Dale Earnhardt Jr. compares Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson incident at Pocono to his father’s racing days: “It ain’t scripted, this is all authentic”

Any form of motorsports in the world, be it NASCAR or F1, needs a character to bring the whole show to life, and Denny Hamlin seems to be doing just that for stock car racing. Just as Ross Chastain managed to grab the world's eyeballs last year for one of the most insane moves in NASCAR history, Hamlin seems to be in his 'villain era' as they seem to call it these days.

Running one of the sport's most popular champions into the wall to visit the victory lane at Pocono Raceway does seem to solidify that argument. Now that the dust has settled on last Sunday's Cup Series race, people can finally start to look at the bigger picture of what an incident like Hamlin's and Larson's means for NASCAR as a whole.

Former driver turned analyst for NBC Sports, Dale Earnahrdt Jr. was one of the first to point it out. Elaborating on his popular podcast, The Dale Jr. Download, he said:

"I grew up in the eighties watching Dad (Dale Earnhardt) run over everybody and we loved it. We wanted it. We expected it. There's a little seriousness to that, there's some honesty to that. That’s where we were, not long ago. It ain’t scripted, this is all authentic. This is exactly what I love about NASCAR."

Listen to the complete podcast below:

Whether you agree with Denny Hamlin's move on Kyle Larson from last weekend or not, it is hard to argue with Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s point of view.

Kyle Busch shares his views on how Denny Hamlin raced Kyle Larson last Sunday

Kyle Busch, former teammate of Denny Hamlin at Joe Gibbs Racing, had his own take on what went on between the #11 Toyota and #5 Chevrolet driver at Pocono Raceway last weekend.

Elaborating on what has been a trend in the sport for the past few years now, Kyle Busch talked about how 'messing' with the other drivers is becoming a popular strategy.

He said in an interview with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio:

"Could Denny have done it differently and raced it out and raced it clean? Sure. You have to mess up the guy you're racing. You have to push him out of the groove. It's just a different form of racing. I don't know whether you call it dirty or whether you call it greedy. I think it's both of those things."

Watch Denny Hamlin try and take on the competition this weekend at Richmond Raceway.