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NASCAR star Denny Hamlin is off to about as good a star to the 2024 season as he could have possibly hoped for.
Hamlin already has two wins in the season’s first seven races and currently sits third in the series standings as he looks to track down his first Cup Series championship.
But that doesn’t mean that Hamlin, perhaps the series’ most polarizing driver, is any less likely to speak his mind when he sees something that he doesn’t like.
That’s what happened Thursday night (and early Friday morning) when Hamlin remarked upon the condition of the newly repaved Sonoma Raceway.
When paving on a budget goes wrong. NWB will be next. https://t.co/pXcqrFCXMW
— Denny Hamlin (@dennyhamlin) April 5, 2024
“When paving on a budget goes wrong. NWB will be next,” Hamlin tweeted.
NWB refers to North Wilkesboro Speedway, the legendary track which the series returned to for last year’s All-Star Race after over two decades away.
Both Sonoma and North Wilkesboro are owned and operated by Speedway Motorsports, which owns 11 tracks on the NASCAR calendar.
North Wilkesboro, like Sonoma, was repaved between last year and this year’s scheduled event.
Speedway Motorsports CEO Marcus Smith didn’t take long to fire back at Hamlin in a since-deleted tweet, according to TobyChristie.com.
“This is a great post from somebody who doesn’t know all the information. Ignorance on display for the world to see! (I will delete this tweet when @DennyHamlin sends me a text or gives me a call directly to ask why this is happening.),” Smith wrote.
Hamlin wasted no time responding the tweet, saying “You don’t need to delete. We’ve seen your reconfig record.”
At which point, Smith seemingly relented.
Following up on my previous posts,
I take a lot of pride in the dedication and hard work our teammates put forth to make @NASCAR the very best it can be and I shouldn’t let social media conversations get personal, so I deleted those posts.@dennyhamlin is a passionate driver and…— Marcus Smith (@MarcusSMI) April 5, 2024
Denny Hamlin And Marcus Smith Get Personal In Twitter Beef
But in another deleted tweet, Smith replied to Hamlin directly, saying “Yes we take risks, sometimes they work sometimes they don’t. We’ve seen your attempt of the championship as well. When you have a chance, maybe you could give me some golf tips.”
BURN.
Denny Hamlin, however, doesn’t lose Twitter feuds.
“Here’s your tip. Let someone else run your business before you blow everything your dad gave you,” Hamlin wrote in a since-deleted Tweet of his own.
Smith inherited SMI from his father Bruton, who passed away in June on 2022.
Eventually, Hamlin walked his comments back a bit.
Ill cosign this. I’ll definitely take responsibility for my part in it. It got more personal than it should have for sure. https://t.co/ppcqp0HlGo
— Denny Hamlin (@dennyhamlin) April 5, 2024
But it doesn’t seem like the two will be spending any time on the golf course or at dinner with one another anytime soon.