The feud between Chase Elliott and Denny Hamlin on Sunday at Martinsville was more memorable than Kyle Busch actually winning the race, and NASCAR is still buzzing with the aftermath of the exchange between the two playoff drivers.
If you missed it somehow, here's a brief recap: Elliott was leading on a restart late in the race when Hamlin bumped into him and spun him out. Elliott went from a possible win to the back of the pack, while Busch eventually stormed to the front for the win. Elliott and Hamlin had a heated exchanged after the race, and Elliott said that Hamlin spun him out intentionally.
Hamlin has since apologized, but the damage was already done. So, yesterday, alt_driver asked its readers to decide whether or not it was a dirty move by Hamlin, and the response has been overwhelming.
Related: Was Denny Hamlin's contact with Chase Elliott's car a dirty move?
More 2,000 votes were cast in our poll, and 92.61 percent of the voters said that Hamlin's move was dirty. Only 7.39 percent voted no. And, there were more than 1,000 comments on the story alone
A few voters commented on how they felt about the situation.
Gary Adair: Hamlin's contact well before the corner entry was a extremely dirty move on a driver who clearly had the best car and a chance at his first win as a NASCAR series driver of the 24 car that has so much history at this track. I hope he looses some fans over this dirty ove on his part. If I had been Chase I would have decked him and let the cards fall where they may....
Thomas Gollick Sr Damn right it was a dirty move. He would still be crying about it if anyone did the same to him! I wouldn't accept his apology until after I put him in the wall like he did to Chase!
Misty Dakota Denny jacked up Chase going into the turn. You don't do that unless you plan to wreck/spin somebody.
Denny, go get a diaper change, put your binkie back in your mouth and grow up!!!!
But a few -- a very few -- stood up for Hamlin.
Lisa Law No it's called racing to win. Remember Stewart did the same thing to Hamelin in Sonoma. What did Denny say? I would have done the same thing to win! It's racing people it's racing!! FYI Kyle Petty is an idiot.. he talks to fans on the air like we are stupid! They should take him off the air! Hey
Mary Ann Schallert No, chase was blocking! All denny did wrong was come into corner too fast. Rookies need to get outta the way. Chase needs more track time to gain speed and respect. Haters will ruin nascar, just get over it.
Debra Shawver Nix Chase deserved it. Everybody is trying to make him such a good guy and yet he tried to cheat his way to a win. Hamlin was just getting him out of the way, did it very gracefully, only taking Elliot out.
As far as Hamlin's apology?Almost no one is buying that.
Kathy Zovistoski Panchyshyn Hamlin's pulled this kind of stunt before. He's not a clean driver & he doesn't know how to do this, so he makes up an excuse for why it happened. His so called apology came too late.
KT Walsh Yep, and he knows it, he wouldn't have apologized if he hmself didn't know it was, plus, wait till someone does it to him,payback is a bitch.
Both drivers are still in the playoffs, so there could be more fireworks between the two on Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway.