kinda cocky

I agree! I only started watching racing in the late 80's, so I'm not as familiar with racerslike Fred Lorenzen, Cale Yarborough, Tiny Lund or others (even though I've read some about them). But from what I gather, back then, if something happened like it did with Hamlin and Dillon, racers would take care of it amongst themselves...and not just out there on the race track either, if you know what I mean.

Dillon probablythinks he Earnhardt Sr., but he isn't

From what I've read about those days in Nascar, drivers helped each other a lot. Independent teams got some help and second hand parts from big-money and factory-backed teams. I've found old newspaper archives from the 70's and early 80's....discovered that back then, one of J.D. McDuffie's greatest benefactors was Benny Parsons! Some of that same spirit seems to exist in Nationwide and Craftsman Truck Series, but not always: just a few days ago, Jennifer Jo Cobb lost an engine and none of the other Truckteams would rent an engine to her!

In this morning's Phoenix paper, Rusty Wallace opines about how "nice" the drivers are this year:

November 11, 2012
Sports

Wallace: Racing is 'tame' this year
Ex-champ, others believe drivers are too friendly

by Michael Knight - Nov. 10, 2012 11:15 PM
azcentral sports

Whatever happened to "Boys, have at it"?

When NASCAR announced a more-relaxed policy before the 2010 Sprint Cup season, allowing drivers to settle on-track disputes among themselves with less chance of penalty, many fans thought it would return the sport to its good ol' days of beatin', bangin' and wreckin'.

But, with the notable exception of Tony Stewart throwing his helmet at Matt Kenseth's car after being crashed out at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway in August, that hasn't happened this season.

There have been a lot of long green-flag runs, triggering countless social-media comments that the racing is less exciting.

"It's been real tame this year," said Rusty Wallace, the 1989 Cup champion and ESPN analyst.

"I think the drivers are being too nice. They don't want to tear their equipment up. There's no rage out there right now."

Kurt Busch, the 2004 champion who recently joined the No. 78 Furniture Row Chevrolet team, shook his head when asked the "why?" question.

"Drivers just choose to not race as hard as they should, in my mind," said Busch, who starts sixth in today's AdvoCare 500 at Phoenix International Raceway. "I'm pushing hard, taking risks, putting the car on the edge and if you rub somebody and put a doughnut on their door, big deal.

"Most drivers, all hell breaks loose. They get mad and upset. What are we doing here? We're racing. This is NASCAR, this is meant for 'rubbing is racing' and side-by-side, bumper-to-bumper."

NASCAR President Mike Helton said: "Maybe we're just in a cycle where everybody's nice to each other. We've also seen cycles where everybody's not too nice to each other. If they think they need to be around at the end to win those races and be competitive (for the championship), maybe they don't rub each other.

"When you walk through the garage after the race, there's a lot of stuff wrong on these cars -- they've got doughnuts on the side of them, crumpled fenders, rear bumpers that are bent in. There's still a lot of stuff going on."

Wallace thinks PIR, the Chase semifinal, might be different.

"Some guys have to make something happen, so this would be a good place to have 'Boys, have at it,' " he said.

I agree, this is definitely an awesome website!

Jason. In 1974 I was racing in the Late Model Sportsman Division at Middle Georgia Raceway. I was trying very hard to finish in the top 10 in points for the year. I was 11th going into the final race of the season. The Georgia 500. It was a three (3) day event. On Saturday AM I blew my only engine in practice. I was very down in the dumps about this as you can imagine. A fellow competitor came up to me and said, "I have an engine in a wrecked car in my garage that you can use if you pull it out of the car." My son and I rushed to the garage and pulled the engine and worked into the night getting my car ready to race again. I was able to start the 500 and by doing so by the end of the day I was in 9th place in the points. That is just one example of racers helping racers back in the day.