“King of Martinsville, you know that that’s Denny Hamlin,” said Kevin Harvick on his Happy Hour podcast before the Martinsville race. Man, what a weekend at Martinsville it was. Denny Hamlin rolled into Victory Lane, and the emotions were running high.

That No. 11 car was a beast, leading 274 laps and snapping a nine-year drought at the track he’s practically owned with six wins now. 44 years old, defying the Next Gen odds where the young guns usually shine. But then post-win, Hemlin did something which only he could pull off.

Harvick, the NASCAR champ turned broadcaster, had been rooting for Denny all season. “This could be a big Denny Hamlin weekend.” And it was. Denny didn’t just win—he dominated, proving the old guys still have fight left. But that “11 Against the World” flag was where the story takes a turn.

Kevin Harvick didn’t even flinch when he said: “Denny, this was an important moment, and I wish we would have just stayed out of the car right there and not pulled that flag out. Everybody was cheering. Everybody was cheering, and Denny was in a great spot. Then he pulled the flag out, and I don’t know that it was all cheers, because right now I think everybody’s learning a lot about Denny Hamlin. I think he takes a lot of flack for a lot of the things that he says on his podcast and taunting the fans and all those things that come with this.” 

After the race ended, Denny Hamlin brought out a blue, 11-against-the-world flag inspired by Ohio State’s national championship run. This year, Ohio State won its first national title in years after defeating Notre Dame 34-23, and Hamlin is all for supporting the team. Last season, Hamlin attended three Buckeyes’ games: their home win against Indiana, the Cotton Bowl victory against Texas, and their national championship game.

Later, they even waved a similar ‘Ohio Against the World flag’ when they lifted the title. It’s what caused Hamlin to bring it to the Martinsville track. “My buddies, my Ohio State fans that I hung out with at the end of last year, we always had the Ohio State Against the World, so now it’s the 11 Against the World,” he explained. But that’s not all Harvick wanted to talk about with when it came to Hamlin’s win.

Denny’s a leader. Denny puts a lot of work into his craft. This is hard. He had a crew chief change, and hearing him talk about having to make a decision—did he want to put the work and the time into another crew chief? He had a great system with Chris Gabehart. He had a circle of life that was well-balanced, and bringing Chris Gayle in, he knew that this was going to be a disruption to the rest of his life, and he put the time and the effort into it. To get through the off-season, the first few weeks of the season, and here we are, you know, six weeks or so into the season, and he’s in victory lane. So, I think that that says a lot about who he is as a driver and a leader.”

Imagine being a top NASCAR driver, pouring your heart into every race, and then bam—your team pulls the rug out from under you. That’s exactly what happened when Joe Gibbs Racing swapped out his longtime crew chief, Chris Gabehart, for Chris Gayle without even a heads-up. Denny spilled it all on Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s podcast, “Yeah, I mean there was a period there where I certainly was not happy with Joe Gibbs Racing, or decisions that they decided to make in the off-season, kind of without talking to me at all about it.”

Denny, though, isn’t backing down. Post-race, he told FOX’s Jamie Little, “Just so happy to win with Chris and get 55 (wins). It’s awesome.” He’s embracing the chaos, the villain vibe, even saying, “I think fans are coming around on me.” Maybe they are. Maybe they aren’t. But one thing’s clear: Harvick’s bold verdict cut through the noise. He staked his reputation on Denny’s win, and he loved it—until that flag waved, and the cheers turned to murmurs. Did Denny’s move ruin the moment, or is it just who he is?

But there’s the other side. Hamlin has a polarizing persona. Known for his outspoken nature and on-track aggressiveness, Hamlin has often clashed with rivals and, by extension, their fan bases. He’s still the guy fans love to hate, the one left out of their 2025 title picks despite his 55 wins. That flag was a fuel for both sides—his diehards cheer louder, his detractors boo harder. It’s Denny being Denny, no apologies.

And in true Hamlin fashion, he sent a message to Austin Cindric over a move he made during the race.

Denny Hamlin calls out Austin Cindric’s antics

Having led most of the race, Denny Hamlin missed most of the action. After all, being up front means you miss most of the action. And that’s what happened when Austin Cindric was in the middle of the pack. On Lap 202, Cindric got squeezed into a moment with AJ Allmendinger and Riley Herbst. Entering the first corner, contact with Cindric meant that Herbst spun out, and Hamlin wasn’t happy at all.

Denny Hamlin explained, ““When things aren’t going his way, he’s wrecking guys, and so I don’t know how NASCAR will look at this. It’s different because it’s not a right-rear hook, it was essentially kind of, not even a left-rear hook, but just kind of a shove into the corner. Cindric’s getting a couple of close ones here where NASCAR needs to start taking habitual behavior into account, it’s happened with Austin Dillon at Gateway a year or so ago, you had the Ty Dillon thing this year, and now this, so it’s not looking good, and Cindric needs to clean that up.”