RICHMOND: Despite Denny Hamlin hailing from right down the road in Chesterfield, Virginia, calling the driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota a hometown hero appears to be lost on the crowds at Richmond Raceway.
Just like Santa Claus at Philadelphia Eagles games, Hamlin is booed by the locals. Even a Victory Lane photo of the 43-year-old racer posted on the tunnel from the grandstands to the infield at the track was defaced with a goatee.
Although he has amassed 52 NASCAR Cup wins, including four at the .75-mile track, Hamlin gets no respect in Richmond.
“I used to beat up their favorite drivers in the short track days, too, that’s why,” Hamlin said with a laugh, playing off of his ‘I beat your favorite driver—all of them,’ comment following his Bristol Night Race win last year.
“I just don’t mind it. I really don’t. It’s just noise. It’s noise. There were many moments mid-career where there were just claps. And it’s like, ‘Hmm. That’s not a needle mover one way or another.”
So Hamlin embraced his role as NASCAR’s heel. Whether it’s his playful banter with the fans at the track, through media interaction or during his Actions Detrimental podcast—named for the sanctioning body penalizing the driver for his brutally honest responses—Hamlin is far from vanilla.
Even NASCAR president Steve Phelps said during his pre-season comments on a FOX Sports interview that he wished the sport had 36 Denny Hamlin’s—or at least competitors comfortable enough in their own skin to exude personality.
Maybe Hamlin is just a victim of his own undeniable talent.
“A lot of it comes just with success as well,” Hamlin said. “If you’re a contender each and every week, you’re going to get more noise, typically. I’ve had so many altercations with really popular drivers, and that just kind of fuels it as well.”
Hamlin doesn’t shy away from making his point on the track when he feels a competitor has wronged him, from NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver Chase Elliott—as well as Elliott’s Hendrick Motorsports teammates Alex Bowman, William Byron and Kyle Larson—to Joey Logano and Ross Chastain, Other than the JGR stable, no racer is immune.
“Certainly, I’ve checked all the boxes of things that fans despise. We’ve seen one previous driver of Joe Gibbs Racing (Kyle Busch), he just changes teams and all of the sudden he’s more liked.
“When you have all the things that I’ve got in the box of negativity checked, you’re just going to have to live that life.”
Hamlin shows no signs of slowing down on the track or off. If he wasn’t infamous enough, Hamlin gained notoriety as one of the stars of the Netflix 2023 series NASCAR: Full Speed which documented the Cup Playoffs. While Hamlin didn’t advance to the Championship 4, he finished fifth in the standings for the second consecutive year.
The program also highlighted 23XI Racing, the team he co-owns with Michael Jordan, fielding cars for drivers Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace. The team recently moved into its new AirSpeed headquarters, a state-of-the-art facility north of Charlotte, N.C.
Hamlin’s first points victory of 2024 came at Bristol Motor Speedway two races ago. In 19 seasons of full-time Cup competition, Hamlin has won every year but 2018. Although Hamlin has led the most laps in Cup competition over the first six races of 2024, he feels the No.11 must concentrate on accumulating playoff points. Hamlin has one stage win and six playoff points—only Byron, Larson and Christopher Bell have more.
“We would like to add 14 points in the next three races,” Hamlin said. “We’ve got six right now, so we’ve got to get on it.”
While Hamlin might not feel the love at Richmond Raceway, it’s a great track for the driver to begin his points quest. In the last five years, the driver has collected one win, six stage wins and stage points in eight of the 10 races.
“I love it,” Hamlin said of Richmond. “This is a track where we are starting to get into the swing of the tracks where we are going to be contenders every week. This kind of kicks off that part of the schedule. I think we all kind of know where we are at now. We are six races in. We know what our strengths are. We know what our weaknesses are, and now we just have to capitalize when we go to tracks like this that we are always contenders.
“It is going to be an execution game. It is not going to be a speed game. We will have that. It is making sure we execute. With the pit crew I have this year, they’ve been on it. I feel like our speed has been as good as it’s ever been. We are running inside the top-five more than we ever have, even though we have not finished there quite yet. I feel pretty good about it.
“I’m excited for this race. All week I’ve been excited to get here and kind of see where we stack up.”
Follow Lee Spencer on Twitter @CandiceSpencer or email her at: [email protected].
