Denny Hamlin admits he irritated Michael Jordan's publicist, 23XI legal team with Michigan troll

Denny Hamlin admitted that his trolling of fans at Michigan International Speedway didn’t sit well with Michael Jordan‘s publicist and other members of 23XI Racing. While speaking to Dale Earnhardt Jr. on Dale Jr. Download, Hamlin talked about receiving blowback for doing the Ohio State celebration after winning the Michigan NASCAR Cup Series race.

“Michael’s publicist is a Michigan grad, and she does not appreciate it. I can tell you that,” Denny Hamlin said. “Actually, some of our legal team is Michigan grads as well. I don’t know. I’m definitely pressing some buttons over there. No doubt.”

Hamlin was playing up to the villain character when he did the Ohio State celebration in front of the Michigan crowd. However, Hamlin has ties to the Buckeyes as he became a bandwagon fan during the football team’s run to a national championship last season.

“I’ll be honest with you when you jump on the bandwagon with the best team, it surely makes it easy and fun,” Hamlin said about Ohio State on the Actions Detrimental podcast in February.” Just to me, the atmosphere was the biggest thing I noticed being so different.

Denny Hamlin talks about being and bandwagon Ohio State fan

“If I go to an NFL game, it’s a [Carolina] Panthers game and I’m not a Panthers fan by any means, Charlotte fans are suspect at best when it comes to their fandom. It’s like going to a library compared to going to when I went to The Shoe, and it is unbelievable. The crowd was so freaking loud at every play.”

During the Michigan post-race press conference, Hamlin talked about playing the role of a villain. “ It’s a lot of fun for me,” he said. “I love making people feel a certain way. Positive or negative, I do not care. All the fans that I’ve been face to face with have been very respectful. What they say outside on the other side of the fence, free rein. Do whatever you want to do, say whatever you want to say. They’ve been very respectful in the small arena.

“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. When you have that, it just feels really, really good and gratifying to prove them wrong.”