Guest Column by Cathy Elliott
Small things can get a person’s attention in a big way.
This point was driven home to me while watching pre-race coverage from the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Martinsville in last month. Denny Hamlin was being interviewed, and at the bottom of the TV screen was a simple graphic that read, “Denny Hamlin, 29.”
Obviously, this was not a reference to Hamlin’s car number. At that moment, I realized that Denny Hamlin is 29 years old. This year marks his fifth season of full-time competition in the Cup Series. He is an experienced race car driver, with nine Cup wins to his credit. If those Gillette “Young Guns” ads have a cutoff age, he’s probably getting close to it.
So why do I always think of him as a kid?
Maybe it’s his appearance. Fresh-faced and clean-cut, if you take him out of a firesuit and deck him out in khakis and an oxford shirt, he could easily pass for a college student.
Maybe it’s the fact that in the past, Hamlin has been quick to visibly lose his temper, with both his on-track rivals and in-the-pits crew members.
Maybe it’s because he brashly announced last year that the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship trophy was basically his to lose. (That remark raised a few eyebrows, but Jimmie Johnson didn’t seem to pay it much attention.)
Maybe it’s because he says things like “I’d like to thank my hot date” when giving speeches at high profile events like the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup awards ceremony.
Or maybe it’s just because I’ve fallen victim to something parents have experienced for centuries — namely, a steadfast refusal to accept the fact that their kids have grown up.
A great example of this is Jeff Gordon. Legions of former Dale Earnhardt, Sr. fans still scowl when they see that No. 24 Chevy blazing down a long straightaway at any racetrack in America. To them, he will always be the “Wonderboy,” the upstart kid who took The Intimidator to task so many times on the track, earning his fair share of victories along the way.
Just to put things into perspective, that “kid” is fast approaching his twentieth season of Cup competition and will celebrate his 39th birthday this year.
Or how about Earnhardt’s own son and namesake, who grew up before our very eyes? “Little E” is now a Daytona 500 champion with well over 300 career Cup starts, and his 36th birthday is coming up in October. That isn’t quite middle age, but it’s getting uncomfortably close.
Before I completely alienate myself by pointing out any more of the most popular drivers in NASCAR who are “maturing,” let’s get back to Denny Hamlin.
After moving up through the racing ranks by competing in go-karts, Grand Stocks, Late Model Stocks, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and the NASCAR Nationwide Series, Hamlin made a strong showing in his first full season of Cup Series racing in 2006, winning two races and Raybestos Rookie of the Year honors. He finished third in the driver standings that year. In fact, since the day he climbed into a Cup car full-time, Hamlin has made the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup each year.
Aggressive and not given to much holding back on the track, he has forced the other drivers to take him seriously. And this year, he has demonstrated that force of will in another way, by running the first six races with a torn ACL in his knee. Those hurt — just ask any professional basketball or football player if you don’t believe it — and a driver’s knees take a pretty good beating during a Cup race.
But Hamlin toughed it out, and then made a strong statement by winning the race at Martinsville on Monday before having arthroscopic surgery to repair the knee on Wednesday.
He has also stated he plans to be ready for the next race, in Phoenix on April 10.
Perhaps the key to success in racing, as in life, is to embrace all those experiences, the bad along with the good, that teach us how to improve our position a few points at a time while never letting go of the youthful energy and enthusiasm that got us where we are in the first place.
The time has come to stop taking these talented young drivers we have watched for years now — including Kasey Kahne, Kyle Busch and Brian Vickers along with Hamlin — literally at their unlined face value, and thinking of them as boys.
Because they definitely drive like men.
The opinions expressed in this articles are solely those of the author and not this website.
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