Ricky Stenhouse Jr. on gentlemen's agreement in racing: 'We're friends ... but we also have a lot of respect'

CONCORD, N.C. — There’s an old phrase in NASCAR that Darrell Waltrip often floated when broadcasting a race: “coopetition.”

Cooperation meets competition. We’re still battling each other, but let’s not hold each other up either.

Plenty has changed in NASCAR over the last 25 years, but Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Denny Hamlin rehashed that old gentlemen’s agreement during Sunday’s Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway.

MORE: Talladega schedule | Cup standings

Hamlin was leading as Stage 1 drew to a close, lapping past Stenhouse’s No. 47 Hyak Motorsports Chevrolet. In tow was Todd Gilliland, whose No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford kept pace with Hamlin but was also one lap in arrears. Ever conscious of the race’s dynamics, Hamlin keyed in to what was playing out.

The first car one lap down at the time of the caution flag gets a free pass to get back onto the lead lap, formerly referred to as the “lucky dog award.” With Gilliland hot on Hamlin’s tail and his friend Stenhouse in need of a favor, Hamlin threw Stenhouse a bone:

“Let him (Gilliland) know I’m going to give it to him,” Hamlin said. “I’m going to give it to him so I can give Ricky the lucky dog.”

And thus, as the three exited Turn 4 on the final lap of Stage 1, Gilliland scooted past Hamlin to remain on the lead lap, and Hamlin took the green-checkered flag to win Stage 1, all while Stenhouse was able to slot into position as the first car one lap down and receive the free pass to begin Stage 2 on the lead lap.

“When I got into the sport, I mean, I would say everybody raced that way,” Stenhouse explained Wednesday at the NASCAR Productions Facility. “Now that a lot (of drivers) have retired since I started in this sport, a lot of that has gone away. But Denny’s one of those guys that he’s always looking at the long game. And we’re buddies, but he knows that, if things come around, that I will help him out given the opportunity.

“Do I want to get lapped by Denny all the time? No, but if he’s leading the race and I can help him out, I will, just because he looks out for me as well. Those are the things that have always been part of NASCAR since I got into the sport that have definitely gone away for the most part.”

That portion of driver etiquette largely fell out of vogue over time. Prior to 2003, protocol was to race back to the yellow flag at the start/finish line rather than freezing the field at the time of caution. As such, leaders would often lay over to allow nearby lapped traffic to get back onto the lead lap before taking the yellow flag. That went away in the fall of 2003 when the running order was frozen at the time of caution, but drivers still exercised discretion at certain points of the race: If you’re faster than me now, go ahead — but I expect the favor returned when the shoe’s on the other foot.

The sport became more cutthroat over the years with things like stage points and playoff berths on the line at the cost of a single position on track. But some drivers, like Stenhouse and Hamlin, still find that balance on any given Sunday.

“We’re friends off the track, but we also have a lot of respect for each other,” Stenhouse said. “I know that there’s people that are like, ‘Hey, you can’t have friends at the race track. You want to go beat them.’ But they clearly didn’t grow up playing sports in the backyard with your friends. You wanted to beat and kill everybody that you could because we’re competitive. Denny and I playing golf together, we’re friends, but I want to beat him really bad. So you can have friends and be out on the race track no problem. I mean, I grew up again wanting to win everything that I played because I’m super competitive. And I know Denny’s the same way.”

It all comes full circle at a track like Talladega Superspeedway, where the Cup Series will race on Sunday (3 p.m. ET, FOX, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Drivers rely on pushes from their competitors to stay in the draft and work toward the front of the field, forcing the competition to fraternize in an effort to mutually benefit each other.

“He’s not gonna let me win Talladega,” Stenhouse laughed. “I’ve actually drafted a lot with Denny and some of those guys. Especially before he started 23XI, (Toyota) had four cars and we were sometimes the odd man out in our group, and so we would pit with them very often and had good success with that. They needed more numbers and there was times that that definitely benefited us. So it just kind of depends on where you shake out on the race track. … But yeah, I mean, you have people that give you favors for sure at all different race tracks.”

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Denny Hamlin race in the NASCAR Cup Series.

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