Denny Hamlin booed by hometown Richmond crowd

Well, the Denny Hamlin villain arc is in full effect as the Joe Gibbs Racing driver was mercilessly booed at his hometown track! The Virginia native was not received with a warm welcome. In fact, he might be the most booed driver in NASCAR now. And he seems to be loving every second of it.

While the crowd boos, Denny Hamlin will just think about his 50 trophies at home and forget about it. At this point, Hamlin might be the best heel NASCAR has had in a generation. If he’s in the mix for wins, it makes it even better.

Watch as he walks out during driver intros and casually waves to the “adoring” crowd.

Denny Hamlin is introduced to the hometown crowd at Richmond. #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/MU03WtsiCY

— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) July 30, 2023

Another thing that Denny Hamlin can lean on during this difficult time, is his P3 starting spot. He’s got a quick Toyota Camry this weekend and will be in the mix early. He could be looking at back-to-back wins. If so, this NASCAR crowd is going to lose their minds.

Chase Elliott is in the mix this weekend and will start just behind Hamlin. What are the chances that there is an incident between the 11 and the 9 in this race?

Richmond Raceway is a track that Denny Hamlin knows well and he has a thing for winning races there too. With a strong starting position, he’s in a position to make NASCAR fans’ worst nightmares come true – another win for Hamlin and his JGR team.

Will Denny Hamlin cool it this week?

So, Denny Hamlin is starting P3. He has a fast car. Coming off his controversial win at Pocono over Kyle Larson, what will Hamlin do? The big question is, if he finds himself in a position to win again and a hard pass to make, does he do something similar?

Short tracks are no stranger to a good old bump and run. So, do we think that Hamlin is going full bad guy mode and will once again do a win-at-all-cost race strategy? At Pocono, it was win 50, win 7 at the track, and win 600 for Toyota in NASCAR. It made sense. Does it make sense this week?

Kyle Larson will have to fight to get close to Hamlin this week. He qualified 14th overall. Despite winning the Spring race at Richmond, Larson didn’t have great speed in his Chevy Camaro. If he does race next to Hamlin, Larson expects something to be different.

With a crowd against him and a ton of tension on the track and in the air, let’s hope we get another fun race and an exciting finish in the Cook Out 400.