There is no driver in the NASCAR Cup Series whom fans love to boo more than Denny Hamlin, and there is no driver who loves to be booed more than Denny Hamlin.<\/p>\n
There is also no driver who goes out of his way to rile up the crowd simply because he wants to feed into that “relationship” he has with the fans more than Hamlin does.<\/p>\n
But Sunday’s race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway was different, and it humanized the NASCAR fanbase \u2013 and Hamlin \u2013 in a way that social media would have had you thinking was impossible in this day and age, especially after he once again “beat your favorite driver”.<\/p>\n
Denny Hamlin receives ovation after Las Vegas win<\/p>\n
With Hamlin clearly feeling the effects of watching his father’s health decline, he was in tears after passing Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Chase Briscoe and collecting the South Point 400 victory.<\/p>\n
The win made him the 11th driver to hit 60 career victories<\/a> and the first driver to punch his ticket to the Championship 4 at Phoenix Raceway three weeks from now.<\/p>\n Hamlin has not yet been to a Championship 4 in the Next Gen era (2022 to present), and he is infamously the winningest driver in the history of the Cup Series without a championship to his name.<\/p>\n As an emotional Hamlin climbed from the No. 11 Toyota, a fanbase that is typically full of boo-birds and so easily egged on by some sort of one-liner or “11 Against The World” flag from Hamlin himself, gave him nothing but applause.<\/p>\n He responded in kind, saying that “this is the point where I give the fans some s—, but not today.” The applause only grew louder, and it produced the kind of wholesome moment absolutely nobody ever expected to see following a Hamlin victory.<\/p>\n Two races remain in the round of 8 before the Championship 4 at Phoenix, including next Sunday’s race at Talladega Superspeedway and the following Sunday’s race at Martinsville Speedway.<\/p>\n