Hamlin on fans: ‘If you wreck someone they really like, they just don’t like you’

After winning Thursday's Short Track Showdown at Langley Speedway, Denny Hamlin heard something he hadn't heard in Virginia in a while. Cheers. "That was a welcome change," Hamlin said Friday at Richmond Raceway. RELATED: Hamlin connects on a night celebrating short-track roots The Chesterfield, Virginia, native heard more boos than usual at the series' second Virginia track Martinsville Speedway last October when he made contact with Chase Elliott, spinning out his Chevrolet. Elliott's strong fan base didn't help Hamlin's cause in that instance, as many cheered when Elliott spun Hamlin out two weeks later at Phoenix. But it's nothing new; the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing driver cited another well-known racing incident that saw a similar scenario play out. "I think fans live in the moment," he said. "... I forgot the year Rusty wrecked Jeff Gordon off of Turn 2, but I remember sitting in my seat and the crowd went crazy because they hated Jeff so bad. A few years later, Jeff’s their favorite driver. Fans are fickle, and you can’t please them all the time. I found that out pretty quick. "It doesn’t matter where you’re from, if you wreck someone they really like, they just don’t like you."