NASCAR fans are a passionate bunch, and when it comes to Denny Hamlin, that passion often veers toward disdain. Whether it’s his on-track antics, his knack for falling short when it matters most, or just the fact that he’s Denny Hamlin, he’s long been a driver people love to hate. But in a bizarre twist, the tide is turning. After Hamlin’s explosive comments on his Actions Detrimental podcast about what he sees as the Daytona 500’s decline, fans are rallying around him. And the unlikely alliance? It all started with a tweet from NASCAR communications officer Mike Forde.

Forde’s tweet teasing an episode of the Hauler Talk podcast—where he planned to explain why Hamlin was “wrong again”—lit a firestorm. But instead of siding with NASCAR, fans broke character and backed Hamlin. It’s an odd and rare moment of unity between a driver and a fanbase that usually can’t stand him. So, what exactly did Hamlin say that resonated so deeply?

Hamlin’s scathing critique of the Daytona 500 ‘Lottery’

Denny Hamlin has never been one to sugarcoat his opinions, and his latest rant was no exception. The three-time Daytona 500 winner didn’t hold back, calling out the current state of superspeedway racing and arguing that the sport’s biggest race has become little more than a game of chance. “The Daytona 500 used to be a battle of the best driver and the best team,” Hamlin said. “Some of the greats of our sport could navigate the traffic and use it to their advantage. That art is gone now.”

This year’s race proved his point. After leading six laps and putting himself in position to win, Hamlin got caught up in a last-lap wreck triggered by Cole Custer’s aggressive move. The result? Chaos. Hamlin spun to 24th while William Byron, who started the final lap in ninth, slipped through to claim his second straight Daytona 500 victory. For Hamlin, it was a bitter pill to swallow. “It’s just such a f—— c—shoot now,” he said. “You just have to avoid the wreck. That’s not racing.”

Hamlin wasn’t just frustrated for himself—he felt for Byron, too. “It’s not fair to William,” he said. “When someone asks him how he won, he’ll say, ‘I just didn’t get wrecked.’ That’s not what you want to hear. You want to hear, ‘My team brought an amazing car, we had great strategy, and at the end, I made the move to win the race.’” His point was clear: the Daytona 500, once a legendary test of skill and strategy, has turned into a lottery where survival is the only thing that matters.

Hamlin also took aim at the Next-Gen car, which he believes has fundamentally changed the nature of superspeedway racing and is the root cause of the issues in question. “Every car is planted to the ground, which is why we are going down the straightaway just ram-rodding each other,” he said. That, combined with fuel-saving tactics, has turned races into a waiting game where drivers conserve fuel until the final laps, hoping to avoid the inevitable wreck. “In the Next-Gen era, it’s been horrendous,” Hamlin said. “The finishes have been bad, and I think it’s because of… fuel saving and all that. That’s not my forte, and I’ve got to learn to be better at it.”

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Fans shockingly back Hamlin and annihilate NASCAR’s response

Mike Forde’s tweet mocking Hamlin’s take backfired spectacularly. “How out of touch do you have to be with the fans to be this stubborn and even CONFIDENT in how he’s wrong?” one fan tweeted. Another added, “No, @dennyhamlin is saying what the fans have been saying and other drivers have been thinking for a while now.”

The backlash was swift and unanimous. Fans accused NASCAR of being out of touch and refusing to acknowledge the reality of its own product. “It’s laughable that you feel you have to use this podcast to combat Denny Hamlin’s opinion,” one fan wrote. “Much of the independent motorsports media, a good portion of the audience, and seemingly the majority of active and former competitors share similar opinions.”

Even NASCAR’s senior vice president of competition, Elton Sawyer, couldn’t escape the fallout. He defended the sanctioning body’s decision-making, saying, “Our number one goal is to finish our races under green flag conditions. That’s what our fans pay for, and that’s what our competitors want. That’s what we want as a sanctioning body.” But fans weren’t buying it. They pointed to the second Duel race which saw Erik Jones lose a win to Austin Cindric despite crossing the line first, which ended under caution despite no cars racing back through the scene of the crash. “If the goal is to finish under green, why did the Duel end under yellow?” one fan asked. “It’s just another example of NASCAR making up the rules as they go.”

Sawyer also addressed the controversial ‘Damaged Vehicle Policy’ (DVP), which came under fire after Kyle Busch was eliminated from the Daytona 500 following a crash. Busch blasted NASCAR for not understanding its own procedures, saying, “Got beat by NASCAR procedures again, just not being able to get back out on the racetrack.” Sawyer responded, “It was a misunderstanding on Kyle’s perspective,” but fans weren’t convinced. “If even the drivers don’t understand the rules, how are we supposed to?” one fan tweeted.

Hamlin’s solutions for fixing superspeedway racing are simple: reduce drag and shrink the spoiler to make the cars faster and less reliant on fuel-saving tactics. “It will fix so many things,” he said. “It will allow us to pull out of line and make moves. I just want to see us do something different to put the sport back in it and take luck back out of these prestigious events.”

Whether NASCAR listens remains to be seen. But for now, the alliance between Hamlin and the fans is one of the strangest twists in recent memory. If NASCAR keeps ignoring the growing discontent, it risks alienating the very people who keep it alive: the fans.