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Denny Hamlin may have featured a Carl Edwards throwback tribute paint scheme at Darlington Raceway on Sunday, but he didn't emulate the retired NASCAR star's iconic backflip celebration. He cited not being as athletic as Edwards to pull off the flip.
Piloting the #11 Toyota Camry, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver beat William Byron, who led for 243 of 297 laps, to the line by 0.597 seconds for his second consecutive win of the 2025 season. He capitalized on a strong pit stop on the final caution to overtake the then-race leader Ryan Blaney from the pit road.
With Denny Hamlin sporting Carl Edwards's '06 Office Depot livery, many looked forward to him doing a backflip, but to no avail. In an X (formerly Twitter) post by veteran NASCAR reporter Bob Pockrass, the 44-year-old explained why he didn't try to emulate Edwards' iconic celebration.
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"I think he (Carl Edwards) said, 'Don't win this race. You might make you do a backflip.' I said there's no chance. I wouldn't make it... I probably would break the back of my head because I wouldn't even get a full 180 flip," Hamlin said. [start of video]
"He is way more athletic than I am in that sense," he added.
Nevertheless, Hamlin was honored to pay tribute to Carl Edwards, his former teammate at Joe Gibbs Racing from 2015 to 2016.
"I just told him it was an honor to carry the scheme because truthfully, me and Carl probably talked more now or have talked more now that he's out of the sport," the #11 driver stated.
As Denny Hamlin competes in his 20th full-time NASCAR Cup Series season, Carl Edwards is set to return to the sport as a TV broadcaster. The former JGR driver, who retired after the 2016 season, agreed to a five-race broadcasting gig as a race analyst for Amazon Prime Video.
"They actually care about the sport": Carl Edwards on returning to NASCAR with Prime
Carl Edwards explained his decision to take the mic as a NASCAR analyst this year. The 45-year-old said he wanted to be part of Prime Video after getting a sense of the team's enthusiasm for stock car racing.
In an interview with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio via X, Edwards stated:
"Randy Fuller (former Roush Racing and JGR senior media relations manager) said, 'Hey, Amazon's going to do some of these races. It's five races and they want to talk to you.' And it struck me at the time. I thought, man, five races, my kids are kind of getting into racing. My family is asking questions about what my career was like. Maybe this will be cool." [0:22]
The 28-time Cup race winner added:
"And so these guys came out and we just basically ran around Columbia, Missouri and did my normal day. And I realized this is a part of the family. Like this is the family I want to be a part of. Cool people, they actually care about the sport." [1:22]
Carl Edwards will cover the sport in the studio with Corey LaJoie and Danielle Trotta. Dale Earnhardt Jr., Adam Alexander, and Steve Letarte will be part of the broadcasting booth, while the pit road reporter roster includes Kim Coon, Trevor Bayne, and Marty Snider.
Prime will commence its five-race broadcasting package in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 25 and conclude at Pocono Raceway.
