Be honest, how many of you already knew that Denny Hamlin’s legal first name is not Denny? I didn’t, and I’ve been covering NASCAR for more than 25 years.
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As it turns out, Denny’s real name is somewhat of a mouthful: James Dennis Alan Hamlin. But that also explains why Hamlin and longtime partner Jordan Fish chose to name their third child together and first son “Jameson.”
Or more precisely, Jameson Drew Hamlin, an homage to someone who essentially discovered Hamlin when he was toiling away in late model races early in his career.
“I’m James, that’s James’s son, Jameson,” Hamlin said. “And Drew, we wanted to keep J.D. ’cause obviously J.D. Gibbs is a big, big part of my getting here to the Cup Series. James Dean was the car owner I drove for in late models that got me the equipment to win all of those races to get seen by J.D. (Gibbs). I’m J.D., so we are just keeping it going.”
So the newborn is not James Dennis Alan Hamlin Jr. or James Dennis Alan Hamlin II. Here’s how Hamlin introduced his newest member of the family — his long-hoped-for first son. And it’s been so far, so good.
“(Jameson has) been great,” Hamlin said. “He’s slept through the night the last three nights in a row. So it’s been really, really great.”
Hamlin shares the story behind his son’s birth
Jordan’s delivery was a rough and lengthy labor. Hamlin expanded on the story of his son’s birth during Saturday’s media availability at Pocono Raceway, site of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup race.
“Truthfully, before Thursday I was going to go to the weekend as scheduled,” Hamlin said. “The labor was tremendous and we knew we would have to be there longer than normal and I just said there’s no way I could leave in the next 36 hours, which is what I needed to go there and do the job correctly.
“If we were racing at Darlington I would have been there on race day. It was just bad timing from a logistical standpoint. You have twelve hours of logistics just to get to Mexico and it didn’t make any sense to me knowing that those few days after can be a fragile time and I can’t just hop back in the plane and easily come home once I’m there.”
Hamlin is the Pocono king
Pocono has been Hamlin’s most successful track, with a career-high seven wins, 16 top-fives and 23 top-10 finishes in 35 career Cup starts. But that’s not good enough for Hamlin.
“I mean (I’m) truthfully disappointed it’s not better than that,” Hamlin quipped. “We’ve had some tough engine breaks and things like that that’s happened here.
“It’s just a track that no matter what the car that we drive or the tires that we have on, the aero package — none of that really matters. You still make speed at this racetrack the same way, no matter what car you’re driving.
“It’s been one of the few tracks that I haven’t had to change my approach to it depending on the car that I’m driving, so I think that’s why the success has been sustained.”
And maybe Hamlin will add to his incredible record at Pocono, one no other active driver comes close to.
