#11 crew chief Mike Wheeler discusses NASCAR retaliation

Mike Wheeler on Chase Elliott: “I thought he’d grown up enough to just move on”

Two weeks ago, Denny Hamlin dumped Chase Elliott for the lead at Martinsville Speedway.

Heading into Phoenix, Denny Hamlin and crew didn’t expect retaliation. Hamlin stated, “I’m not worried. Everyone up front is professionals and we all have the one job to do. That’s to win.”

But, it happened at Phoenix Raceway. At the very next short track on the schedule, Chase Elliott put Denny Hamlin in the wall.

Mike Wheeler
#11 Crew Chief

“It’s easy to look at that afterward and say, ‘You knew Chase was gunna wreck ya.’ You know, I thought it was over and done with.” Mike Wheeler tells Sirius XM NASCAR Radio.

Watch the video below.

“You know, the way Chase handled himself at Texas — He didn’t wreck us. He raced us hard and got into the back bumper of us a couple times.”

“Even in Phoenix, I thought he’d grown up enough to just move on. Realize Denny had an incident, an accident. He didn’t mean to wreck him at Martinsville.”

Chase couldn’t get over it

-Mike Wheeler

“But, Chase couldn’t get over it. So, as much as we didn’t want to race Chase that way… He wanted to retaliate. That’s his purgative.”

“I hate it for our guys. Cause as the #11 car group, we didn’t do anything. He took that away from us. But, that’s part of it and we’ll move on.”