By: Ashley McCubbin

When you are a lap or more down, there is a certain etiquette the leaders expect you to follow when you catch them. In the eyes of some, Joey Logano did not follow that on Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway, and Bristol may tell the tale of why he did not.

With 30 laps to go in the Dixie Vodka 400, Denny Hamlin had closed the gap between himself and Elliott, ready to pounce for the lead. At the same time, they had come up on the back of Logano, who was already scored a lap down. Rather than move to the side and allow the battle for the top spot to partake uninvolved, Logano battled tightly with the pair, before ultimately going a second lap down. In the process, Hamlin was able to get by Elliott, drive off and win the event.

The art of lap cars in what they are supposed to do in these situations varies for each competitor within the driver’s etiquette code they expect each other to follow. One rule of thought is the lap down cars should allow the leaders to go by, while other state there’s no harm or no foul as long as they hold their line. Then there’s some who believe the lap car should continue to push as hard – just like Logano did on Sunday.

Though there are some whom wonder if Logano simply pushed the envelope because it was Elliott behind him. Recall the pair tangled up together at Bristol just a couple weeks ago.

Following a late-race restart, Elliott would challenge Joey Logano for the lead, getting alongside him off of turn two with a slight brush of contact. The pair would head into the following corner, with the No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet sliding up into the No. 22 Ford Mustang, with Logano making contact the wall. Essentially, he took both of them out of contention – handing the victory over to Brad Keselowski.

The pair then exchanged words following the event, with Logano referring to Elliott as being “childish” due to feeling as though he had to force an apology.

When questioned about Logano holding him up in the late stages on Sunday, Elliott did not reference his fellow competitor in any form. Instead, he stuck to his own guns in saying, “I just need to get through lap traffic better.”

Hamlin, meanwhile, did not hold back when he was questioned about the matter post-race.

“I’m sure that Joey probably ran him pretty hard there. I think most people would, given the Bristol situation.  You almost as a driver kind of got to expect it,” he said. “The way I saw it, he was very generous to me.  That’s all I know.  I appreciated that.  I don’t think he really ran Chase hard.  He just didn’t let Chase clear.”

Hamlin was then questioned in what he feels the proper etiquette is for handling lap cars, to which he says it all depends on the situation in the event.

“I think when you’re getting down to the end, if you’re multiple laps down, sure, you’re probably going to give the spot up a little bit easier,” he commented. “Some of these guys are battling to stay on the lead lap.  Say it’s 20 to go, they’re in a pack with two or three guys that they’re racing to try to stay on the lead lap, they’re going to race you hard.  It’s up to you as the leader to be fast enough to get around them.

“That’s probably a little bit of what Chase was talking about, as well.  I just got to get better through traffic.”

Ultimately, though, Hamlin feels it played no role in changing the outcome with how fast he was able to close the gap between himself and Elliott prior to then.

“I saw him getting tight there, kind of struggling way before he got to the 22,” he added. “Lap traffic is just part of racing.  You got to have a car that works in multiple lanes so you can pass them.  I think that’s what our strong suit was, to be able to go to the bottom, make passes, run the same lap time no matter where we were on the racetrack.”

While Hamlin celebrates tonight, there could be more to come between Elliott and Logano with the sport’s next rivalry slowly brewing.

After all, Elliott did not hold back during a pre-race Q&A session hosted by his sponsor Hooters with some fans.