After a rather controversial finish at Pocono Raceway last week, NASCAR nation is still processing the aftermath of the race. Despite acing his favorite track, The Tricky Triangle, and racking up his 7th win (the most by any driver), veteran Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin embraced his demons as he donned the villain role on Sunday.

Bringing up his 50th career win at the iconic speedway, the veteran rocked the community with a late tussle with his friend, Kyle Larson, reminding us of last year. Angered and frustrated with Hamlin’s antics, the crowd rained down boos,  with many flipping the driver the finger and denouncing him as the victor and deeming him a “hypocrite.”

And now, with the community actively discussing the happenings, despite the veteran coming up with the blame game against Larson, speaking to Sirius XM NASCAR, the 42-year-old driver has come up with a new narrative, justifying his action.

Denny Hamlin shells out, giving the community a fresh narrative

The Highpoint 400 had all the thrills and frills for a runaway success, but it also had a rather surprising finish, with veteran Denny Hamlin snatching the lead from his close friend, Kyle Larson, at the last minute. During the closing laps, Hamlin speared on, eyeing his second win, and came close to the #5 Chevy; in fact, the #11 Toyota closed the gap on the inside as both cars entered the notorious turn 1.

With Larson on the outside, Hamlin throttled up, leading the #5 straight into the wall, allegedly dooring him intentionally, as per Larson. While the move itself has been used several times by Hamlin himself, even earlier this year at Kansas Speedway when he pulled off the same move to outgun the #5, or when he did the same to Ross Chastain last year at the same track, This time around, the veteran’s tangle was met with stiff criticism.

However, unfazed by the drama, Hamlin, being Hamlin, embraced the antagonistic role, justifying his act and even gesturing his 7th win to the booing hostile crowd. While the JGR driver put the blame on his friend for running wide into the corner and denied his involvement, Hamlin came up with a new explanation to justify his action.

“There was a winner and there was a loser, and he got the losing end of a racing deal. And same as before, when you know people call me a hypocrite because, oh, you condone this person when they wreck you, well, of course I was on the losing end of a racing deal. Of course, I’m gonna be upset and when I’m on a good end of a racing deal, I’m not going to be upset,” said the driver, cleaning his hands as he shook off the “hypocrite,” allegation. 

Furthermore, the veteran spoke his mind when he elaborated on the hate against him, saying, “Again I when I’ve been on the losing end, I was booed for that like and that doesn’t make any sense, it doesn’t logically make any sense so it just shows that fandom doesn’t always mean what’s right and what’s wrong, right?”

Though, the driver’s podcast series has made it big, becoming one of the most listened to, his on-track stint did not get him any more fans as the packed crowd in the stands, flipped the veteran the bird, gesturing their frustration.

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“Lot of 11s out there”: Fans give Hamlin a double middle finger, appalled by the driver’s late drama

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Hamlin has washed his hands, blatantly denying any involvement in Larson’s downfall. The veteran has a lot on his mind to justify his act. Speaking to Sirius XM NASCAR, he added, “I think it really depends on who’s the characters involved and whether you know, the accessible level is not set by fan sentiment. Racing is racing and they should want us to go out there and be aggressive every single time.”

“It doesn’t matter whether we’re friends or teammates or whatever. They win in that scenario, so, I get it and I understand but you know there’s a lot of drivers that dont care about making friends on the racetrack and they won a lot of races because of it. Unfortunately, sometimes you have to adapt your style to that style,” said the JGR driver. 

But the community wasn’t having any of it when the #11 Toyota rolled into the victory lane, furious over his typical ant-climatic finish. They booed him unapologetically with some flipping Hamlin the finger, giving him a nasty double middle finger.

The driver following the race tweeted out the fan reactions with a quirky caption, “Thanks for the love Pocono. Lots of 11s out there.”

With the NASCAR nation heading to another exciting race week, the emotions are certain to carry forward, possibly giving us another exhilarating race.

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