Martin Truex Jr. throws shade at “dirty” Denny Hamlin after Kyle Larson collision: “He kind of took it that extra little bit”

Denny Hamlin was the second Joe Gibbs Racing driver to visit victory lane in succession in the last two weeks of the NASCAR Cup Series season. The #11 Toyota Camry TRD driver won his seventh race at Pocono Raceway last weekend, the most of any Cup Series driver to date.

However, Hamlin's victory did not come without its fair share of controversy as he shoved Kyle Larson out of his way with five laps left in the 160-lap-long event. Over the past few weeks, Denny Hamlin has been involved in his fair share of on-track incidents, none of which were received in a bad light by the NASCAR fraternity.

However, the Tampa, Florida native's move on Kyle Larson for the lead of the HighPoint.com 400 last Sunday was the tipping point. Driving under the Hendrick Motorsports driver into turn 2 at Pocono, Hamlin was seen throttling up and running Larson wide, causing him to hit the outside wall.

Despite a later caution flag that saw the #5 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 driver show his displeasure by hitting him on the side of his car, Larson ended up in P21 as the race ended under yellow flag conditions. Denny Hamlin's teammate Martin Truex Jr. had a clear view of the ongoing tussle as he sat in P3 behind the leaders during the green flag running.

He gave his thoughts on how Hamlin raced Larson in an interview with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. In a clip uploaded by sportscasting.com's Kyle Dalton, Truex Jr. said:

“I’m not sure exactly what that was all about. I did exactly what Denny did, other than pushing the No. 5 car too deep in the corner and then running him in the fence off of (turn) 2. He kind of took it that extra little bit, I guess, to make it a little bit dirty. And you know, I didn’t. So maybe that’s the difference between why he won, and I didn’t.”

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Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s thoughts on Denny Hamlin's move on Kyle Larson at Pocono

Dale Earnahrdt Jr., former Cup Series driver and broadcaster for NBC Sports covering the HighPoint.com 400 last Sunday, also shared his views on Denny Hamlin's run-in with Kyle Larson at Pocono.

Earnhardt Jr. acknowledged the fact that Hamlin's move to essentially door the #5 Chevy driver was somewhat dirty. However, he thought it was acceptable as it was "for the win."

He elaborated further on his podcast Dale Jr. Download, saying:

"I agree that it was a dirty move, to throttle up and just door him. But it's for the win."

It remains to be seen how Hamlin and Larson behave around each other on the track going forward.