WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Since seeing his chances of winning the NASCAR Cup Series championship slip away at Phoenix Raceway last November, Denny Hamlin has endured a turbulent offseason that included family tragedy.
Hamlin met the media for the first time this season prior to Wednesday’s Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium.
Not only did Hamlin, 45, play a pivotal role in the antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR and its settlement, but shortly after Christmas his dad (Dennis) and mom (Mary Lou) were injured in a house fire on Dec. 28. Hamlin’s dad died a few days later.
“Every day is a new challenge. Certainly priorities definitely shifted in the offseason, just doing non racing stuff. I’ve had a day at the race shop since Phoenix,” Hamlin said. “It’s just going to take a little while to get back into the swing of things. I’ve been doing my work the last 20 something years and this is a kind of a good warm up to that.
“Certainly has not been an easy offseason by any means. I’m sure I’m in a different headspace than most of the competitors that have been rip roaring ready to go racing the last month or so. I’m probably in a different spot than that. I would appreciate a few more months, but I don’t have that but we’ll just kind of see how it goes.”
Hamlin also tipped that he’ll be racing injured during the coming season.
“Got some unfortunate news that I re-tore my shoulder that I had from 2024. I’m going to go into the season the way I was before there,” he explained. “I don’t think that it ever healed properly, there were just some issues. Kind of a little after the season it was nagging me a bit and took a little fall at my mom’s house going through all the rubble and stuff. It didn’t feel right and got it scanned and they said it had re-tore again.”
Hamlin said his mom is improving.
“She’s getting better. She’s actually down in Florida with some family this week,” Hamlin said. “She’s definitely getting better physically and mentally certainly will take some time. She’s getting in a better place.”
The 60-time Cup Series winner acknowledged that his perspective has changed as he continues to chase his first series championship.
“I think certainly it’s different. The easy thing for me to say is poor me, but I still have a fantastic life, a great family,” Hamlin said. “A lot of people go through tragedies. A lot of people go through what happened. What happened to me in the offseason was highly publicized, but there’s probably tons of stories that have happened to other crew members that happened this offseason and during the season that nobody knows about.
“Everyone has their times where they have to go through tough moments. I think those are building moments for your character and how your respond to it,” Hamlin continued. “This season for me could go one of two ways and I think not much of a middle road. It’s going really one way or really the other way. It’s up to me which was I decided to turn. Right now, my focus is keeping this thing on the right track and spending these last couple of years accomplishing everything that I want to before my career is over.”
