Here’s Why Denny Hamlin Is NASCAR’s New Villain
Denny Hamlin won the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway on Sunday by saving fuel, but he had plenty left to fire up the crowd afterward.
After watching his closest challenger William Byron run out of fuel on the penultimate lap and taking the checkered flag, Hamlin got out of his car for his front stretch interview, looked at the crowd and said, “daddy, I’m sorry, but I beat your favorite driver, folks,” clarifying that he was referring to “all of them.”
It was a callback to a line first used when he won at Bristol during the 2023 playoffs in front of a booing crowd. He later revealed his father told him that he wasn’t a fan of the line, but Hamlin has leaned into his villain status this season as he picked up three wins at age 44. He said there’s a reason for it.
“It’s a lot of fun for me. I love making people feel a certain way. Positive or negative, I do not care. All the fans that I’ve been face to face with have been very respectful. What they say outside on the other side of the fence, free rein. Do whatever you want to do, say whatever you want to say. They’ve been very respectful in the small arena,” the Joe Gibbs Racing driver said during his post-race press conference.
“I do have a lot of fun with it. I do thrive on it just simply because you feel like you’ve got 60,000 people that are rooting against you. When you have that, it just feels really, really good and gratifying to prove them wrong. I love that feeling. It makes these wins more gratifying to me.”
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Hamlin and former villain Kyle Busch discussed the topic on Hamlin’s “Actions Detrimental” podcast recently and Busch, who’s been struggling lately, said it’s a lot easier to be the villain when you’re winning.
After winning at Martinsville in March, Hamlin got on top of his car and held up a fan-made sign that said “11 against the world.” He later explained, “If I can’t [expletive deleted] talk, it takes away my superpower. I’m not nearly as good.”
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Hamlin now has 57 career wins, which is just three shy of tying Kevin Harvick for 10th place on the all-time list. Hamlin, who has never won a championship, has said making the top 10 is his top goal before he retires.
“If I do, then I’m going to put myself in the mid 60s in wins. I got to count on possibly [Joey] Logano, more than likely [Kyle] Larson overtaking us in wins. You got to budget for at least a couple of these guys that started so much younger than I did to beat us on the win total,” he said.