Danica Patrick, Denny Hamlin Exchange Words Following Budweiser Duels 2015

Danica Patrick and Denny Hamlin were involved in a couple of collisions during the buildup to Sunday's Daytona 500. They exchanged words after the second one Thursday, at the Budweiser Duels, due to differing opinions about how the situation played out.

Jared Turner of Fox Sports reports Patrick believes an overaggressive style of racing by Hamlin is causing the problems. The driver of the No. 11 car thinks a loose setup is causing the issues when he attempts to draft.

Patrick said he's cutting it too close while drafting:

"

Here we are in the race and I'm seeing him in my mirror and he's so tucked up underneath me, so close. I get being close, but he is then going to my left rear. It just gets it light and it spun around. I don't want to have these issues, but if we are going to have these issues then we are going to have to deal with them. We can't be putting ourselves out of the race on someone else's expense.

"

Hamlin insists he didn't make contact to cause the spinout:

"

No contact made her spin. I just said, "You've got to tighten her car up." I can't predict who has a loose setup or not. I mean, we're superspeedway racing. I treat her as equal as anyone on the racetrack. She deserves her spot here, but you have to be able to run close to somebody on a superspeedway.

"

Afterward, he took to social media to provide some clarification:

For a short time, it appeared the incident might end up costing Patrick a spot in the Daytona 500. The damage wasn't enough to keep her from returning to the race, though, so she returned to the Duel and earned a spot in the field, finishing 10th.

That wasn't enough to prevent Patrick from speaking out. Looking ahead, it will be interesting to see what type of changes the No. 10 team makes to the car for race day since it had a couple of close calls already.

It's hard to imagine Hamlin, or any other driver, taking it easy during the Great American Race.