"All's fair in love and war":  When Denny Hamlin reacted to Tony Stewart door-slamming him in final NASCAR win 

Heading into the final season of his NASCAR career in 2016, Tony Stewart had a long winless streak. The last time the 3x Cup champion had been to the victory lane was all the way back at Dover in June 2013.

However, at Sonoma in June 2016, Stewart ended the 84-game draught that stretched all the way back to 84 races. But that win came at the cost of his former teammate, Denny Hamlin.

As the #11 driver slid up high into the hairpin of the final corner, the #14 driver saw the opportunity, drove inside of him, door-slammed him into the wall, and took the lead in the penultimate corner of the penultimate lap. That win would turn out to be Tony Stewart's last in the sport.

Speaking about the win, Tony Stewart said:

"It's special, trust me. I made mistakes the last two laps. I had just a little too much rear brake for turn 7 and wheel-hopped it two laps in a row. "I felt a nudge ... he did the right thing doing it there, and if I could get to him he knew what was coming."

As for his side of the events, Denny Hamlin admitted that he didn't wheel hop, but just slid up the track in the middle and allowed Tony Stewart to get 'a good run' on him. Here's what Hamlin said:

"Once he had position we weren't going to drag race at that point. I knew he was going to put me in the wall. He's doing what he has to do and we were trying to do what we had to do in turn 7 so all's fair in love and war."

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Denny Hamlin emphasized that he didn't just let Tony Stewart win at Sonoma

Following Tony Stewart's win at Sonoma at the expense of Denny Hamlin, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver reiterated that he didn't let his ex-teammate simply walk over him for the win. Hamlin claimed that Stewart's win and the fact that the #14 driver passed him was down to him making a mistake.

He said:

"I didn't let Tony win. I made a mistake. I didn't execute very good. ... He had an opportunity, he took it. If I'm in his situation, I'd probably do it the same. My biggest mistake, I feel like, is not recognizing the gap that I had behind me. I don't know whether Tony would have got there or not. I felt that it would have been very close if he really wanted to carry the car down there whether he still would have gotten to me or not. But I still needed to execute to make him make that decision. Instead, I kind of made the decision for him."

Hamlin defended himself, mentioning that while he shouldn't have made that mistake, he had never been in such a position before. He admitted that he wasn't the most prolific driver on road courses, and therefore, didn't know the 'proper defensive move' heading into the last corner.

On the other hand, the driver he was up against, Tony Stewart, is the driver with the second most road course wins (8) in the history of NASCAR.