MOORESVILLE, N.C. – Denny Hamlin has become a lightning rod for controversy. He is a polarizing figure in and out of the No. 11 FedEx Toyota at Joe Gibbs Racing.
The driver from Chesterfield, Va., is starting to rival his JGR teammate Kyle Busch as the drivers fans love to boo.
He arrives at Phoenix Raceway as one of NASCAR’s Championship 4 drivers and the 40-year-old is hoping his reaction to controversy fuels him to his first NASCAR Cup Series championship.
It’s almost as if controversy strengthens Hamlin’s resolve.
Back in September heading into the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, Hamlin’s longtime girlfriend Jordan Fish went public on social media in a messy breakup, airing a laundromat full of personal dirty laundry.
The 34-year-old Fish is the mother of Hamlin’s two daughters, including 8-year-old Taylor and 4-year-old Molly, and unloaded on her longtime boyfriend on Twitter.
Hamlin responded by calmly having one of his best races of the season, leading 146 laps and holding off a hard-charging Kyle Larson to win the Southern 500 on Sept. 5. Despite leading the NASCAR Cup Series standings for most of the season up to that point, it was Hamlin’s first Cup victory of 2021.
Of course, Hamlin was asked about the highly toxic comments that Fish had made against him in the week leading up to the race. He calmly responded without actually answering the question.
“I’m a professional and do my job the best I can, and today I thought we did as good as we could,” Hamlin said. “We executed. Finally, the anvil didn’t drop right on us.
“So, I was proud of the effort that we put forth. My team is always giving the best effort, and I know my job every Sunday.”
Two weeks prior to the Southern 500 victory, the anvil fell directly on Hamlin’s Toyota in the closing laps of the Verizon 200 at the Brickyard on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course on Aug. 15.
As the race entered overtime, Chase Briscoe cut through the grass in turn one and re-entered the track side-by-side with Hamlin’s Toyota in what was an obvious penalty.
Instead of backing off, Briscoe ended up driving Hamlin off course while leading the race. A.J. Allmendinger went on to win the race and Hamlin had a face-to-face discussion with Briscoe on pit lane.
“It’s not on purpose, but my team told me he had a penalty right away,” Hamlin said. “Then, he was racing me for a lap and ran right into the back of me. You can’t race that way. I don’t think it was malicious – it was just bad judgement.
“I got hit by the 16 (Allmendinger) going into the corner and he shoved me out and then I shoved him out and then was racing with the 14 (Briscoe) for a while. This turns everything upside-down.
“I’ve been doing this a long time and I’ve been on the giving end of mistakes, so I get it. Obviously, there is going to be a penalty if you cut the race track. It sucks. It turned our day upside-down.”
But the latest controversy came last Sunday in the Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway. Hamlin was all but assured of advancing into the Championship 4 by points, but he was racing for the victory. The Virginia driver had been impressive racing his way from the rear of the field after his car failed pre-race inspection twice that morning.
Hamlin thrived under the adversity of starting in the back and ultimately lead 103 laps. Hamlin was racing for a victory as was non-championship contender Alex Bowman of Hendrick Motorsports.
The two were locked in an impressive side-by-side duel on the paperclip shaped flat short track, entertaining the crowd with some tremendous racing.
But with five laps remaining, it appeared that Bowman’s Chevrolet nudged Hamlin out of the way, sending him into a spin between turns three and four.
It was a similar move that Hamlin made on Chase Elliott in 2017 in order to advance into the championship race and prevent Elliott from advancing.
Hamlin was furious and after finishing 24th in the race. He drove up to Bowman’s Chevrolet to block his celebration at the start/finish line. Twice he blocked Bowman from completing some burnouts and the second time, he drove into the front of Bowman’s Chevy to push it out of the way.
Afterwards, Hamlin roasted Bowman in the post-race interview, but was nearly drowned out by fans from his home-state booing him.
“He’s just a hack, an absolute hack,” Hamlin said of the driver of the No. 48 Chevrolet. “He gets his ass kicked by his teammates every week and he’s terrible. Absolutely terrible. He gets the best car every week and he finish 10th.
“We got in and did what we had a do, but I just want to race at the end. He’s just terrible.”
Later, Hamlin was asked his thoughts on being booed in Virginia by fans that once loudly cheered him.
“It’s just Chase Elliott fans, man,” he said. “They don’t think straightly.”
“They’re going to boo the shit out of me next week, I can tell you that.”
Next week is here and Hamlin joins Larson and Elliott of Hendrick Motorsports and his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Martin Truex Jr., as the last four drivers in a winner-take-all championship scenario.
The highest finisher of the Championship 4 wins the championship.
“I have a huge amount of respect for all of them,” Hamlin said of three championship contenders. “I think they’ve all accomplished a lot in their careers. They’ve all had their own special techniques and specialties that they’re really, really good at. They all bring an equally big challenge for any team that thinks they’re going to go out there and just beat them.
“They’re all going to be fast. The HMS guys, pit crews have been really, really fast this year. JGR has been really good on the shorter tracks. It all kind of weighs out to however the race plays out.
“I think that’s going to be the bigger factor in what decides it. Is this going to come down to a green-white-checkered finish or a long run at the end?”
Hamlin was the center of attention at Thursday’s Championship 4 Media Day at the Phoenix Convention Center. Many of the questions dealt with controversy.
Hamlin admitted that he embraced it.
“Absolutely,” Hamlin said. “To me it’s fuel. Like, I have so much fuel in my tank right now from just motivation. There’s a lot of motivation there.
“How do I get up every morning and take my kids to school at 7:30? How do I go to 23XI and work for a couple days in the middle of the week during a Playoff run? I live in chaos. My life is chaos. I thrive under chaos.
“Honestly, you can ask Kyle. The more shit is stirred up around me, the more I come at it.
“I don’t mind things like that.”
After reflecting on what happened at Martinsville, Hamlin is as determined as ever to win his first NASCAR Cup Series championship and silence those who choose to boo him.
“I really wanted to make a pretty strong statement at Martinsville, starting in the back, going back to the back again, driving all the way to the front,” he said. “Winning that race would be like the old foot on the throat heading into this weekend, right?
“I feel like that momentum was taken away, taken from us. Again, the momentum then in my head swings back around into now I’m ultra-motivated.
“I love the feeling of just proving people wrong.”
Denny Hamlin will start on pole for Sunday's race. (HHP/Chris Owens Photo)