Denny Hamlin secured his career’s 56th victory at the Darlington Raceway this month. The 44-year-old driver has come a long way from being the young rookie who won his maiden Cup Series race at the Pocono Raceway in 2006. Over these last two decades and 56 wins, the nature of his celebrations has changed in parallel with his personal life.
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Hamlin’s bride-to-be, Jordan Fish, spoke about how the parties filled with loud music, champagne, and craziness are now long gone. Now, it is just him, her, and their two young daughters at home after a race win. She said, “We used to celebrate and party and do all the things, but when you have kids, it’s kind of like, ‘Oh yeah. Let’s go to bed.'”
How Hamlin & family celebrated the victory at Martinsville
The win at Darlington was Denny Hamlin‘s second of the season. His first victory was at the Martinsville Speedway. Speaking about how the post-race celebrations went, Fish mentioned her surprise at fans waiting to meet Hamlin and watch him leave. The reason for her surprise was that the driver was usually met with boos at tracks like these.
She added how they’d stayed with the fans for around two hours and then driven home for another two hours. Hamlin had stayed on his phone replying to messages congratulating him while she drove. They’d bought drive-thru food on the way back and called it a day. One can imagine how stark a turnaround this must be from the days of old for Hamlin.
The Joe Gibbs Racing veteran currently awaits the next Cup Series race at the Talladega Superspeedway with a nice view of the points table in second place. Drafting-style tracks are largely unpredictable but that won’t stop him from giving it everything he has got to secure his third victory of the season.
