One Tony Stewart fan finally had the moment. He saw his hero up close after an SRX heat race, and so instinctively he leaned in with a Sharpie and asked for an autograph. Instead Stewart snapped back at him, “Read the f**king room!” Just one statement, and suddenly the hero turned into a villain for not just that fan but many. But here is a twist: not everyone thinks that these snaps by NASCAR drivers are telling of their true persona. In fact, Kyle Petty sees moments like this very differently…

In a recent episode of the Gluckcast podcast, Jeff Gluck curiously asked about what the personalities of figures like Mike Helton and Matt Kenseth and others are during his annual Charity Ride Across America. It is a yearly road trip where former NASCAR drivers travel with fans to raise money for charity. And Petty gives more then paint a picture of the drivers asked, he plays a devils advocate for many drivers arguing that they are frequently misjudged.

“They’re totally different on the ride than what they are at the racetrack. I think sometimes this is where people lose sight. The track is not a game. That’s where we work. That’s our office space. That’s our construction site. That’s our farm. That’s what we do,” Petty .

“So many times people think fans come in the garage area and come in the pits, and they’re like, ‘Well, that guy was a horse’s rear end.’ Well, yeah. If you’re in your cubicle and you’re talking business and somebody comes up and taps you on the shoulder and wants something, you get a little teed off sometimes, too. So, you need to take that into account sometimes. They’re totally different people,” Petty explained.

To put it simply, Petty brought in an example of how the same thing can happen in a regular office too. If anyone interrupts and wants something simply at the wrong time, you can get a little teed off sometimes. Now, this raises the tougher question: was Stewart rude, and does that one instance define him?

While Stewart did snap at the fan, there’s instances when the same driver when not on a racetrack, was kind enough to not only give an autograph but to also hug a young fan. And this is not the only incident. And you can’t talk about the “villian” arc without Kyle Busch in it! And his chest-to-chest incident with a fan in 2018 is one locked in fans memories.

Kyle Busch apparently tried to ignore a fan and was ultimately struck by him. Videos of the chest-to-chest altercation went viral. “Our security team has investigated a post-race incident where a guest repeatedly confronted Kyle Busch verbally and physically while he was signing autographs for fans,” the BMS statement said. But this is also the driver who went on to surprise a fan in the sweetest way possible.

Kyle Busch, while driving out one of the racks, noticed a young woman in a car next to him wearing a Busch hat. He calls out to her in what was a perfect “OMG” moment and then proceeds to take her cap and sign it for her. So which version is real, the one fans boo, or the one they rarely see?

That’s where Kyle Petty’s perception comes into play. But that being said, not everyone wants to rewrite that perception. Not Denny Hamlin at least.

This NASCAR driver isn’t afraid of being deemed a villain

Denny Hamlin has had his fair share of incidents on and off the track over the years with some of the sport’s biggest names. Be it his Chase Elliott Martinsville incident or costing Dale Earnhardt Jr. a win, it’s safe to say that Hamlin has earned the boos.

But instead of being uncomfortable or apologetic about it, Hamlin is someone who embraces the hate. Because the #11 driver believes the fans need someone to root against.

“I thought I was really just sort of a middle-of-the-road guy when it came to who fans liked or disliked. You had like Joey Logano and the really popular drivers back in the day – Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt Jr. – but as they retired, right, people wanted to root against someone. So, for a while it was Joey. But he hasn’t really had track stuff that’s really fueled it of late and I think I probably have. I’m just kind of the heel of right now,” he explained in a 2023 interview.

Hamlin explained that given his history of incidents with some of the sport’s most popular drivers, he has come to accept that a part of the hate and animosity from fans ‘will just never go away.’

And that perhaps is an example of a fan’s sentiment towards a driver that cannot be reoriented or looked at from a different perspective.