We all know how the fate of Dale Earnhardt’s beloved team Dale Earnhardt Incorporated or DEI turned out despite having Dale Earnhardt Jr front and center along with the support of those back in the garage. However, things could’ve been quite different had one young driver in particular in 2004 said yes to joining them.

That young driver is Denny Hamlin, who is today considered to be one of the modern greats by everyone and a future Hall of Famer by many.

Hamlin being asked to join DEI was something the Joe Gibbs Racing driver recently revealed on his podcast. “In 2005, I run probably 4–5 months into that season. Dale Jr brings me over to his house and he says, ‘You really need to get out of that #20 car,'” Hamlin said.

And now, it is Dale Jr who revealed his side of the story of what could’ve been.

Dale Earnhardt Jr sheds more light on trying to recruit Denny Hamlin

Speaking in the Ask Jr. segment of his podcast show, Junior said that he and Hamlin were “hanging out a lot back then. We were sim racing, we were online, talking online, just joking of racing online, almost every night.”

Then one day, Hamlin called up Junior and asked for a place to stay because he had a meeting with Joe Gibbs about driving in the Xfinity at Daytona, to which the latter said, “Come stay on the bus.”

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“He had his meeting, and secretly even then, I was like, ‘Man, I wish I could get him to come to DEI. I wish we were hiring him, not Joe Gibbs.’ But he goes and has his meeting,” Dale Jr further revealed.

While Junior wanted Hamlin at DEI, he wasn’t the only one, as Richard Gilmore and Ty Norris were also in favor of the youngster being signed on to the #15 car. So one day, Earnhardt finally laid down the proposal directly to Hamlin.

“I went to him, it was very brief, I was just like, ‘Hey man, I want you to know this is an opportunity available to you. I don’t know what you’re doing or how you feel about your future or where you’re at, but I want you to consider it,'” he recalled.

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Junior immediately got his answer about Hamlin potentially joining DEI

Though several fans of the two stars would wish that the two had joined hands back then, it was perhaps too good to be true. Junior even claimed he knew immediately that Hamlin wouldn’t join DEI.

“I could tell right away that he was pretty happy with where he was, feeling pretty good about it,” he said. “I don’t know what that would’ve done for DEI, might’ve made a world of difference, might not have made any difference at all.”

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