{"id":489451,"date":"2026-02-21T07:35:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T07:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/489451\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T07:35:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T07:35:07","slug":"north-carolina-fire-that-killed-nascar-driver-denny-hamlins-father-ruled-accidental-cause-unknown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/489451\/","title":{"rendered":"North Carolina fire that killed NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin\u2019s father ruled accidental; cause unknown"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>GASTONIA, N.C. (AP) \u2014 The North Carolina house fire that <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/north-carolina-fire-death-racing-5b3dcf4d0ee95278259943338d666319\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:killed NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin&#039;s father;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">killed NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin&#8217;s father<\/a> and injured his mother has been ruled accidental but it&#8217;s still unclear what started it.<\/p>\n<p>A report released by Gaston County Emergency Management &amp; Fire Services said the Dec. 28 fire at the two-story home originated in a bedroom, but the \u201ccause of ignition\u201d is \u201cundetermined.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Otherwise, the investigation determined the fire as accidental, Gaston County spokesperson Adam Gaub wrote in an email Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Hamlin&#8217;s parents, Dennis and Mary Lou Hamlin were found outside the home the evening of the fire suffering from catastrophic injuries, officials said. Dennis Hamlin, 75, later died, while his wife survived.<\/p>\n<p>The home, located near Stanley about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northwest of Charlotte, was owned by a company that listed Denny Hamlin as its manager, according to government records.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Dennis Hamlin was <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/nascar-phoenix-hamlin-championship-father-144c85d10eae9fd48c208bbc8759ef77\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:already seriously ill;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">already seriously ill<\/a> last year, his son previously said.<\/p>\n<p>Denny Hamlin is a leading driver in NASCAR\u2019s top circuit, having won 60 NASCAR Cup Series races, including the Daytona 500 three times. Hamlin and Michael Jordan co-own the car driven by Tyler Reddick <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/5ef03306d4ffca28da7b23328c760877\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:that won this year&#039;s Daytona 500 last weekend;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">that won this year&#8217;s Daytona 500 last weekend<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GASTONIA, N.C. (AP) \u2014 The North Carolina house fire that killed NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin&#8217;s father and injured&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,117175,3932,160031,160508,634,22865,82],"class_list":["post-489451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-dennis-hamlin","tag-denny-hamlin","tag-gaston-county","tag-mary-lou-hamlin","tag-nascar","tag-north-carolina","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489451","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=489451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}