Denny Hamlin’s win at Pocono is greeted by boos after tangling with Kyle Larson

Give Denny Hamlin credit: He doesn’t mind being the villain.

And that’s especially true when it comes with a trip down Victory Lane.

The driver of the 11 car — whose longevity, talent and outspokenness have made him a household name in the NASCAR Cup Series — emerged from his car at the end of Sunday’s race to a showering of boos.

In response, Hamlin shrugged his shoulders, showed seven fingers to signify each time he’s won at Pocono Raceway — and then addressed the cantankerous crowd’s reaction with a sneer.

“I love it,” the 42-year-old driver told NBC Sports when asked about the crowd’s reaction. “They can boo my rock out here in a few years.”

Hamlin picked up his 50th win of his Cup career and contributed Toyota’s 600th win in NASCAR on Sunday. But he did so in a way that antagonized fans in the grandstands.

His popularity plummet truly began late in Stage 3, on Lap 149 of 160, when he appeared to be involved in an incident with Alex Bowman. Hamlin didn’t make contact with the 48, but Bowman was still mad in the moment with how Hamlin raced him. (Bowman’s radio after the run-in: “Sorry man, I don’t know what his {expletive} problem is.”)

Then, a few laps later on Lap 153, Hamlin entangled with fan-favorite Kyle Larson. On a restart, the 11 car appeared to push Larson up the racetrack and out of the outside groove. That move allowed the 11 to clear.

A yellow flag emerged shortly thereafter because a car in the back of the field spun out, and out of frustration, Larson ran all the way up to Hamlin and rammed him into the wall.

As far as Hamlin is concerned, he didn’t do anything wrong in either instance.

“Both guys wrecked themselves,” Hamlin said. “There was a line. He missed the corner first, and evidently he didn’t have his right-side tires clean, and when he gassed up, he just kept going again. You have an option in those positions to either hold it wide open and hit the fence, or lift and race it out. But those were choices they made. I didn’t hit either one of them. Didn’t touch them.”

Larson shed a different perspective on the incident post-race.

“I’ve been cost a lot of good finishes by him throughout my career,” said Larson, who finished P21 after leading Sunday’s penultimate restart. “And I know he says I race a certain way, but I don’t think I’ve ever had to apologize to him about anything. Not that I’m sure he’s going to say sorry after this.”

Larson added: “It is what it is. Yeah, we’re friends. Yes, this makes things... awkward. But, you know, whatever. He’s always right. All the buddies know that ‘Denny’s always right.’ So I’m sure he was in the right there as well. But it is what it is. I’m not going to let it tarnish a friendship, but I’m pissed. And I feel like I should be pissed.”

Larson said he feels that he has to start racing him differently considering the handful of times he feels Hamlin has wronged him on-track.

“Like he says,” Larson quipped, “you gotta start racing people a certain way to get the respect back.”

In the end, Hamlin emerged victorious in a race that saw 11 cautions for 44 laps, 14 lead changes and nine different leaders — and he went on to finish ahead of the field when a caution flag emerged on the final lap.

Tyler Reddick finished second, and Martin Truex Jr. finished third — punctuating a banner day for Toyota.

But as much as he’d like for the race to be remembered for his win, it’ll be remembered for his end-of-race tactics and how they panned out.

Larson, before departing his frontstretch interview, commented that Hamlin will find a way to explain why he’s right on his popular podcast, “Actions Detrimental.”

“Tune into Actions Detrimental,” Larson said. “He’ll have a long clip about it.”

Three extra observations from Pocono

▪ Austin Dillon clashes with former teammate to stir even more Stage 3 drama. The driver of the No. 3 car admitted that he and his team “sucked” for most of Sunday’s race — but just when he was finding his rhythm, running P11 in Stage 3, a wreck ended his day. What happened? Dillon and his former Richard Childress Racing teammate Tyler Reddick nudged into each other on Turn 1, sending Dillon straight to the fence and ending his day. Dillon — a former baseball player — responded by chucking his helmet at Reddick’s 45 car when the cars made the caution lap.

Dillon narrated the incident from his perspective after emerging from the infield care center.

“He was on my left-rear going in there when we were three-wide,” Dillon said. “I think I got my right to at least hold my lane. I mean, I gotta turn at some point to get down. Brad’s on the outside, maybe a half-lane up. But Tyler drove it in there. And I feel like he drove it in deep enough where he had to come up into me. ... I felt like that was not the time to do that.”

Dillon was then asked if he felt like he needed to talk to Reddick after the race.

“No,” he said, “I just need to start wrecking people.”

▪ Daniel Suárez is dealt a huge dose of bad luck in a Stage 1 restart wreck. The driver of the 99 car is one of a handful of drivers fighting for the last five stops to get into the playoffs on points. But Sunday didn’t help him. The Trackhouse Racing driver got nudged on an early restart and had to end his day early because of it. (Joey Logano also was involved in the crash and saw his day end early, too.)

“At the end of the day, it is our fault,” Suárez told NBC Sports. “We shouldn’t have been back there with those guys, with the squirrels.”

He added: “We just have to control what we can control. Unfortunately, this one, it wasn’t my mistake. It was a racing incident. The crazy thing is that the 34 and the 23 are the ones who actually wrecked me. They didn’t mean it, but it’s funny because those are the guys I’m racing for points. It is what it is.”

▪ Ty Gibbs has a statement day on the anniversary of his Cup debut. The 20-year-old driver got his chance in a Cup car after Kurt Busch wrecked and suffered a career-ending injury in qualifying at Pocono last summer. Gibbs finished fifth on Sunday, a year later, and it’s conceivable he can still make the playoffs on points.