Why Did Denny Hamlin Bring Richard Childress Into His Social Media Argument?

What’s Happening?

NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin fired back at Spire Motorsports co-owner Jeff Dickerson’s viral podcast appearance on social media Thursday night. The only question some fans had was what this had to do with Richard Childress?

Yeah, okay buddy. You hired someone who stole tens of millions worth of information, lied about communications y’all had after you deleted them and now is getting paid double to work on your truck program? GTFO.
What was it you called Richard again?
Was it you who was leaking…

— Denny Hamlin (@dennyhamlin) May 1, 2026

Spire Motorsports co-owner Jeff Dickerson has not held back when talking about the team’s ongoing lawsuit with fellow NASCAR Cup Series team Joe Gibbs Racing.

This lawsuit resulted from the exit of long-time JGR Crew Chief and 2026 Competition Director Chris Gabehart, whom JGR claims misappropriated proprietary information and “trade secrets.”

Spire then hired Gabehart after his exit from JGR, and, during a Thursday appearance on Jeff Gluck’s Gluckcast podcast, Dickerson accused JGR of implying that the team would not have won last weekend’s race at Talladega without JGR information or Gabehart.

“I’ll tell you what upsets me, is that not only is Chris not in that role, but they’re minimizing what happens here. They’re minimizing the 175 people here. Like, we couldn’t win without them, right? And I don’t even just mean without Chris, they’re implying we can’t win without JGR data.” — Jeff Dickerson

Late Thursday evening, after a response from JGR co-owner Heather Gibbs, JGR driver Denny Hamlin posted a response of his own to social media, going after both Gabehart and Dickerson.

“Yeah, okay buddy. You hired someone who stole tens of millions worth of information, lied about communications y’all had after you deleted them and now is getting paid double to work on your truck program? GTFO. What was it you called Richard again? Was it you who was leaking information after RTA calls?” — Denny Hamlin

The first portion of his post left no room for questions. Fans are wondering what Hamlin was referring to later on when he said, “What was it you called Richard again?”

The 23XI Racing and NASCAR Lawsuit

That one sentence is a deep cut into recent NASCAR history, as, in 2024 and 2025, Hamlin, a co-owner of 23XI Racing, found himself embattled in a lawsuit between his team (with help from Bob Jenkins’ Front Row Motorsports) and NASCAR.

During this lawsuit, one of the major turning points came in late November, when several documents and communications related to the trial went public.

These messages, including some from Dickerson, one set, were sent to an unknown person and pertained to his appearance on Dirty Mo Media’s The Business of Motorsports podcast.

In contrast, another message sent by Dickerson appears to be the one referenced by Hamlin. In this message, Dickerson wrote:

While Dickerson just used initials in this text, it’s easy to see, given the reference to President Donald Trump, that he was referring to fellow Chevrolet team owner Richard Childress, the same Richard that Hamlin mentioned in his post to X.

Hamlin’s question to Dickerson about “Richard” did not go unnoticed by RCR, with Childress’ grandsons Austin and Ty Dillon both liking a post displaying Hamlin’s response to Dickerson on Instagram.

As of press time, Dickerson has yet to respond to Hamlin’s post, though it has now garnered over 3,000 likes and 400,000 views.

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