HAMLIN: KESELOWSKI HAS TO EARN RESPECT OF HIS PEERS

Ron Lemasters Jr.

Denny Hamlin has been there, done that when it comes to on-track driver feuds. He's been the aggressor, the victim and sometimes both at the same time. So he knows a little about what the current talk of the garage is all about.

As the guest on NASCAR's weekly teleconference on Tuesday, Hamlin boiled things down in the aftermath of the Texas-sized rumble on pit road involving Brad Keselowski and Jeff Gordon.

Q. Did you have any strong feelings, thoughts about what penalty should be for the fight last week and what are they?

DH: Not really.  I don't really have any strong feelings about it one way or another.  When things are as tense as they are and your whole season comes down to kind of one cut tire by somebody else, you're of course going to be upset.

So who knows what should happen.  But definitely it will probably be monetary, if anything.

Q. Obviously a lot of debate about the move that Brad Keselowski made when he collided with Jeff Gordon near the end of the Texas race, whether there was a hole there or not.  I was wondering if you had a chance to look at the replay and what you thought of the move, is it a move you would have made?  Do you think there was enough room to justify it and do the circumstances itself maybe sort of justify it?

DH: Well, I think going in, you know, I don't know what Brad thought.  But I thought from my perspective, if I was in that car and shoes, that I would have to know that I'm not going to make it through that hole without having contact of some sort. That's fine.  But if it costs somebody a bad day, you're going to have to expect retaliation, which I'm sure he did.  So you'll have to take it with a grain of salt.

Q.  Would you have made that move?

DH: I don't know.  I think about that a lot and whether I would or would not.  He was on fresher tires.  So saying that that was his only opportunity to get the win may not necessarily be a true statement.  He still had two laps to get around.

And if you push the 48 there past the 24, it was a battle between him and the 48.  I don't know.  You know, it's tough for me to say.  And his points position, his actual position, I didn't have the tires he had.  So everyone has a different way of doing things.

But I think a common feel amongst drivers is that what they call that, people are calling that a hole that that was a very small hole.  And the car is call it six and a half, seven foot wide, that hole was six foot.  It was not enough that a car was going to fit without being in contact.  Somebody was going to have to pay the price.  It was Jeff Gordon.  And it made him have a bad day.

Q.  Obviously with all the emotions and it being so wide open in the Phoenix with nobody now safe, I think people thought like at least one or two drivers would be safe.  With all eight drivers not being safe, what is the atmosphere going to be like during the race, do you think, in terms of balancing going for the spot at Homestead versus retribution?  If a guy falls several laps down is a Chase driver, do you think that's when we could see revenge being exacted at Phoenix?

DH: If there's no remorse, yes.  I think that the challenge a lot of drivers probably have right now with Brad is there's no remorse.  He has the right to feel the way that he feels.  But when there's no accountability and you don't (indiscernible) they're going to be upset with you.

So you just have to expect it.  It's tough to win a championship if nobody likes you.  That is going to be a very, very tough task.  So I mean I think that you're just going to have to -- you always have to just watch your mirror.  And that's a tough way to race.  It really is a tough way to race.

I learned the very, very hard way about that.  But everyone's on their own agenda and Brad's got his agenda and he's entitled to that.  So we all gotta just do the best we can and if we have a bad day, this is typically where the point of the season where people get back at each other when they feel like they've been done wrong.

Q.  Of course back to the fight.  When you look at the aftermath of what happened, once you got home, what did you see there?  What are all the variables involved that made that such an intense moment?

DH: Well, I think it was the moment where Brad kind of blew Jeff off was when it set things off and that kind of goes back to what I just talked about, with Nate.  That the times that I've had tussles with Brad and other drivers, it's just oh, well, that's how a race is, just deal with it.  As drivers, you're just looking at someone to say I'm sorry I ruined your day, I screwed up, oh, well, I apologize.

When that doesn't get said, then immediately it just lights a fire in your stomach that all he cares -- he doesn't have any remorse.  It's just like oh, well, it's your problem.  And I think that just lights a fire in your insides, especially when you just had a bad day and your season could have just rested on that one mistake or whatever you want to call it.  I think that that really set things off.

