Denny Hamlin names Chase Elliott feud from 2017 a "big defining moment" of his NASCAR career

Denny Hamlin recently answered a question about one NASCAR moment he wants back or relive again. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver has been part of the sports' top flight for nearly two decades, and has won 54 races in his Cup career.

Hamlin's statistics rank him among some of the all-time greats of the sport. However, the #11 driver is yet to win the biggest prize of them all, the Cup Series championship.

And yet, the one moment from his career he wants to have back isn't related to his championship drought.

"The way fans feel about me probably changed in 2017, that was probably at Martinsville with Chase Elliott, that was probably one of the big defining moments for sure. I wish I could do that all over again. Certainly I feel like I would've made a lot of different choices in that moment, it'd be the one I'd like to have back, on the controversy and the track side," Denny Hamlin said on Dirty Mo Media.

When asked whether that moment changed his relationship with fans, he shared his take on fandom being an interesting aspect of NASCAR.

"When someone becomes a fan of something, they're going to see things from a different lens and not a subjective lens forever from that point on whether it is Hendrick fans or Chase Elliott fans ... certainly had a feeling towards me in some kind of way since then," Hamlin added.

Having said that, he also mentioned that fans not liking him doesn't affect him on the racetrack. And a fan wishing their favorite driver beats a driver they don't like or boo leads to a win-win situation for everyone in NASCAR, as per Hamlin.

Denny Hamlin has accepted that NASCAR fans won't ever embrace him completely

During an interview with Motorsport last year, Denny Hamlin opened up on him embracing the villain title in NASCAR. He claimed that he thought he was "a middle-of-the-road guy" in the context of fans loving or hating him.

He remarked that it was drivers like Joey Logano, Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt Jr. who incited extreme reactions from the fans, unlike him. But as some major names retired, Hamlin observed a need in fans to root against someone.

"For a while it was Joey. But he hasn’t really had track stuff that’s really fueled it of late and I think I probably have. I’m just kind of the heel of right now," Hamlin said.

Hamlin further connected his run-ins with Hendrick duo Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott, two of the most popular and adored drivers in the garage, as a catalyst towards fans disliking him. But Denny Hamlin added that fans won't let go of certain grudges against him "no matter what."

He claimed that he has come to accept that a certain amount of dislike for him will never go away, because, in their eyes, he is the one who did their favorite driver wrong.