Denny Hamlin taunts the crowd after winning at Bristol: 'I beat your favorite driver'
Denny Hamlin won another race and once again, the crowd was booing him as he took the checkered flag. He likes it, though. One thing you can’t say about Hamlin is that he doesn’t know how to play the role. In classic WWE style, the NASCAR driver put on a great promo after his big win.
While he had the attention of more than 100,000 NASCAR fans, Denny Hamlin used his time to do a little taunting. Those fans might boo him, but he’s the one who gets to use the microphone and be heard throughout the Tennessee mountains.
Climbing from his car, Hamlin leaned into his role as NASCAR’s number one heel.
“Everybody likes a winner, right?” He asked cheekily. “Can’t thank this whole FedEx team enough, they’ve really kicked ass this whole first round. Just amazing how good our team has been. I’m just so happy about the way we’re going and can’t wait to keep going.”
Denny Hamlin is starting to come into form with top-5 finishes almost becoming inevitable. Moving forward, he feels good about his championship chances.
“It’s our year, I just feel like we’ve got it all put together. We’ve got the speed at every type of race track. Nothing to stop us at this point.”
By the way, if you’re one of the ones booing, Hamlin wants you to know something.
“I beat your favorite driver,” Hamlin lamented. When asked, which one? “All of ’em.”
Heading into the Round of 12, Denny Hamlin has a ton of confidence.
Bubba Wallace has Denny Hamlin-type response
Not only is Hamlin moving onto the Round of 12, he has both of his 23XI Racing drivers coming with him. Tyler Reddick and Hamlin both earned wins to make the next round. Bubba Wallace had to do it the hard way.
After advancing to the Round of 12, Wallace had a very similar response to his boss. Wallace is used to receiving his fair share of boos and that is what he got when he got on the mic.
“God I love that s**t right there,” Wallace said referring to the booing crowd. “Counted us out. Like Coco Gauff said, all they’re doing is adding fuel to the fire, I love it. Love where I’m at in this team. Wish mom and dad and my sister were here to celebrate with me. I’m in a career year. Just gotta keep it going, appreciate all the partners involved. Columbia’s done great when they’re on the car, I hate it for them last week.
“I’m mentally exhausted, I’m wore out, gave it our all there. Battled hard and executed and that’s what you gotta do. So, we know next week’s a reset and we just gotta go out and have some fun and work our asses off. Thank you to the ones that believe in me, keep it going and yeah, onto next week.”
So, Denny Hamlin, Reddick, and Wallace are all moving forward. We are going to have a lot of Toyota representation in the next round. Will we see the JGR driver and 23XI Racing owner earn his first Cup Series championship?