“They were identifying him by his failures”: Denny Hamlin reacts to $250M Rory McIlroy’s first Masters victory

NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin recently weighed in on Rory McIlroy’s landmark win at the 2025 Masters Tournament, held Sunday at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia. McIlroy’s long-awaited victory solidified his legacy in golf history, marking a major milestone in his already illustrious career.

Hamlin pilots the #11 Toyota Camry XSE for Joe Gibbs Racing, competing in his 20th full-time season in the Cup Series. Hamlin is a three-time Daytona 500 winner and also has 53 more race victories in NASCAR's top division; however, a Cup Series title still eludes the 44-year-old Toyota driver.

Highlighting a similar narrative, Hamlin shared his thoughts on Rory McIlroy's recent Masters victory, noting how the $250 million golfer (per Celebrity Net Worth) has managed to shift public perception. In a recent episode of the Actions Detrimental podcast, the 56-time Cup race winner said:

"For Rory it's like, there's a huge simple sense of accomplishment there because you know he controlled his destiny, he closed it out. It was looking like he wasn't going to close it out, Oh my gosh. But man, it's got to be a huge weight off because it's all people identified him with," [1:00:22 onwards]

"They weren't identifying him by his accomplishments, they were identifying him by his failures. And so for him, it's got to be just a great feeling to get that weight off of him. I mean, who knows, I think he'll be the favorite, one of the favorites to win the Masters for the next, I don't know 5-10 years,"

Rory McIlroy's victory in the 2025 Masters Tournament has made him the first European and only one of six male golfers to secure a career grand slam in Golf.

While there’s no confirmed personal relationship between Denny Hamlin and Rory McIlroy, the two have crossed paths on several occasions—most notably at events hosted by Hamlin’s former sponsor, FedEx. Interestingly, McIlroy holds the record for the most FedEx Cup wins with three, edging out golf legend Tiger Woods, who has two.

Meanwhile, Hamlin also secured two race wins in this year's Cup Series campaign, with his latest win coming in the Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway. The next stop for the #11 driver is Talladega this coming Sunday for the Jack Link's 500.

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Denny Hamlin reflects on Kyle Larson’s “more versatile” edge after Bristol win

Kyle Larson’s commanding run in the Food City 500 halted Denny Hamlin’s bid for a third-straight victory in the 2025 Cup Series season. The same streak has already been achieved earlier this season by his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Christopher Bell.

After finishing as runner-up, Denny Hamlin reflected on his performance, sharing his thoughts on coming up just short of another win.

"I think Larson was just a little bit more versatile than what I was and could navigate the traffic a little bit better. I felt like the bulk of my speed was made on the top, that was kind of the preferred lane during the race. Wasn't quite good enough and needed a little bit more speed, that's just kind of all we had." said Denny Hamlin

Meanwhile, Larson missed out on his second chance to secure a three-peat weekend this season after securing P2 in the Truck race at Bristol.