It's been a magical season for Denny Hamlin.
The driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Toyota is currently third in the point standings, has a series-high five victories this year and trails points leader Kevin Harvick by just 47 markers.
Hamlin, 29, concedes that without the sacrifices made by his father Dennis and mother Mary Lou, his current success would not be possible.
“We had a family business and we put that on the line many, many times,” Hamlin said of his parents‘ Chesterfield Trailer and Hitch company. “We would sell a trailer to be able to buy some tires. We’d put on a hitch and be able to buy something else for the race car. We kept going and going and kind of used any kind of revenue that we had from our family business to keep our weekly program going in the late model series.
“The biggest influence he had was obviously the financial support and I’d say my mom was more of the driving force to keep things going. My dad was more of the voice of reason, saying hey we have to reach a point where we can’t afford it anymore so we have to think about that.”
Hamlin’s desire to offer his dad a token of appreciation came in the form of a ‘55 Chevy that was left in his parents’ driveway. Hamlin tweeted on June 12 about the Father’s Day gift and added the sentiment, “Love ya pops”.
“We used to be into that before we got into racing — old-time show cars,” Hamlin said. “He always wanted a ‘55. He had a ‘57 way back in the day. So he found one and went to see it in Florida. Of course, every time we had lunch, he would remind me that that was the car that he wanted. It was a pretty basic, pretty original — it’s kind of a baby bluish ‘55 Chevy.”
Ironically, Denny’s mom tweeted that when the elder Hamlin was tooling around in his ride last week, the car ran out of gas.
“That’s funny,” said Hamlin, who hadn’t heard the update. “It doesn’t surprise me.”
