Denny Hamlin thought a little Snickers advice would get under Hendrick Motorsports’ skin, but Rick Hendrick apparently wasn’t ready to let the joke slide. Back in July, with Hamlin leading the championship picture and HMS enduring an unusually frustrating regular season, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver suggested the organization and its supporters needed to have a Snickers. It was a cheeky dig at one of NASCAR’s most successful teams, but the remark did not disappear as quickly as Hamlin might have expected. Months later, Kyle Larson has shed light on what happened behind the scenes after Rick turned the joke around with a Snickers-themed championship celebration photo.

“I think that was all Rick. I’m sure I heard the podcast clip a long time ago whenever it happened, but it didn’t bother me, or I didn’t remember. Recently, probably a couple of months ago, I heard Rick bring it back up. I was like, okay, he took it personal. I’m sure he thought all along if we won the championship, he should poke some fun back at him. I thought that was a good little touch,” Kyle Larson revealed just how much thought went into Hendrick Motorsports’ post-championship celebration after Denny Hamlin’s earlier dig at the organization.

On November 9, a day after Larson secured his third Cup Series title at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Hendrick shared a photograph featuring Larson, crew chief Cliff Daniels, Rick Hendrick and Jeff Gordon. All four were holding Snickers bars and taking bites beside the newly won Bill France Cup. The caption read, “Feeling like ourselves again.” It was a deliberate callback to Hamlin’s suggestion that Hendrick needed a Snickers during its difficult summer stretch.

The original remark came during a late-July episode of Hamlin’s Actions Detrimental podcast. Following a disappointing Brickyard 400, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver discussed the frustration among Hendrick supporters online. The organization had gone three consecutive races without putting a car inside the top 10, and Hamlin had noticed fans comparing its struggles to the final season of Stewart-Haas Racing.

“The old Hendrick bros, they’re starting to get in there,” Hamlin said, before delivering the line that would eventually come back to haunt him: “They need to have a Snickers. They’ve not been [themselves] in a while.” He acknowledged that the team’s performance did not reflect its usual speed, pointing to the expectations attached to its legacy. “When I see William Byron in 12th, that’s mind-boggling to me,” he added.

Hamlin’s assessment was not entirely without justification at the time. Hendrick had struggled to convert speed into results, while Larson was experiencing one of the longest winless stretches of his Cup career. The No. 5 team had last won at Kansas in May 2025, and the drought continued through the opening 26 races of the 2026 season. Larson entered the Chase as the seventh seed, 55 points behind top-seeded Hamlin. The latter, meanwhile, had established himself as one of the championship favorites after a strong regular season.

But the new Chase format gave Larson and Hendrick an opportunity to change the narrative. Larson broke his 51-race winless streak at Gateway in September, then delivered another statement at Kansas, sweeping both stages and leading 235 laps. His Talladega victory was even more dramatic. After falling to 11th on the final lap, he charged back through the field to take the win and build a 73-point championship advantage.

By the time the series reached Homestead, Larson had turned his season around and needed only nine points to secure the title. He collected seven in the opening stage, enough to mathematically eliminate Hamlin and Christopher Bell from contention.

That made the Snickers photograph more than a playful social media post. Hendrick had endured the slump Hamlin highlighted, but Larson and the No. 5 team had answered with a championship run that left the No. 11 driver watching from the sidelines. Hamlin finished sixth at Homestead, while Larson secured his second consecutive title (third overall) and Hendrick’s record 16th Cup championship.

This was not the first time Hamlin’s comments had prompted a pointed response from Hendrick. In 2021, Hamlin called Alex Bowman “just a hack” after contact between the two at Martinsville cost him the lead. Hendrick defended his driver at a press conference, noting that Bowman had won four races that season compared with Hamlin’s two. His response was just as sharp: “But if he’s a hack I’d like to have more of them.”

Hamlin also reignited the conversation about Hendrick’s influence in Chevrolet’s competition structure after Talladega in October 2026. Discussing manufacturer instructions and support for Larson, he placed Hendrick above Chevrolet in the chain of command and claimed other Chevy teams ultimately answered to Rick. He went as far as saying teams had to “su** at the teat of the master.” That was another pointed criticism of Hendrick’s influence, although it was a separate issue from the earlier Snickers joke.

Larson’s comments suggest Hendrick does not simply brush off every jab directed at his organization. As the team owner himself, he follows the conversation, remembers the criticism, and clearly appreciates a chance to answer it on the track. This time, he had a championship trophy, four Snickers bars and a photograph that Hamlin could hardly miss.