When NASCAR star Denny Hamlin punched his ticket to the NASCAR Cup Series Championship 4 with a win in Las Vegas in October, his thoughts were with his father, who couldn’t be there – Dennis Hamlin was battling an undisclosed terminal illness.
“Obviously just want to say ‘hi’ to my dad and family back at home,” Denny Hamlin said in Victory Lane, his voice cracking, as he went on to talk about the significance of getting career win #60, and his goal to win a Cup Series championship before his father passed.
Hamlin came up short in his quest to win the 2025 Cup Series title, with Hamlin, a graduate of Manchester High School in Chesterfield County, on the verge of taking the championship, done in by a late wreck that sent the championship race in Phoenix to OT in a final result that our NASCAR writer, Rod Mullins, described as a “gut punch.”
The Hamlin family is taking another gut punch; a fire at the Stanley, N.C., home of Dennis and Mary Lou Hamlin took the life of Dennis, and has Mary Lou in a burn unit fighting for her life.
The cause of the Sunday night fire at the two-story, four-bedroom home, which is a complete loss, is not yet known.
The home was owned by Denny Hamlin, his way of paying back his parents, who he has said sacrificed practically everything to fund their son’s dreams to make it big in auto racing.
“My parents had very normal jobs, but they found a way,” Hamlin has said, detailing how his parents took out second and third mortgages, ran up massive credit-card bills.
“The arguments I had to listen to. I’m in my room and my mom and dad are going at it. One is saying, I can’t do it anymore, the other one saying, Please, just one more week.
“It’s great it’s all paid off. Certainly, they got the life now that they deserved before I decided to do this.”
Video: Denny Hamlin tragedy
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Chris Graham
