Empathy is complicated in a results-based business like NASCAR

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Not everyone feels the same way, though.

“I don’t feel bad for these guys,” said Chastain, who had the rare exception for Hamlin. “I feel happy for some of them. … I get excited for guys. I don’t really feel bad for them.

“I’m a professional loser. I’ve lost more races before I won — definitely before I won my first race in each series — than most of these guys. Yeah, I don’t feel bad for them when they lose because been there, done that. Most of them have not lost as many times before they’ve won and most of them, I don’t believe, would have kept going as long as I did.”

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. admitted he was thrilled for his buddy Larson last fall, but he is also friends with Hamlin and felt for his loss. It was the exception to Stenhouse’s adamant stance of, “I never really feel bad for anybody.” He believes that other drivers would probably say the same thing.

NASCAR is a sport rooted in community, as the same participants race every weekend and often stay within feet of each other in the infield motorhome compound. Although often called a traveling circus, industry members, from drivers, teams and crew members, do become quite familiar with each other and for the most part, Stenhouse said, get along.

Regardless, the focus needs to be on your team. It’s why Smith feels it’s rare that a driver feels genuine sympathy for someone else.

“It’s hard to have close friends in this industry because we’re all competing against each other every week,” Smith said. “But in that scenario [with Hamlin] where I’m not competing for a championship, and I don’t have a teammate that’s competing for it, and you see what unfolded at the end of the race, you’re like, ‘Holy cow.'”

Yes, racing is a selfish business. A racer’s livelihood is dependent on results. The dominant emotion is usually dictated by one’s own successes or failures, but there are times, rare it seems, when feeling something, something big in the case of Hamlin, outside their own bubble can break through.