Denny Hamlin Taking Up a Villain Persona Is Good for NASCAR, Believes Jeff Burton and Steve Letarte

Denny Hamlin is someone NASCAR fans love — or love to hate. The Virginia native embraces both feelings — and the more his non-fans hate him, the more Hamlin loves it.

Hamlin has embraced the villain role this year more than ever, feeding off the negative energy from those who boo or root against him. On this week’s NASCAR Inside The Race live program on YouTube, co-hosts Steve Letarte, Jeff Burton and Todd Gordon all seemed to love the color and personality that Hamlin is displaying.

In an era where drivers are overly cautious about saying the wrong thing and drawing ire from NASCAR, fans, sponsors, or the media, they felt Hamlin is a breath of fresh air. He doesn’t seem to care what anyone says about him.

Letarte put it well. “Hamlin is that beacon of comfort being the protagonist, the antagonist, being the villain,” Letarte said. “I agree that he thrives in chaos but he also, I think, thrives when he’s not being cheered. I think boos push him more than cheers.

“Some drivers need to be loved in their careers and they wanted to do it for their fan base. Dale Jr. (Earnhardt) was like the most popular guy, he loved that the fans cheered him on. He loves that support — he still does, which is great, not a negative.”

In a sense, Hamlin has learned a valuable lesson from his business partner, 23XI Racing co-owner and NBA icon Michael Jordan: when challenged or trash-talked, respond in kind — and let your performance do the talking for you.

Letarte continued, “Denny loves the ones that hate him. I mean, it’s true… I don’t know Michael Jordan but you watch the 30 on 30s, all the different things that are like, ‘Man, don’t talk junk to Michael, don’t make him mad. He’ll put 60 (points) on us!’

“I feel like Denny’s almost kind of being that guy a little bit, like he can’t wait for you to tell him he can’t do it. Go ahead, poke him in the chest and tell him he can’t do it.”

After his 57^th career Cup win this past Sunday at Michigan International Speedway, and his third win thus far this season, the oldest active full-time driver in the Cup Series is arguably driving better than he ever has.

Hamlin has learned from the best: Michael Jordan

The Michael Jordan influence is right there. Hamlin has learned from the master manipulator, the king of trash talk, the GOAT.

“I think that’s the maturity that we talked about,” Burton added. “I think that now that Denny is more confident and more comfortable in his own skin, he’s way more relaxed… He’s so much more relaxed than he was 15 years ago and 10 years ago.

“And with more things going on in his life, that’s just the evolution of Denny and he now recognizes that he’s going to be himself and the people that like that, they’re going to like it. The people that don’t, they’re not and he’s okay with that.”

Hamlin has carried that free and loose and trash talking personality over into his private life with friends, another illustration of how he feels he can do and say what he wants and it serves as kind of an inspiration for him.

“There’s a lot of things that you can’t say in public that you will say to a guy when you’re playing golf against him, just some talking,” Burton said. “And Denny wants to bring that to the racetrack. He wants to bring that like, ‘Hey, let’s do it. Let’s go at it.’ It turns some people off and some people like it and that’s the point.

“That’s the point for Denny. We need personalities in this sport. When somebody walks across the stage to get booed, we need them to get cheered. That passion about the drivers is the most important part of our sport. You have to have an attachment, and so Denny, with his maturity, has decided, ‘This is who I am. This is who I like to be like. I like this talk and I’m going to do it.’

Burton said he was glad Denny Hamlin was doing it, noting that the more NASCAR can show the real personalities of its drivers, crew chiefs, and car owners — the personalities of the sport — the more fans will either like or not particularly like a driver, but it will generate greater interest in the sport. But he indicated that it’s not an easy task.

“It’s very difficult to be willing to ignore the talk, the negative talk, because people don’t mind doing it and it takes maturity and it takes confidence,” Burton concluded.