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It is no secret how the fans and Denny Hamlin share a unique relationship. With his unfiltered and direct approach, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver tends to gather hatred more often than not. While that has been evident in the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season, it only looked more obvious after his win at Bristol Motor Speedway last weekend.

There is no denying the amazing form Hamlin has been in since the start of the 2023 Playoffs. While the victory on Saturday was impressive, it did come with a bittersweet taste in the end.

Denny Hamlin vows to continue the banter following the post-race mocking at Bristol

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In his stellar Cup Series career, all that Denny Hamlin has been missing is a title win. It is odd to have over 50 victories in the competition and not have a championship. While that is true, Hamlin looks in great form this campaign to finally go all the way.

With 11 top-five finishes, only Kyle Larson has more (13) such finishes to his name this season. Without a doubt, Hamlin could have amassed more victories this season had it not for various reasons. However, the victory at Bristol Motor Speedway would have brought a lot of delight to him and the Joe Gibbs Racing team.

 

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Having said that, he still received plenty of boos after the victory. To this, Hamlin responded by saying, “Hey, I beat your favorite driver.” After a gap of a few seconds, he added, “All of them”. While that was funny, the 42-year-old certainly enjoyed the banter.

Speaking about it on the latest episode of his podcast “Actions Detrimental”, Hamlin said, “This just goes right into my wheelhouse. I don’t think people knew that. I love banter, I love talking, I do. And now I’m just running well enough where I can back it up like so I’m feeding off of it. It’s great [because] I get to capitalize on that.”

READ MORE – Denny Hamlin Claps Back at Joe Gibbs’ Grandson’s Hilarious Gibe With 5-Word Message

While he enjoyed the banter, Hamlin declared how he had no plan to end the banter any soon. In fact, he had a clear message for his fans, especially the ones who aren’t quite in his support. He said, I’m proving so many people wrong and all I wanna do at this point is, if you root against me, I just wanna make these next seven weeks a living hell for you.”

 

The #11 driver seems to be enjoying it. While he deep-dived into the subject, he also explained how this banter started.

Denny Hamlin gets candid about his love-and-hate relationship with the fans

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The fact about Denny Hamlin is that he is always up to interact with the fans directly or indirectly. One of the major reasons for him to start his own podcast was to express his opinion more openly to his fans. While that has resulted in backlash on multiple occasions, Hamlin tends to cherish it.

Speaking in the same episode, he said, This is from the bottom of my heart. [The] truth is that I’m not trying to get more fans, but I love the back and forth. Anybody that plays in my basketball league or golf league, I love talking to people. You know, I just do. It’s fun for me and there’s, a mental aspect of it that I’m just self-motivating myself through doing it and it continues to just make me better.”

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While cherishing this to-and-fro with the fans, Hamlin finally disclosed how it all started. He said, “I’m just in a good spot right now and it’s been fun. This whole thing’s been fun and certainly, this kind of all started around kind of, the Pocono thing with [Kyle] Larson, but it’s taken on, a mind of its own at this point. And we’re just having fun with it.”

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Indeed, it has been delightful to watch as long as it has been carried out in good spirit. Having said that, will Hamlin capitalize on his superb form and go all the way this season? Let us know in the comments below.