{"id":380184,"date":"2025-12-31T21:32:04","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T21:32:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/380184\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T21:32:04","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T21:32:04","slug":"nascars-denny-hamlin-breaks-silence-after-the-death-of-his-father","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/380184\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR\u2019s Denny Hamlin Breaks Silence After the Death of His Father"},"content":{"rendered":"

NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin is breaking his silence after the death of his father<\/a>, Dennis Hamlin, after a house fire.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you to everyone who has reached out with condolences on my father\u2019s passing,\u201d Denny, 45, wrote via X<\/a> on Wednesday, December 31. \u201cMy mother continues to improve, and our family truly appreciates the outpouring of support and the respect for our privacy during this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Gaston County Office of Emergency Management and Fire Services confirmed on Monday, December 29 \u2014 according to WSOC-TV \u2014 that Dennis, 75, died after a fire<\/a> in their North Carolina home. Denny\u2019s mother, Mary Lou, remains in the hospital. Her injuries were initially described by authorities as \u201clife-threatening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dennis and Mary Lou, 69,<\/a> were both transported to a local hospital with \u201ccatastrophic injuries.\u201d Us Weekly reached out to Gaston County EMS for comment at the time.<\/p>\n

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\n Related: NASCAR Star Denny Hamlin’s Father Killed, Mother Hospitalized After House Fire<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tNASCAR star Denny Hamlin\u2019s father, Dennis, has died and his mother, Mary Lou, remains hospitalized following a fire at their North Carolina home on Sunday, December 28.\u00a0 The Gaston County Office of Emergency Management and Fire Services confirmed the news on Monday, December 29, according to WSOC-TV. Both Dennis, 75, and Mary Lou, 69, were [\u2026]\t\t<\/p>\n

The fire began on Sunday, with crews receiving a call around 6:20 p.m. ET. The fire took approximately two hours to extinguish once on scene. \u201cI was horrified last night for them,\u201d a neighbor who wanted to stay anonymous told WSOC. \u201cI felt so bad to see it in person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brett Hager, a neighbor of the family, told WSOC, \u201cOur driveway was full of volunteer firemen and vehicles, and our yards were lined and all that. The people that came out to help did their jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n

When first responders arrived, 40 to 45 percent of the Hamlin\u2019s home was already on fire, Lucia Riverbend Fire Department\u2019s David Toomey told The Athletic. Toomey shared that 10 to 12 fire crews worked together to fight the blaze as the heavily wooded area around the home did not have fire hydrants. All of the water had to be trucked in.<\/p>\n

No cause for the fire has been given. The investigation is ongoing.<\/p>\n

Months before the fire, Denny had been candid about the health of his father, who was diagnosed with an undisclosed terminal illness. (The family did not disclose the specifics of the health battle.)<\/p>\n

\u201cI know for a fact this is my last chance for my dad to see it,\u201d Denny told the Associated Press in October. \u201cI don\u2019t want him going and never getting to see the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tThank You!<\/p>\n

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After winning the Las Vegas Motor Speedway in September, Denny recalled a conversation he had with his father.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was just so happy and he always tells me I\u2019m the best, no matter if I win or not, he always says I\u2019m the best,\u201d Denny said. \u201cHe\u2019s a big hype guy and I sat in his garage and talked with him, he\u2019s got all my old memorabilia and it\u2019s just good to reminisce. He\u2019s a reminiscent guy and right now I am just cherishing those hours that I have with them each week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Denny continued, \u201cHe\u2019s the one that got me into racing. Just took me to a race track when I was 5, then made all the sacrifices financially to keep me going. Sold everything they had. We almost lost our house a couple times. Just tried to keep it all going.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin is breaking his silence after the death of his father, Dennis Hamlin, after a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[879,49,48,362,634,44,82],"class_list":["post-380184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-breaking-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-celebrity-news","tag-nascar","tag-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}