Kyle Larson explains shift in fan opinion of Denny Hamlin, becoming 'sentimental favorite' at Phoenix

Denny Hamlin proudly wears the black hat and enjoys playing the role of a NASCAR villain. Fans love to boo Hamlin, and he loves giving it right back.

But in the last month of the 2025 season, we saw a noticeable shift. Yes, the boos were still there at driver introductions. However, it became clear that Hamlin was the sentimental favorite going into this past Sunday’s Cup Series championship race. Kyle Larson, who outdueled Hamlin to win his second championship, said he believes the shift started when Hamlin won last month at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, his 60th career win.

Hamlin had tears in his eyes after he took the checkered flag. When he climbed out of his No. 11 Toyota, he talked about his appreciation for the fans.

We were lucky enough to have 2time Cup Champ Kyle Larson in NYC HQ yesterday to talk about Denny, playoff structure, the trophy that still elludes him the most (and it ain’t Daytona), and a shitload of other stuff on @rubbinisracing

Drops in AM. pic.twitter.com/wTBze2tTgX

— Large (@LargeBarstool) November 6, 2025

“Well, I feel like he has up until the last few weeks,” Larson said on Rubbin is Racing. “I think people and trust me, he still got lots of boos coming out for driver introductions and stuff, so he’s still got the black hat, and he wears it really well. But I do think you kind of saw a shift after he won his 60th race, and he showed his emotion. I think with the timeline or the runway being short the rest of his potential racing career, that yeah, I would say he was like the sentimental favorite going into this weekend.”

Denny Hamlin was unlikely fan favorite at Phoenix

Of course, those who were rooting for Hamlin to win his first championship were left disappointed. Despite leading a championship race record 208 laps and being less than three miles away from winning the race, Hamlin came up short after the caution came out with three laps to go for William Byron blowing a tire and hitting the wall.

Larson started overtime five spots ahead of Hamlin thanks to a two-tire call from crew chief Cliff Daniels. Hamlin got stuck in the pack off the restart and ran out of time. In the aftermath, Hamlin has seen plenty of support. At the NASCAR Awards banquet Tuesday night, he received a standing ovation. Larson is interested in seeing how Hamlin is received by the fans next season.

“For it to play out like it did, it was depressing for everybody,” Larson said. “So, yeah, I’m excited to kind of see how it will shift now going forward where like Kyle Busch, like he gets way more cheers than he’s ever gotten. I think it’s to be something similar to that.”