Kyle Larson makes comically ironic Denny Hamlin 'hate' claim

Hendrick Motorsports' Kyle Larson was in a class of his own at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday afternoon, just as he was at the track back in September.

Combining the two 500-lap races around the four-turn, 0.533-mile (0.858-kilometer) high-banked Bristol, Tennessee oval, Larson led a total of 873 laps.

Prior to his back-to-back wins at the track, another driver had done the same at Bristol, winning in September 2023 and adding a victory in March 2024, and that same driver entered Sunday's Food City 500 with two straight Cup Series wins to his name.

That driver, Joe Gibbs Racing's Denny Hamlin, finished in second place behind Larson after winning at Martinsville Speedway and Darlington Raceway.

Kyle Larson makes laughably ironic Denny Hamlin claim

Hamlin is one of the few drivers for whom you can hear more boos than cheers when he wins a Cup Series race, and Martinsville and Darlington both demonstrated that. The fact that they happened only seven days apart probably even magnified the expectedly negative reaction.

So after Larson won at Bristol, he made sure to go after additional recognition for being the one driver who stopped Hamlin from achieving the first three-race winning streak of his career.

The irony of it is that Larson literally gift-wrapped Hamlin the Darlington victory, securing him his first set of back-to-back wins in nearly 13 years.

Team Penske's Ryan Blaney had just worked his way past 23XI Racing's Tyler Reddick for the race lead and appeared to be well on his way to his first win of the 2025 season.

When Blaney got around Reddick, Reddick brushed the wall slightly, and Larson, running 167 laps down after crashing three laps into the race, completely overreacted to the light contact from several car lengths back and checked up right in front of 23XI Racing's Bubba Wallace, leading to contact and another spin.

That set up pit stops for fresh tires and an overtime restart, and it was Hamlin who vaulted from third place to first in the pits and then went on to take the checkered flag with very little pressure from behind.

He even thanked Larson (and his pit crew, of course) for it afterward.

As expected, a contingent of angry fans tried to pin Larson's second mistake of the day on Wallace, but to no avail, as the facts and data revealed otherwise.

But all things considered, it makes Larson's claim about seeing Hamlin win laughably ironic, in that if not for the driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet causing a late caution, Blaney probably goes on to win at Darlington, and Hamlin doesn't particularly get close to achieving the back-to-back wins he had heading into Bristol.

The Cup Series is off this weekend for Easter. Action is scheduled to resume on Sunday, April 27 with the Jack Link's 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, which is set to be broadcast live on Fox beginning at 3:00 p.m. ET. Start a free trial of FuboTV today and don't miss any of the action!