Denny Hamlin not only likes to tick off other drivers, he also likes to tick off fans of those rival drivers. He gets a sense of joy and relief when he’s able to beat the so-called good guys, while wearing a black cowboy hat and playing the role of the villain.
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Hamlin did it again Sunday at Michigan International Speedway, capturing his third win of the season and the 57th of his Cup career. Not bad for a guy who, at 44 years old, is the oldest active full-time driver in Cup.
And of course, he couldn’t avoid quipping what is becoming a trademark saying for him after every win: “Daddy, I’m sorry but I beat your favorite driver, folks.” When asked if he was referring to anyone in particular, he simply replied, “All of ’em.”
In a way, Hamlin has become this era’s version of Dale Earnhardt. People love to hate him — well, fans of other drivers love to hate him, that is. And like Earnhardt, Hamlin is relishing the boos that go along with the cheers from his own loyal fanbase.
“Until the crowd shifts to mostly cheers over boos, I’m always going to antagonize the booers,” he said after the race. “If I can’t have fun with it, I have to find ways to have fun doing this.”
Hamlin is still doing what others his age couldn’t: win!
In a sense, as Hamlin has aged and matured, he’s become more appreciative of what he is still able to do at such a high level. Other drivers have retired by 44 — or at least close to it — but Hamlin is like the Energizer Bunny: he keeps going and going and going.
“It’s such a grind and it’s so hard to win,” he said. “I found myself winning races a few years ago and I just moved on to Monday and on to the next track. I never really got a chance to spend it celebrating, I just took it for granted that I’d win the next week and the week after that. I just thought another one was going to always come.
“If you have another birthday, you keep wondering how long are you going to be able to do this at this level and it’s like, 57 (career Cup wins, which Sunday’s win was for him) might be it. None of us in this room know.
“So I’m at least going to enjoy it if it’s my last and then I’ll go to work on Monday, just like I always have. I don’t want to be so ho-hum with winning that it becomes boring because then I’ll lose my drive.”
It was a trying few weeks for Hamlin heading into Michigan, both bad and good. He ran out of fuel and lost the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte. Then there was the legal setback that the team he co-owns, 23XI Racing, suffered last week in its antitrust lawsuit vs. NASCAR. And let’s not forget that Hamlin was still on baby watch Sunday, waiting for the birth of his first son.
Want to bet that Sunday was not his last Cup win?
Yes, Sunday was Hamlin’s 57th career Cup win, but it very likely won’t be his last — not at the rate he keeps going. We could easily see him win another 10 races before he retires and eventually is inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
And who knows, after chasing it for 20 years, maybe Hamlin will finally cap off this season by winning his first-ever Cup Series championship.
“It’s a lot of fun for me,” Hamlin said. “I love making people feel a certain way, positive or negative, I do not care… I do have a lot of fun with it. I do thrive on it, just simply because you feel like you’ve got 60,000 people that are rooting against you.
“And when you have that, it just feels really, really good and gratifying to prove them wrong. I love that feeling and it makes these wins more gratifying to me.”
In this kind of form, Hamlin is surely turning a lot of haters into fans.