I think if Brad would have talked to Jeff and said, man, I was going for a hole.  It was my only chance, you know, I'm really sorry it cut your tire, I think it goes totally different.

Instead, it was oh, well, sorry, bud, you left a hole.  If he did it to me I would have had the same reaction as Jeff.  No question.  I think that's what escalated it the most.

Q.  I do want to ask you, with what you just said there, let's say that I'm a driver and we get into it and you come over to me and I apologize but it's a half-hearted apology or I don't mean it, that I think, well, that's your problem, I'm going to say oh I'm sorry that you had that, does that really go anywhere if there's nothing behind that apology?  Is it almost better to, regardless of who you are, if I just say oh, well, as opposed to saying I'm really sorry when I don't mean it?

DH: You don't have to apologize.  Brad doesn't have to apologize.  I'll be 100 percent clear on that.  But he just has to realize that (indiscernible) about not apologizing.  Even if you don't mean it, just give the guy 30 seconds of your time to hear what he's got to say and have some dialogue.

To blow someone off and think that the world revolves around you is when it just -- you just escalate that person's feelings against you times 10.  So sometimes you just have to just face the music and if you're in something, just listen to what the other person has to say and you may not always agree.  And, look, I'm not the prime example.

I've made so many mistakes, it's silly.  But I've learned from them.  And I feel like I've gotten the respect of my competitors because of that.  And that goes a long way when -- trust me, I can guarantee you this:   If it comes down to the end of the race and someone can help me or they can help Brad and I've got the respect of that person, they're going to help me over Brad.

And if it comes down to a championship.  And so you can't -- it's hard to win a championship on your own on the racetrack.  And I feel like I've learned the hard way with that, that these guys can make your job hard, if they really want to.

And you've just gotta have some kind of friends out there in some kind of way.  Even Dale Earnhardt had Dave Marcis.  He had him there when he needed him, to block when he needed him.  And even when Dale didn't have many friends, he had some allies out there.  And I just believe that's an important part.  And from my aspect, and this is getting a little off topic, but if you ask me do you want a championship trophy or do you want the respect of your peers, I will take the respect from my peers (indiscernible) because that trophy they can't put in my casket.

What's the fun of a NASCAR party that nobody shows up to?  That's my opinion.  But when you look at one of the highest regarded people in our sport Mark Martin, he never won a Sprint Cup trophy.  But I guarantee when it comes to Hall of Fame Day, he'll have more support than anyone.

Q.  You talked about learning the hard way.  Does that go back in essence to 2010 where there were things, if so?  Or when you were talking about learning the hard way about about trying to win and not having the friends, what did you learn from and what was the experience like on the track?  Can you give me examples of learning from that experience and how people didn't help you as much in that case?

DH: Yeah, so my moment was probably in 2007, with Kyle Petty.  And Kyle will tell you, he was in my way.  I was running third and he was a lap down.  And I ran in the back of him, put him in the wall.  We all knew that at Dover.  And then we had a sit-down.  He said I need you to come to my motor home.  We need to sit down and talk.

He says:   Look, you don't know how many other drivers text me or called me and said:  I'm glad you did that to that punk, he has no respect for anyone else.  And immediately I was like:  Wait a minute, no other driver's like me?  Some people care about that.  Some people don't.

But immediately I was like:  Well, that's not something I want.  I don't want to be a driver that has zero respect from my peers.  I want to be someone who people look up to, other drivers.

And so that was my moment where I was like:  Man, I've got to change the way I do things both on the track and a little bit off the track as well.

And I feel like, you know, you don't have to run into people to be successful.  And when I hear Brad say that this is the only way a person like me can make it, what do you mean like you?  I had to get here just on hard work too.  I didn't have money behind me or anything else.  What's the difference?

I hate that statement.  And I feel like it's a scapegoat statement when it says this is the only way that a person like me can make it. That's not true.  You made it because people see potential in the way he drives and that he is fast and he does a great job and has already won a championship in a very short career.  I believe that that is a bad statement that he throws out there every time.  But it's his prerogative and he can do what he wants.  He has a job and has an owner that loves him and he's driving for a very fast crew chief.

He's got a lot of really good things working for him.  In my opinion, and I want to stress my opinion because this is what I think, is that he just has got to work on the respect factor from his peers.