Denny Hamlin wants to be NASCAR's Michael Jordan; there's only one problem

Every sport needs a villain, and in the NASCAR Cup Series, no driver in recent years has played himself up in that role more than Denny Hamlin. That was the case once again on Sunday, when after winning the Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway, he unveiled a flag reading "11 against the world".

It's far from the first time Hamlin has put a psychological target on his back in this manner, and it's easy to see where he gets it from. His close friend and 23XI Racing co-owner is Michael Jordan, quite possibly the greatest trash-talking, grudge-holding “love him or love to hate him” heel in the history of professional sports.

Throughout his legendary NBA career, it was always MJ against the world. Any negative word ever spoken about him was a threat, and anything deemed a threat was fuel for him to make a statement. His hyper-competitive nature was a major part of what made him such an iconic figure, the type of figure who transcended the game of basketball.

Of course, there was also something else that made Jordan so legendary – in fact, many things.

Six NBA championships. Five Most Valuable Player awards. 10 league scoring titles. Depending on who you ask, he is either the best or second-best player to ever play the game of basketball. He was, at the absolute bare minimum, the dominant force of his era, and that’s why he could get away with talking his talk. He could walk the walk, and he had all the hardware to prove it.

Hamlin, meanwhile? Despite racking up 55 wins in the NASCAR Cup Series, he is still searching for that elusive championship in his 20th full season at the sport’s top level. Even without the randomness of NASCAR’s playoffs, he has never scored the most points in a season.

He has never led the most laps in a season. He has won the most races in a season once, all the way back in 2010. He’s raced in several different eras, and in each and every one of them, there has always been someone else who is better.

All of NASCAR’s other great villains, from Dale Earnhardt and Darrell Waltrip to Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch, had championship pedigrees.

They had extended periods of time in which they were the guy to beat on the track, as opposed to "a" guy. Hamlin has always merely been "a" guy, just another one of the sport’s several very good drivers.

To his credit, the three-time Daytona 500 winner has had an impressive run of longevity that’s allowed him to compile some gaudy numbers – but nonetheless, there has never been a Denny Hamlin Era. And at 44 years of age, it’s a pretty safe bet that there never will be.

Hamlin can channel his inner Jordan all he wants with his trash talk. But Jordan was the GOAT. If Hamlin is the GOAT of anything, it's as NASCAR's all-time greatest "a guy" who has never been the guy. It may be him against the world, but when it all matters most, the world remains undefeated. Until that changes, his insistence on doing the driver in the Cup Series with the biggest target on his back comes across as forced and empty.