NASCAR: Getting to Know Denny Hamlin
Ever wonder how your favorite NASCAR drivers got their start in racing, or what they like to do in their free time between races? This week I am debuting a series on getting to know your favorite drivers, with interesting facts and stories about each driver in the Sprint Cup Series. The series will feature a driver from each race team every week.
I will begin with Joe Gibbs Racing this week, and its senior driver: Denny Hamlin.
To begin, you may not even know Denny’s real name, James Dennis Alan Hamlin. He himself hardly ever refers to his real name as he prefers to be called “Denny.” He was born on November 18th, 1980, in Tampa, Florida. Denny’s family moved to Chesterfield, Virginia very early in his life. It was after moving to Virginia that Denny Hamlin began racing, entering his first go-kart race at the age of 7 and winning the race, starting a tradition of winning that continues through today.
Hamlin began tearing it up in Virginia’s youth racing divisions. He was a champion of the Junior Restricted League at age 12, in addition to earning titles in the Virginia Dirt Karting Association and the World Karting Association Virginia Dirt Series. Denny continued to rack up go-kart victories through the age 15 with 127 feature wins and five championships in three classes. He then began racing late models in the NASCAR Dodge Weekly Series in 1997 and amassed over 50 wins in the series through 2002.
At an autograph session at just 10 years old, Hamlin told Joe Gibbs he would race for him some day. What seemed like an improbable claim at the time began to seem like a possibility in 2004, when Joe Gibbs signed him to a driver development contract. Denny began racing in NASCAR that same season, getting top 10s in his debuts in both the then-Busch Series and Craftsmen Truck Series.
Just 5 days after his Darlington Busch Series top 10, it was announced that he would be driving the No. 20 Chevrolet in the Busch Series full time in 2005. The No. 20 team did not win in 2005 but Hamlin earned valuable experience earning a fifth place points finish. It was his Sprint Cup experience late in the ’05 season that gained him widespread publicity.
Joe Gibbs Racing expanded to a third team in 2005 with the No. 11 car being added to compliment the No. 18 and No. 20 teams in the Cup Series. Jason Leffler was announced as the driver for the No. 11 that year. Leffler struggled so mightily that Gibbs released him before the end of the season. Hamlin was selected to fill in with hopes of turning the teams fortunes around at Kansas. In the final 7 races of the season, Hamlin earned three top 10 finishes in the No. 11 car, compared to none for Leffler. His pole award at in the penultimate race at Phoenix really put his name on the map, including me recognizing him as a young gun myself.
It was announced in the off-season following that season that Gibbs would continue running the No. 11 with Denny Hamlin as the driver. In just two seasons the driver had gone from the Late Model Series to a full-time Sprint Cup Series driver.
The 2006 season would be very kind to Denny. Hamlin started a winning feel right away in the No. 11 with a victory in the Budweiser Shootout. He would go on to earn one of the best rookie campaigns in Sprint Cup Series history, earning his first two Cup victories in a season sweep of the Pocono races and a third place points finish. In his first win in the Pocono 500, Denny and the No. 11 team overcame great adversity when the car suffered a blown tire while Denny was leading the race. The team made repairs and had such a dominant car that they came back to get the No. 11 to Victory Lane. He would go on to win the Rookie of the Year and add his first career Busch Series wins in the same season.
Since that 2006 season, Hamlin has been the only driver besides Jimmie Johnson to win a race in each season over the last 10 years. He has amassed 26 wins on the premier circuit with the No. 11 team, including 5 at Martinsville, and victories in the Southern 500 and the Sprint All-Star Race. Denny also has won 14 Xfinity Series races and 2 Camping World Truck Series races as well. His relationship with FedEx has been one of the most consistent and successful sponsorships in NASCAR history.
Outside of racing Hamlin enjoys golf, basketball, boating, traveling, skiing, playing cards and raising awareness for Cystic Fibrosis research through the Denny Hamlin Foundation. He has had multiple injuries relating to his basketball play, including this past season, although none of them have had a direct impact on his racing.
His racing has been impacted for other injuries over the past few seasons though, most notably the 2013 incident with Joey Logano at Auto Club Speedway. In the final laps of the race, Logano and Hamlin fought fiercely for the victory but ended up crashing in the final corner of the race, allowing Kyle Busch to pick up the victory. Denny crashed into the inside retaining wall head-on, a wall without SAFER barrier protection. It was announced the next day that Hamlin had suffered a massive L1 compression fracture, or a collapsed vertebra. Hamlin would be forced to miss four races because of the injury. One year later Hamlin would return to Auto Club and once again encounter health concerns, having to be replaced mid-race by Sam Hornish Jr. because of sinus issues relating to a piece of metal lodged in his eye. In 2015, Hamlin had to be relieved at Bristol by Erik Jones after a rain delay because of severe neck spasms. Despite the health issues in recent years, Hamlin has managed to earn top 10 points finishes in the last two seasons.
Hamlin’s personal life has also had many positive aspects in recent memory. He began dating professional model and dancer Jordan Fish four years ago after for an 8 year relationship with high school sweetheart Kristin Buntain. Fish and Hamlin had their first child in 2013, Taylor Jordan Hamlin, born on January 20th. Denny and Jordan’s relationship is still going strong today, with each of them posting Twitter updates of the family often.
More racing: NASCAR: Rusty Wallace's Five Most Significant Wins
While it is still strange calling him the “senior” driver at JGR, Denny Hamlin has enjoyed great success in the Sprint Cup Series over his 11 year career. From humble beginnings in Chesterfield, Virginia to a meteoric rise to NASCAR stardom in just two seasons, Denny Hamlin surely burst onto the scene but has been a staple in Victory Lane throughout his career. The man behind the wheel of the No. 11 Toyota is still in his prime and will be a threat to win the Sprint Cup title for many years to come.