Mark your calendars.
Barring something remarkable, Denny Hamlin will take the green flag in the 54th Snowball Derby, assuming he can make the field that is.
The annual Cup Series contender generated headlines last week when he revealed his intentions to make several Super Late Model starts this summer in preparation for the Super Bowl of Short Track Racing in December.
Hamlin has had a busy off-season with the creation of a new Cup Series team with co-owner Michael Jordan for driver Bubba Wallace, in addition to signing a contract extension with Joe Gibbs Racing in advance of his 15th Cup Series season.
So just how serious is Hamlin about this potential new endeavor?
“It’s going to happen,” Hamlin said to a question posed by Short Track Scene during Daytona 500 Media Week.
In fact, Hamlin has already started to lay the foundations of what that schedule and partnership would look like, with the aim of being competitive once he arrives to the Florida Gulf Coast in December.
“I’ve kind of had discussions already with some people about what I’d like to do,” Hamlin said. “I don’t think that just showing up to the Snowball and being competitive for first time in a car that I have very rarely run.”
Hamlin grew up racing Late Model Stocks in the Carolinas and Virginias where he was discovered by JD Gibbs, who insisted that his dad sign the Southern National Motorsports Park champion. A relunctant Joe Gibbs eventually agreed to test Hamlin in a Xfinity Series car at Darlington, which went so well that they were going Cup racing within a couple of years.
They’ve won 44 Cup races together and are annual Cup Series championship threats.
Point is, Hamlin is an adaptive learner and should pick up the lighter straight rail Super Late Model pretty quickly.
“So, it’s going to take a few tests here and there,” Hamlin said. “I’d like to run a warm-up race somewhere before.
“I believe that I can work it in on off weeks and things like that where it doesn’t distract us from anything else. And truly for me, I think everyone knows that I like distractions. Distractions are good for you. You’ve got to get away from the grind of this sport at times. Even if it’s racing something else, like this, it takes my mind off of my daily grind of being a race car driver and a team owner.
“So this will be a lot of fun and it’s just something that I’ve always wanted to do for the last five or six years, and now hopefully going to make it happen.”
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