“If you love ya some Rowdy, let me hear you go booooo,” is exactly how Kyle Busch embraced the tag of being NASCAR’s most hated driver back in the day. Despite the flak from fans and the one-finger salutes on every lap, his two championship wins and 63 Cup Series victory lane visits served as a fitting answer. It was almost as if Busch was channeling the criticism to fuel his career goals. But, a long time has gone by since then—Rowdy is about to turn 40 in a month, has two kids to teach the ropes of racing, and seems to have evolved into a true veteran. Of course, with some specs of his old self: Remember last year’s fistfight with Ricky Stenhouse Jr? Yet, the larger sentiment points toward a changed man. But if there’s one person who’s heavily capitalized on replacing the RCR driver, that would be Denny Hamlin.

Emerging as the new anti-hero, the exact opposite of “vanilla drivers” with no personalities, the 44-year-old has cleverly made it work. In his case, it wasn’t the frantic radio rant or winding up the fans on purpose, but rather his antics on the racetrack, and against Hendrick Motorsports drivers like Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson, in particular, that has put him on the spot time and again. To make matters worse, Hamlin also took it up a notch, popularizing perhaps one of the most polarizing statements in the sport. As the grandstands would reverberate with boos every time Hamlin would be mentioned, the latter would hit back with the iconic, “I beat your favorite driver ” line after every win.

Well, that’s ancient history now, thanks to a scolding episode Hamlin got from his father. But the driver is not one to run out of ideas, is he? In fact, he’s even come up with a new motto. After visiting Victory Lane for the first time this season at Martinsville, the veteran racer climbed onto his No. 11 Toyota’s doorsill and started waving a blue flag adorned with a mighty message: “11 Against The World.” The goal was simple: Riling up fans. So, when one fan decided to take his hate to the latest episode of Hamlin’s ‘Actions Detrimental podcast’, Hamlin couldn’t be more glad.

Almost at the end of the episode aired on April 7, the racer’s co-host Jared Allen pointed out a fan comment: “I got a review here from Richie. Richie says, ‘Denny gives great insight on the sport and his podcast has earned my respect. Five stars on the pod, but I’ll still give double ones on the track’.” To this, the #11 racer smiled and said, “Plenty of double ones this past weekend in Darlington. And I was thinking about it…I had an interview with Shannon Spake earlier this morning. I was like, I bet Kyle Bush wishes he got all the boos that he used to get. When you think about [it], he used to get a lot. But he was winning a lot, too…So, it’s great. Bring those double ones. I’ll keep harassing you as a driver.” 

Notably, this comes hours after Spake, a FOX Sports journalist, had pointed out during a conversation with the JGR veteran, “I think that there’s no such thing as bad publicity…You’re getting a reaction out of people, which I think is great. I love it.” Hamlin’s response? A classic case of ‘I DON’T CARE!’

“I don’t mind making people feel a certain kind of way. Whatever way they want to feel that’s okay with me. I just…as long as I don’t get claps, like when they introduce you…and you just get claps? That’s just…the worst. And so, I can tell you this: There’s no doubt in my mind that Kyle Bush wishes he got the boos now that he got a few years ago. Because it means that you’re up front and you’re doing a lot of good things,” Hamlin responded.

Well, looks like the Joe Gibbs Racing driver’s strategy is working. Lady luck was smiling down on the #11 team. With 4 laps to go in the Goodyear 400 this past weekend, Kyle Larson crashed and set up an overtime finish. But before that, the lead pack headed for fresh Goodyear tires, and the #11 team was on their A-game. Entering the pits in 3rd place, Hamlin cycled out as a leader, and he was pretty much uncontested during the two-lap shootout.

Well, after sending a clear message to the NASCAR fan base, Hamlin also talked about some serious business. This time around, he took direct shots at NASCAR’s trusted partner, FOX.

Hamlin calls out another major blunder from FOX

Well, things haven’t been smooth with how FOX has been covering NASCAR Cup Series races for the past few years. Cartoon graphics, untimely commercial breaks, and weird camera angles have plagued the viewer experience. Not to forget, FOX cameras at the Daytona 500 missed out on the Air Force Thunderbirds flyover before the race. And that is just one instance of their recurring mistakes.

We know that FOX has signed an exclusive deal to broadcast all the IndyCar races, and this could have been their direct response to NASCAR banking on streaming partners like Amazon Prime Video. But they still have 14 races in their kitty, and going by the fan outrage, they are slacking. Joining this discussion was Denny Hamlin, who couldn’t get his head around the sound output from the FOX broadcast.

“Is FOX‘s audio f—– up for anyone else? Like, I noticed [that] in my living room and in my bus, I have multiple speakers. I have a TV, and then I have speakers, a left and a right. But the audio during our races only comes out of our right speaker. It’s like it’s on analog.” He shared on his podcast.

Have you noticed the same? Let us know in the comments below!