After Tragedy, Denny Hamlin Carrying Late Father's Reminiscence to the Monitor

[ad_1] Denny Hamlin had an unimaginable NASCAR offseason, and he enters the 2026 Cup Sequence season — beginning with Sunday's Daytona 500 — with a heavy coronary heart.

After he misplaced the 2025 Cup championship late within the season finale and following his 23XI Racing group's authorized settlement towards NASCAR, a real tragedy hit him and his household. In December, his father, Dennis Hamlin, died at 75 years outdated in a home fireplace, which additionally severely injured his mom. He just lately defined to FOX Sports activities' Bob Pockrass how supportive NASCAR followers have been all through the offseason.

"2025 was a really making an attempt yr," Hamlin instructed FOX Sports activities' Tom Rinaldi in a pre-race characteristic on "NASCAR RaceDay." "How am I going to answer this? And do I reply by entering into a nook and shriveling up, or do I simply come out and say, 'I am more durable due to this'?"

Hamlin spoke in-depth in regards to the sacrifices his household made to assist him get into racing when he was a baby dreaming of profitable the Daytona 500. He is now a three-time Daytona 500 champion (2016, 2019, 2020), however hasn't forgotten how his dad and mom mortgaged their home a number of occasions to get him there.

"My dad's position, basically, was incomes a extremely onerous dwelling to ensure he may help his son's dream," Hamlin mentioned. "My dad and mom opened up each bank card that got here within the mail."

Hamlin recalled how he first realized in regards to the tragic fireplace at his dad and mom' home and the way his mother introduced his dad from the bed room to the entrance yard in an effort to flee.

"I used to be simply driving so quick to attempt to get there, and so they mentioned that they had already been taken to a hospital," Hamlin recalled. "What made it actual for me was seeing my dad. Once I noticed him laying there after he had handed, I knew that it was actual in that second, and clearly, I noticed how burned he was. At the moment, I felt for my mother. She noticed all of it first hand."

(Picture by Jeff Robinson/Icon Sportswire by way of Getty Photos)

Whereas Hamlin's dad and mom have been usually on his thoughts when he was behind the wheel, he is now racing to honor his father too, along with his mom, Mary Lou Hamlin, in attendance on the 2026 Daytona 500.