Kevin Harvick criticizes Denny Hamlin pulling out '11 against the world' flag

Denny Hamlin held the flag up proudly after his dominant win in Sunday’s race at Martinsville. “11 against the world,” the flag read, a nod to the Ohio State football team.

But Hamlin against the world has sort of become his mantra. Fans shower him with boos during pre-race introductions. That was the case at Martinsville but oddly enough, those boos turned to cheers from a segment of the crowd in attendance after his victory burnout. But Hamlin went ahead anyways and lifted up the flag. FOX Sports analyst Kevin Harvick wishes he didn’t do it, he said on Tuesday’s “Happy Hour” podcast.

“For Denny, this was an important moment. I wish he would have just stayed out of the car right there and not pulled that flag out because everybody was cheering,” Harvick said. “Everybody was cheering, and Denny was in a great spot and then he pulled the flag out and I don’t know if it was all cheers because right now, I think everybody is learning a lot about Denny Hamlin. I think he takes a lot of flak for a lot of the things that he says on his podcast, taunting the fans and all of the things that come with this.”

Hamlin probably wasn’t expecting the cheers. He discussed the moment on Monday’s “Actions Detrimental” podcast.

“I feel like the fans cheered more,” Hamlin said. “… That’s what makes me so excited because there was a lot of boos in pre-race during the intros. But like, what do you got to boo now? I just beat your favorite driver again. It killed me not to say it but that’s what I love is being able to silence those people and give them the ol’ shh, it’s night-night time.”

Kevin Harvick compliments Denny Hamlin’s leadership

That’s just who Hamlin is, one of NASCAR‘s villains. He’s also a great racecar driver, and he showed why at Martinsville. The 44-year-old led 274-of-400 laps, winning his 55th Cup Series race and first at Martinsville since 2015. It was Hamlin’s first victory since last April at Dover and on top of that, win No. 1 for Chris Gayle atop the pit box for the No. 11 team. 

Making the transition to a new crew chief at this stage in his career wasn’t easy. But seven races in, it’s a winning partnership. That says a lot about Hamlin as a leader, Harvick said.

“Denny’s a leader. He puts a lot of work into his craft. This is hard,” Harvick said. “He had a crew chief change and hearing him talk about having to make a decision, did he want to put the work and the time to another crew chief. He had a great system with Chris Gabehart, a circle of life that was well balanced and bringing Chris Gayle in, he knew this was going to be disruption to the rest of his life.

“And he put the time and the effort to get through the offseason, the first few weeks of the season and here we are six weeks or so into the season and he’s in Victory Lane. I think that says a lot about who he is as a driver and a leader.”