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NASCAR, Motorsport, USA Hollywood Casino 400 Sep 10, 2023 Kansas City, Kansas, USA NASCAR Cup Series driver Denny Hamlin 11 walks to the track before the NASCAR Cup Series Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway. Kansas City Kansas Speedway Kansas USA, EDITORIAL USE ONLY PUBLICATIONxINxGERxSUIxAUTxONLY Copyright: xAmyxKontrasx 20230910_ams_df8_0338
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NASCAR, Motorsport, USA Hollywood Casino 400 Sep 10, 2023 Kansas City, Kansas, USA NASCAR Cup Series driver Denny Hamlin 11 walks to the track before the NASCAR Cup Series Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway. Kansas City Kansas Speedway Kansas USA, EDITORIAL USE ONLY PUBLICATIONxINxGERxSUIxAUTxONLY Copyright: xAmyxKontrasx 20230910_ams_df8_0338
The 2026 NASCAR season is here, along with a fresh storyline of chaos. The Cup Series season-opener at The Madhouse turned out to be a winter disaster. After multiple delays due to snowstorms, the Cook Out Clash race unfolded on Wednesday evening – only to witness more weather calamities. The rain-ravaged outcome elicited disenchanted cries of protest from fans. However, Denny Hamlin is not on this group’s side.
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Denny Hamlin puts in a good word
“I can just tell you why it’s good for the teams. One, it’s a good warm-up for them to get their, you know, race weekend type of routine going. Uh, it’s close to home, so there’s not a big haul travel-wise for the race teams, for the drivers. I mean, certainly like myself, I don’t know that I’d love to barrel it off at Kansas right now and into turn one for the first laps of a new season,” Denny Hamlin said in a press briefing at Bowman Gray Stadium.
The 0.250-mile paved oval short track was already notorious for its close-quarters, high-excitement racing. But the Madhouse reached new levels of chaos this past Wednesday, when the Clash race set a record with 17 cautions. Teams put on wet-weather tires after rainfall started around the halfway mark in the 200-lap event. Following that, cars careened into each other and the barriers, and ran out of fuel. Even so, Denny Hamlin chooses to believe it was a beneficial venture.
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Bowman Gray Stadium (via NASCAR.com)
The challenges that drivers faced in the exhibition race would adequately prepare them for the main season ahead. Top contenders like Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott melted away. Newbies like Shane van Gisbergen were at the forefront – with Ryan Preece winning the Clash. Denny Hamlin salvaged a well-fought top five. What’s more, Hamlin also shed light on the bond with the community in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, a hub of NASCAR.
“This is a racetrack that is embedded in the NASCAR roots,” Denny Hamlin continued. “And I thought that was a very good event; it’s more feasible and more economically viable for the teams to be here close to home on a very similar racetrack. And then you’re also kind of giving back to the short track community up here in Winston.
Clearly, Denny Hamlin is batting for more of The Madhouse in NASCAR’s schedule. While rooting for the local community around Bowman Gray Stadium, he also spoke about his people in NASCAR.
Diverting the spotlight
The 2025 off-season was a painfully eventful one for Denny Hamlin. While on the one hand, his team, 23XI Racing, settled the NASCAR lawsuit favorably, on the other hand, Hamlin suffered a family tragedy. His father, Dennis, passed away in a house fire. The senior Hamlin had already been ailing for some time, and Hamlin’s narrow scrape with the championship added to the pain. However, Hamlin chose to be humble – and wanted to divert the spotlight to other, less-famous people in the sport.
“The easy thing to say is ‘poor me,’ but it’s like, I still have a fantastic life, a great family,” Denny Hamlin said. “A lot of people go through tragedies. I mean, I can’t tell you — while what happened with my family in the offseason was highly publicized, there’s probably tons of those stories of crew members that happen in their family this offseason, that happen to them during the season that no one really knows about. So everyone has their times where they have to go through tough moments.”
Denny Hamlin is tackling his career and life with a resilience hard to express. Let’s wait and see what 2026 has in store for him.
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