In 2005, a rookie making his debut at Kansas Speedway, Denny Hamlin could hardly have imagined the love-hate relationship he’d forge with NASCAR’s fan base. He wasn’t the fan favorite when he started racing. In the early 2000s, the likes of Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson ruled that space. But just when he started racking up those Daytona 500 wins and multiple championship 4 appearances, his equation with the fans changed. The boos intensified notably after the 2017 Martinsville race where he wrecked Chase Elliott, and that hasn’t changed in the last seven years.

Fans already had a villain in Kyle Busch, who would wind the crowd up with his pre- and post-race antics. But ever since he joined the Chevy camp at RCR, Hamlin seems to have taken up that mantle, and he certainly likes rubs it in the faces of the fans who pelt him with boos and jeers. He was back at it last weekend at Michigan after bagging his 57th career win. Defying his dad’s advice, he taunted the fans in the grandstand with his infamous tagline. “I beat your favorite driver.” But, is there a reason behind these antics, and will this equation remain as it is until he retires?

Denny Hamlin gives what he receives

Denny Hamlin’s antagonism isn’t impulsive—it’s industrial. “I always give the fans the first opportunity to show me where they’re at,” he told Kevin Harvick on Victory Lap, framing fan hostility as a tactical trigger. “I don’t try to antagonize them until I get some sort of reaction. Then it’s my turn for a rebuttal. If they’re allowed to boo, then I should be allowed to antagonize them. So I think that’s the only thing that’s fair. So, it is fun.”

Denny Hamlin’s edge often sharpens when the boos grow louder. At Bristol in 2023, he took the lead on Lap 269 and never gave it up, capturing the win after leading 142 laps. In Victory Lane, he delivered one of his most defiant quotes to date. “I beat your favorite driver. All of them.” Fans had booed him during intros and after the race, prompting Hamlin to call them “entitled.” This wasn’t an isolated moment; he’s long shown a knack for converting hostility into performance. While no official stats track fan reactions, his recent pattern is telling. On high-boo nights like Bristol 2023 or Michigan 2025, Hamlin seemed to thrive under pressure. As he once noted, “When they’re loud, it means I’m doing something right.”

The method fuels results. Hamlin tied his performance directly to fan energy “I said to my team this morning, I was like, you know, winning is so fun. We should do it more often. Like, it really is. And it just, it makes you feel good.” The numbers back that up: he’s won three out of the first fifteen races this season, mirroring his hot start in 2023. Interestingly, this friction between him and the fans is only restricted to the racetrack. For instance, take the horsepower debate or issues with the superspeedway style racing in the Next Gen car, fans have rallied behind Hamlin’s advocacy. 

“I think that, in my opinion, when you had Elton go on [SiriusXM] last week, [and] talk about superspeedway racing and say, ‘I don’t understand, what do we have to fix? Look at the stats that we’ve got for this week. We had 67 lead changes and whatever.’ I think you lose some credibility with the fans. And I think the fans have a low morale right now due to their lack of faith in the competition leadership,” the JGR driver said. And guess what, NASCAR is finally addressing all the issues and is in the process of increasing the horsepower on the engines. But, apart from racing, Hamlin has been invested in his personal life and pulling off a balancing act for the past two weeks.

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Hamlin will miss the Mexico race to welcome his baby boy

Hamlin and fiancée Jordan Fish have been on baby watch for two weeks. Xfinity Series driver Ryan Truex has been on standby for the JGR team in case they need a replacement. But this week, Hamlin can’t make a trip back home in case Jordan goes into labor. Thursday is the deadline when the driver of the #11 car is supposed to fly to Mexico City for the International race, the first points race outside the US since 1958.

But this weekend, the JGR driver is focused on his family commitments and will miss the trip down south if need be. “I said from the very beginning, if she hasn’t had it by the time I need to leave for Mexico, then I’m not going to go to Mexico. I need to be there for her, during, post-(birth) and all those things. Just going to make sure I spend the proper time with her, and obviously the racing will come second this week,” Hamlin said on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio.

With three wins already this year, the playoff spot is sealed for Denny Hamlin. And missing a points race due to a family emergency is covered under the new waiver rules. Given that the driver has the provision of using a free pass this week, he will make use of it to be there with his family.