“What is the Worst That Can Happen?”: Denny Hamlin Won’t Change for Anyone in NASCAR

Over the last couple of seasons, Denny Hamlin has morphed himself into villainous and a can-do, will-do whatever-he-wants kind of personality within NASCAR. While speaking on Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s podcast recently, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver explained how he wouldn’t change for anyone in NASCAR.

During the podcast, Junior mentioned how NASCAR drivers are often very selective and particular, but Hamlin seems to be doing whatever he can get his hands on, so he asked the JGR driver what changed. Hamlin responded, “What’s the worst that can happen? I mean, Gibbs fires me? Okay, fine. I’ll go drive for myself. I mean, I just think about what is the worst that can happen if I’m really true of myself.”

Nothing is going to break @dennyhamlin‘s stride when it comes to being himself.

“What’s the worst that can happen?” pic.twitter.com/dQE7BYqwrl

— Dirty Mo Media (@DirtyMoMedia) December 19, 2023

The former HMS driver then intervened and asked if he had the same mentality three to four or five years ago and Hamlin replied, “Maybe not, probably not publically.”

Denny Hamlin explains why others may not be comfortable letting out their true personalities in public

Speaking further into the podcast, Hamlin explained how he had become comfortable knowing the fact that his primary sponsor stuck around with him for a long time. Hence, he started to experiment around and see how far are they willing to go beyond their comfort zone.

Additionally, he also mentioned how several sponsors started liking him for who he is and hence decided to stick with the #11 team. But considering the other drivers where maintaining sponsors for the long run is a tricky situation it makes sense why they decide not to be too loud and keep things private.

He mentioned, “The sponsors that came in for a small little bit, loved the experience. Loved who I was vocally with my podcast, the Bristol stuff they loved it and we’re in for more. It has turned now into a very positive thing where brands are wanting to be associated. Versus the counter to that is that lot of people don’t want to rock the boat because they don’t want to disrupt the sponsors that they have…”

Although this sort of thing often hurts the sport, considering there aren’t many stories to look out for if the majority of the drivers decide to hide their personalities under the veil to please the sponsors.

Long gone are the days of Dale Earnhardt Sr. and the kind of things he was able to stay publically, now it’s mostly seeing most of the drivers trying to be politically correct to make sure that their sponsors do not take things the wrong way.