NASCAR News: Denny Hamlin explains explosive outburst at rival after personal betrayal

NASCAR star Denny Hamlin has explained why he took to social media to call out comments made by Spire Motorsports owner Jeff Dickerson.

Joe Gibbs Racing and Spire are currently embroiled in a lawsuit battle in court after Spire hired JGR's former Director of Competition, Chris Gabehart.

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Initially, JGR had sued Gabehart following his exit from the team during the offseason and accused him of having "embarked on a brazen scheme to steal JGR’s most sensitive information and use it for the benefit of a direct competitor in NASCAR - Spire Motorsports."

Shortly after, Spire hired Gabehart and were subsequently added to the lawsuit, although a court has prevented Gabehart from being able to share any data that was taken, and from carrying out the same duties at Spire that he held at JGR.

Earlier this week, Spire co-owner Jeff Dickerson was involved in a fiery interview regarding the legal action against his team, but Hamlin clapped back.

"Yeah, okay buddy," Hamlin wrote. "You hired someone who stole tens of millions worth of information, lied about communications y’all had after you deleted them and now is getting paid double to work on your truck program? GTFO. What was it you called Richard again? Was it you who was leaking information after RTA calls?"

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Denny Hamlin explains Jeff Dickerson outburst

Speaking to the media at Texas Motor Speedway this weekend, Hamlin revealed the emotions behind the outburst, and why he said what he said.

“Well, first it was a knee-jerk reaction,” Hamlin told reporters, including Frontstretch. “That doesn't mean I don't feel that way, but it was a little bit knee-jerk.

“I certainly felt like I knew enough of the facts to at least assert something, and I know that JGR has not ever gone after anyone. I can tell you that they don't care who else is running good or whatever. They just invest so much into this sport and technology, and Toyota as well, that you have to protect that. Otherwise, it's an arms race. You know, if we didn't protect very important key employees with non-competes and things like that, it would be an arms race.

“I would just go to someone in Hendrick, maybe Chad Knaus [HMS VP of Competition], and say, ‘I’ll give you 10 million bucks a year, bring everything with you.’ That's just not the way that it can operate, right? So, I just think that this is a very important process in our sport.

“[If you] Quietly talk to the other team's, intellectual property is something that has to be protected because it's just way too valuable. Again, I know what JGR spend to make their cars go around and it is an astronomical amount, and they deserve to keep that information to themselves.”

Hamlin continued, explaining why he felt the need to hit out on this occasion despite being so measured on the subject previously.

“I felt like you [Dickerson] went after the family,” Hamlin explained. “And JGR’s family is my family. So that's where the knee-jerk is.”

Hamlin feels personally betrayed

With Gabehart having previously been Hamlin’s crew chief, the pair had a personal relationship. Add to that the fact that a lot of the information at the heart of the lawsuit was put together with Hamlin’s input, which makes it all the more personal for Denny.

“I mentioned many, many times that, you know, obviously, some of the things that have already been agreed that was taken is stuff that I put hours and days and weeks and years into,” Hamlin continued.

“I just couldn't fathom giving that to someone else for free. So that’s where to me, it just strikes hard, because when you see setups and stuff, I was a piece of the puzzle, not the whole puzzle, but there were a lot of people that contributed to that, and they deserve to have that information to themselves.”

Asked by a reporter if there was a sense of personal betrayal, Hamlin would not be drawn into commenting, but did nod his head twice to indicate a yes.