With Toyota being NASCAR’s only non-American manufacturer, it has always been targeted more than Chevy or Ford. But this season, thanks to its dominance, the noise is more about potential rule-bending, and nobody is absorbing more of that criticism than Denny Hamlin. The #11 driver, though, chose to take everyone back to 2018 to offer a pointed remark.

“I’ll never forget, everyone on social media wanted me fired in 2018. They thought I was washed up 8 years ago,”  Hamlin said, discussing his current season on the Actions Detrimental podcast.

2018 was the first and only winless campaign of Hamlin’s career across a full 36-race schedule, and it was damaging enough that it ended with the departure of longtime crew chief Mike Wheeler. Since then, his story has taken a U-turn.

Hamlin has three wins already in 2026, sitting second in the Cup standings behind Tyler Reddick. His 63 Cup wins tie him ninth on the all-time wins list with Kyle Busch. The Michigan win also marked back-to-back wins for Hamlin – the first time since last spring. And then there are the nine wins in 50 starts with crew chief Chris Gayle.

The dominant form, though, has been met with cheating allegations, especially in the light of the 14-month antitrust battle that 23XI Racing, co-owned by Hamlin and Michael Jordan, waged against NASCAR before settling in December 2025. So, when Toyota came out as the 2026 season’s most dominant OEM, already suspicious fans had plenty to work with.

In fact, an AI-generated post claiming Hamlin had a “mysterious device” attached to his No. 11 Toyota at the All-Star Race spread so widely that Hamlin had to respond on Twitter.

Still, there is the case of Jimmie Johnson, seven-time Cup champion, who retired in 2020 with 83 wins and never faced anything close to this level of public scrutiny, despite running the most dominant program in the sport’s modern era – just like JGR. Johnson’s five consecutive championships from 2006 to 2010, and two more in 2013 and 2016, were broadly celebrated while Hamlin is interrogated.

Hamlin hence pointed out the hypocrisy in fan reactions: “What’s crazy though is that like Jimmie still got like 20 more wins. Where the hell was your comments back then?”

That said, Hamlin is aware he is having the best run of his career. But that doesn’t mean he’s not thinking in the retirement direction now.

Denny Hamlin wants to live in these proud moments

Now that Denny Hamlin has bitten back at the critics with performance and logic, what is that one thing he is most proud of?

“The longevity of it certainly helps,” Hamlin said on the Actions Detrimental podcast. “This is almost, this weekend will be, it was almost four days from being 20 years apart from my first win. That’s probably, to me, the proudest accomplishment, is just being able to honestly say in Year 20-something, I think 21 or so, that this is as good as I’ve ever been. That’s, to me, the most proud I am.”

“Yeah, I don’t know,” Hamlin said, talking about whether there is any chance he extends his contract with JGR. “I don’t think that this is quite sustainable for the long haul. I think we better enjoy it in the short run.”