In a July edition of Denny Hamlin’s podcast, Actions Detrimental, Hamlin was speaking about the then-struggling Hendrick Motorsports.
“They need to have a Snickers,” Hamlin said of HMS during the summer. “They’ve not been themselves in a while.”
Well, after beating Hamlin and the rest of Joe Gibbs Racing to the championship in November, the No. 5 team took a photo with Kyle Larson, Jeff Gordon, Cliff Daniels, and Rick Hendrick all eating a Snickers bar while standing next to the 2026 championship trophy, posting it as a reply to Hamlin’s podcast clip.
The caption on the photo read simply: “Feeling like ourselves again.”
On Tuesday after the season finale, the top drivers in NASCAR gathered for the annual award’s banquet, and Larson revealed that the entire jest was Mr. H’s idea.
“I think that was all Rick,” said Larson in a media scrum that included Motorsport.com. “Yeah, I was saying, I’m sure I heard the podcast clip or whatever a long time ago, whenever it happened, but it didn’t bother me or I didn’t remember. And then recently, probably a couple months ago, I heard Rick bring it back up. And so yeah, I was like, okay, he took it personal.
“I’m sure he thought along if he won the championship, we should poke some fun back at him. So I thought that was a good little touch.”
Larson later added: “He’s super competitive. So I love that about him. I think any driver, if their team owner was that competitive, should love it. He’s got social media. So he hears it all.”
This was Hendrick’s 16th NASCAR Cup Series championship in the last 32 years of competition, and Larson is now responsible for three of them.
When Hamlin was later told that Rick took it personally, Hamlin joked with a smile: “I didn’t expect anyone with a vest to understand it, no offense.”
He then suggested they give a Snickers to the other Hendrick drivers who didn’t win the championship.
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