The 2023 season was quite the fairytale for Ryan Blaney and Team Penske. But the same can’t be said for Denny Hamlin despite his impressive season on paper. While he managed to add to his Cup Series victory tally and improved it to an astounding fifty-one wins, the Joe Gibbs Racing Driver’s season was largely met with controversy like the time he lost out on $50,000 owing to his incident with Ross Chastain.

It’s safe to say all that went down last year for Hamlin gives fans a realistic insight into what the community has come to expect of NASCAR’s anti-hero, and naturally, the unfortunate consequence of the same has been waves of undeserved hate on social media. While Hamlin found the perfect way to deal with online trolls was to reach for the block button, the new year has got the 43-year-old feeling rather forgiving.

Heading into 2024, Denny Hamlin is a changed man

The Twitter community has been exploding as of late after Hamlin revealed a rather shocking haircut on his social media this week. Looking like an “accident” had occurred in the hair salon, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver would now be rocking a buzz cut for the foreseeable future. While the replies were mainly obsessing over Hamlin’s new look, when one fan pointed out that he had been unblocked by the 43-year-old, a somewhat unexpected character revealed itself.

Hamlin took to Twitter to share, “Correct. Jan 1 2024 about 650 account’s received a pardon.” To the shock of the entire community, Hamlin had decided to forgive all the trolls that had been pestering him throughout his online campaign. While the fans were split once again in their opinion of Hamlin’s shenanigans, Kaulig Racing wasted no time in delivering a cheeky blow.

Their official X account clapped back at Hamlin’s post and tweeted, “no one pardoning that haircut though”. And after taking into account how the community had reacted to Hamlin’s buzz cut, it’s safe to say the lighthearted dig did more damage than seemed possible! The replies immediately flooded with the community going crazy over Kaulig Racing’s witty response.

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However, let’s not forget that this is a big deal when we consider how much hate and unwanted attention Denny Hamlin gets for every move he makes, whether it’s on track or far away from it. This is why it was rather relieving to see the community overwhelmingly side with Hamlin on his newfound peace.

The NASCAR community sidelines Kaulig Racing’s dig to support Hamlin’s wholesome gesture

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On one hand, once a user gets blocked by a celebrity, you better believe they are never getting unblocked, mainly due to the management actually running the account. But when we talk about NASCAR figures like Denny Hamlin who run their own pages, it takes a special incident to trigger the anti-hero to reach for the unblock option. Fans immediately began commending the 43-year-old on his decision.

A user shared, “Good call. You’ve changed a lot of people’s minds about you by being so honest on your podcast. I think you will be pleasantly surprised by the responses from some of the previous blocked accounts.” While another confessed their past sins and sought forgiveness, “Denny, thank you for unblocking me. I’m very sorry for trolling you years ago. I have matured and will not do it again.”

While many would take the path of least resistance and choose to not deal with the doubters and naysayers, fans were ecstatic at Hamlin’s hands-on approach; “It’s more fun to dunk on the haters. love this for you.” As another user also chimed in. “I wish Kyle Busch would do this, Aric Almirola too I got blocked when his account got hacked.”

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It’s safe to say that despite Kaulig Racing’s successful dig at Hamlin making the community burst into laughter, the fans were all for the JGR driver’s open-door approach to silencing his haters.