Got beef?
Kyle Petty and Denny Hamlin certainly do.
It all started when Petty spoke out on Hamlin's role at Joe Gibbs Racing and suggested that he should sit out the remainder of the 2013 season and focus on healing his lower back that was injured in a crash at Auto Club Speedway.
"He's talked about being the face of Joe Gibbs Racing," Petty said. "I think he's got a little bit of the '(Brad Keselowski) syndrome' in him right now. He's not relevant to the sport right now as far as the Chase and what's going on in the Chase and winning the championship."
"It is what it is, and he needs to focus on next year, get his body back together and come back and have a shot at winning next year."
Hamlin fired back, tweeting "Kyle Petty is a moron."
Kyle petty is a moron. “@Kenny_Wallace: THIS ....“@tomjensen100: Now, @dennyhamlin says all his focus in on next year. @JoeGibbsRacing””
— Denny Hamlin (@dennyhamlin) August 4, 2013
After crashing out of the race at Pocono, Hamlin was asked about his disagreement with Petty.
"He's an analyst, but not a very informative one because he doesn't know anything," Hamlin stated. "My beef with Kyle is he has a lot of opinions about a lot of drivers, but he never once talked to any of them. To be an analyst you've got to be in the trenches to find out the stories."
What made Hamlin most upset? False accusations.
"It's just saying I thought I was the face of JGR. What I really said was I was the face of FedEx and the No. 11 team."
Petty would ultimately admit that he misinterpreted Hamlin's comments and was at fault for sparking the argument.
"If you are going to run your mouth, if you are going to dish it out, you gotta take it, and the bone of contention here is that Denny is 100 percent right," Petty told the Associated Press. "I can take it, I can say that I'm wrong and that I misinterpreted what Denny said."
All is right in the world, right?
Not quite.
Petty wanted to take a few final jabs at Hamlin, stating, "I know more about this sport than you'll ever know about this sport."
Perhaps this all stems from their feud at Dover International Speedway in 2007, where Petty and Hamlin's on-track altercation spilled into the garage after the race.
