Carl Edwards makes wild request to Denny Hamlin if he wins at Darlington

In the last few years, Denny Hamlin has perfected the art of the postrace celebration. Carl Edwards has a request for his former NASCAR teammate. Hamlin is rocking an Edwards throwback paint scheme this weekend, so he might have to listen.

Throwback Weekend at Darlington Raceway. Forget what any naysayers put out there online, including Chase Elliott, this weekend is awesome. It is good for the sport and you can tell how much the past drivers and teams and crew members appreciate it. Denny Hamlin is participating this year.

Carl Edwards is the Honorary Starter for today’s race. Greg Biffle is the Honorary Pace Car Driver. That is what this weekend is all about.

So, in his Sports Clips No. 11 that is supposed to look like Edwards’ old Office Depot car, Denny Hamlin has a challenge ahead of him. If he proves to be tough enough to tame Darlington, Cousin Carl has one request: do a backflip.

“It’s actually way cooler than I thought, a huge honor,” Edwards said to Jamie Little on the prerace show. “I’m going to try to get the crowd, if he were to win, to try to get him to do the backflip. I’m going to get out of here before the race is over just in case he does. I don’t want to feel like I have to do it. But truly an honor, really. Denny’s been doing a great job lately; it’ll be fun to – Hopefully, he can put that car in victory lane.”

“No. I’m not doing a backflip today. But you guys should get Denny to do it. Get him to commit. I think it’ll be pretty fun to watch him do it.”

Carl Edwards wants to see Denny Hamlin fall on his face or the top of his head, I think. Backflips aren’t just something you do out of nowhere and at 44, I’m not sure that is the right age to be doing one for the first time.

Still, it would be the perfect way to end Throwback Weekend. If you know, we lived in a world where Denny could do a backflip.

Denny Hamlin is coming off of a win. It might be easier for him to tame Darlington than it would be to do a flip. If he can get the 11 car back to the winner’s circle for another week, that will be enough.