Denny Hamlin is the NASCAR Cup driver fans most love to hate. But, in many ways, he also epitomises the type of driver they most covet – one that worked his way up by talent and wasn’t handed the keys to a high-profile ride because he came with a lot of money.
It’s a complex contradiction that has enveloped Hamlin in the twilight of his driving career, but one he has come to embrace and admittedly doesn’t fully understand.
Race fans cringe when young drivers gain access to top rides especially when it’s because they come with big money sponsorship or a big check from their parents. They may or may not also have the talent to match the money, but in NASCAR circles, “earning’ rides through success up the lower-level series is seen as a sort of rite of passage.
Hamlin’s NASCAR journey is all of that – and more.
He raced Late Models in Virginia, growing up in cars funded by his family, who nearly went broke until he was discovered by the late president of Joe Gibbs Racing, J.D. Gibbs, and given the opportunity to run five Truck races and one Xfinity race with their backing in 2004.
“I didn’t have anything handed to me. I had to work really, really hard for it,” Hamlin tells Autosport. “I worked a blue-collar job just like most everyone else has. I don’t know how many people in the field of NASCAR drivers right now actually had to work fast food or had to work as a welder or a fabricator in their dad’s shop.”
A full-time move to Cup funded by Fortune 500 company FedEx came in 2006 and 51 wins and nearly 17 years later, Hamlin – now age 42 – remains just as competitive as ever.
Source: Autosport