Denny Hamlin has fired back at Jeff Gordon over comments the four-time NASCAR Cup Series champion made that insinuated that the Joe Gibbs Racing contender is ‘too controversial’ in a way that wouldn’t be welcome at Hendrick Motorsports.
Gordon, who now serves as the executive vice chairman to team owner Rick Hendrick, appeared on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio last month and was asked about Hamlin and his modern-day peers’ efforts to grow the sport by being more outspoken.
“What I do agree with is that Denny is trying to do things to stir up conversation, to get people to have an opinion, whether it’s a positive or a negative one, at least they have an opinion,” Gordon said. “The fact he’s embracing that, I’ll give him kudos all day long. Go for it. I wouldn’t want that to be one of our drivers.”
Why not?
“Because, it’s just too controversial,” Gordon added. “To me, it’s a distraction. I want our drivers to build a fan base by going out and winning races and by being themselves but not doing things …”
He paused.
“I think Denny is being himself but I also think it’s an alter ego as well,” he continued. “I want other guys in the sport to do that as well but if they come to Hendrick Motorsports, and you can call us stiff or whatever you want, we’re running a business and our business is to win races first, take care of our sponsors and let the sponsors market you — let the sport figure out how to market you. Build a brand through who you are on social media and be the best you that you can be.”
“If you really want to go to the race track and be the best that you can be, it’s hard to do that when you have a lot of distractions. If Denny thrives on that, great, but I don’t think it’s healthy when you have four drivers and you’re going into meetings together dealing with some of those things but that’s just my opinion.”
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Denny Hamlin answers Jeff Gordon with fiery response
It’s an opinion that Hamlin believes is stifling the sport’s growth when the topic came up on his podcast this week.
“What he is saying is that, ‘I like it, but I don’t like my guys to do it.’ Well, that sounds like a guy that I don’t want to go to war with,” Hamlin said on the podcast. “Like, I’ll go to war, but you get upfront. I mean, Jeff Gordon said that? I mean, that is, how to stunt NASCAR growth 101 — say, ‘ah, that’s too controversial for us. Call us stiff but, you know.’”
Hamlin has become extremely outspoken over the past two years as part of his personal expansion into team ownership with Michael Jordan at 23XI Racing. His personal brand has always been one that is a little controversial, both through his actions behind the wheel and his opinions about the state of the sport off the track.
He said Hendrick Motorsports drivers have great personalities but ones that are stifled by the Hendrick Motorsports system that Gordon said he supports.
“I’m wondering how his sponsors have marketed his drivers, because I think his drivers have great personality. Does anybody know? Nope. I haven’t seen much either,” Hamlin said.
“So he wants me to sit back? He’s not — he’s saying he likes it, but he thinks it’s a distraction if it was on his team. Thank God I don’t drive for him.”
Hamlin has once again advanced to the final eight in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs and has routinely been a fixture in the championship race over the past decade. He has 19 wins since 2019 and 51 overall — the most all-time without a championship.
“Has he been watching a race in the last twelve weeks,” Hamlin said of Gordon. “I don’t get it. … I go in Monday (meetings) and I’m a professional because that’s what professionals do. They go into a meeting and they act professional.”
Gordon enjoys music festivals, a point Hamlin used for his next jab, suggesting that the four-time champion might have clouded judgment.
“I think he’s been to one too many Burning Mans,” Hamlin said. “He is going against the logic that he said twelve months ago. … He’s basically saying that, ‘I want them to be tidy, not controversial.’ I couldn’t disagree more. I’m glad I drive for Joe Gibbs Racing. I’m glad I run my team the way I run my team, because I will never run my team saying things like that. That’s his opinion. He’s allowed to have that opinion. But certainly think that that’s the absolute wrong way to go if you want star power in this sport.”
And to his point, Gordon does seem to have about-faced his own expanded perspective about how his drivers should market themselves. He told the Sports Business Journal in 2022 that his drivers need to move out of their own comfort zones.
“I want our drivers to be organic and don’t want them to be anyone they’re not, but whatever you’re comfortable with, I want to see you go just outside that comfort zone,” Gordon said last year. “If you’re willing to put yourself in places people don’t expect you and you want to be there — the traditional sporting events and country music concerts are great, but let’s take that a step further — that’s what I’m trying to encourage our guys to do. I didn’t want to host Saturday Night Live [at first] — I was scared to death.”
Hamlin and Gordon are just going to agree to disagree for now about what outside the comfort zone entails.
In his current role as executive vice chairman, Gordon oversees drivers Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, William Byron, and Alex Bowman, while also being groomed himself to eventually take over for Hendrick as the top official at Hendrick Motorsports when the time comes.
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.