Dennis Hamlin, the father of 51-time NASCAR Cup Series race winner Denny Hamlin, wants his son to be a little more publicly humble.
After winning the Busch Clash over the weekend, Hamlin once again returned to an infamous taunt he debuted after winning the Bristol Night Race last fall, one in which he responds to jeering fans by telling them ‘I beat your favorite diver, all of them,’ to elicit even more boos.
He brough it back on Saturday and the elder Hamlin didn’t like it, according to his son, speaking on his latest Actions Detrimental podcast.
“Breaking news,” Hamlin said. “I’m going to retire the ‘I beat all your favorite drivers’ because I got a text and those of you saw the Netflix special with my dad, he sent me a text.
“He says, ‘Son, you got to stop that. I don’t like it, it’s just too cocky’. I’m going to listen to dad on this one, so we’re going retire (it.) That’s the last time. I think jokes are always funnier the first time you say it, not the second, or third, or whatever anyway.
“We’ll come up with something new next time around but ‘I beat your favorite driver, all of them’ is officially going to go down in the history books, it’s done.”
The elder Hamlin wasn’t the only one to take exception to it as running back that line a second time garnered a similar response on social media too. Even veteran racer and NBC Sports analyst Kyle Petty said it was time to move on.
“I beat your favorite driver,” Petty said in a social media clip. “That’s the way he closed of the season last year, and that’s the way he starts the season this year. But, you know what? Get another tagline, dude. It worked the first time. I’m not so sure about the second time. We’re going to get tired of hearing it, and I know everybody’s favorite driver is going to get tired of you beating them.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.