When Denny Hamlin rolled into the Victory Lane at the Coca-Cola 600 in 2022, you knew it was special. 600 miles of pure racing action that started and ended with the No. 11 in first place. But that doesn’t tell the whole story, does it? In fact, as the race unfolded, Hamlin looked far from the winner. As Larson and Dillon fought it out in the closing moments of the race, their duel into Turn 4 wiped out 8 cars off the field, and the No. 11 sniffed a win. Going against his teammate in Kyle Busch, Hamlin only managed to beat him by 0.014 seconds! His first win at Charlotte, and he was invulnerable. And when we went back to Charlotte last weekend, we saw those shades in Hamlin when he fought William Byron, this time not because of a crash, but because of his skill, only for it all to collapse on the pit road. This time, Denny is feeling the pain of the loss.

Despite running a good second half of the race at Charlotte Motor Speedway and frequently keeping pace with Rick Hendrick’s William Byron, Denny walked away with more questions than answers. Finally, clearing the No. 24 car for the lead, he couldn’t maintain the position. “The leader was disadvantaged,” said Hamlin. The 4-worded dejection was evident in his frustration after the race in the episode Actions Detrimental, where he solved all the doubts that people held against him.

For Hamlin, there was a different problem plaguing his car. As he explained, the Next-Gen car suffers when low on fuel, the car loses downforce. And in turn, Hamlin suffered against Byron. “I was always able to keep pace with Byron and really be right on his ass the entire second half of the race but it’s where my car was best. Now he did a good job, kind of arrow blocking at times, but I felt like, okay when we worked him over and finally got to the lead, my balance instantly shifted quite a bit, and next thing you know, I was loose. I was fighting the same thing that he was fighting when I was right behind him…We saw it a bunch of times where like Byron would come down take my line and it would just make my car just shoot up the racetrack. That is still a major issue, but it didn’t allow you to get away. Once you got out front, in the long run, typically somebody was coming and catching you because your balance would go loose.”

The battle was evident in the final stage of the race. Hamlin and Byron emerged as the dominant contenders. If you see the battle, the difference between the two was minute, less than 0.2 seconds between the two drivers. But every time they fought, you could see Byron closing the door on a potential move for the No. 11. The only time there was an opening, the JGR driver capitalized. On Lap 262, Hamlin finally made his pass, going down the middle line while Byron held the outside. But even with the lead, Hamlin didn’t look settled. On Lap 281, as the No. 24 pushed along the outside, Hamlin had to stay careful, going across the middle to ensure he didn’t lose control of the car.

But there was another issue. Byron exited the pit lane slightly ahead of Hamlin, and the latter had to lift to avoid contact on the narrow road exit. From that moment, the two exchanged pressure on the Speedway, but it was Byron who held firm, while Hamlin had to wrestle with a car that no longer felt like it could make him win. “I mean, he had his strengths, I had my strengths and that’s why he kept seeing us go back and forth,” Hamlin reminisced. “We were very equal, and so I thought that, I don’t need to risk my race and crashing here on the apron, when I think I’m going to get another shot.”

Outside of the battle, it wasn’t just Hamlin who admitted to struggles. “Once we had gotten to the front and had the lead for a little bit, the mileage was a little worse than what we anticipated,” Gayle explained. “We had one can that was gonna be close, and then the mileage was a little worse, and we knew, ‘OK, if we get the lead here, we’re going to need a little bit of a second can.’ So we just needed an extra half a gallon from a second can. And so they normally split that.”

The tension started rising further after a crucial pit stop sequence. Both drivers hit the pit road on Lap 348 of 400, but a misstep on what should have been Hamlin’s final pit stop eliminated the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota from contention. Hamlin’s crew chief, Chris Gayle, and the rest of his team quickly realized a fueling issue prevented approximately four gallons from getting into their Toyota’s fuel tank, leaving Hamlin 12 laps short of the checkered flag.

Despite this, Hamlin held strong with his team, saying, “I’m the driver…It’s not my job to yell at the offensive lineman. I get it that the quarterback does sometimes. But…they’re trying. It’s not like they’re trying to s—- up, it happens sometimes. I have an issue because I know what has happened to me.” Ultimately, none of them got to go down the victory lane as Byron finished 2nd and Hamlin finished 16th on the points table, with Ross Chastain taking home the trophy and extra points. Well, we can say that, if not the two, at least someone else got to experience the benefit of that contention.

Denny Hamlin calls out HMS fans, accusing him of sabotaging Byron

Despite the loss of first-place position for both drivers, controversies arose regarding Hamlin supposedly hindering Byron‘s path to success. Calling out specific HMS fans who accused Hamlin of this notion, Hamlin did not mince his words, rather letting it all out, uncensored. “What the f— are people watching? I was behind him [Byron] when he stepped on his d—,” said Hamlin.

During Hamlin’s fuel misfortune at the unscheduled pit stop, many pointed out that upon reentry into the Speedway, the Toyota Camry XSE driver was ahead of Byron’s car, despite being several laps down and having no chance of winning. On the other hand, Ross Chastain’s #1 backup Chevrolet was catching up to Byron. Since Hamlin was no longer in contention, he allowed both the leader and the second-place car to overtake him into Turn 1 by lifting more than necessary to make the corner.

“What are these people watching?” said Hamlin, exasperated by the question. “How can I hold him [Byron] up when I’m behind him? How can people be that dumb? If you said that, you’re an idiot. I mean, that is asinine.” In reality, Byron lost due to another lapped car driven by Joey Logano, which further caused him to lose momentum and ultimately caused him to land 2nd on the podium.

Fans’ conception of Hamlin as the NASCAR villain may have fueled such reactions. His reputation for aggressive tactics and blunt honesty often makes him a centre for criticism, adding more heat to NASCAR battles on the field.