The News10NBC Team details breaking News, Traffic and Weather.<\/p>\n
NASCAR Weekend at Watkins Glen International is upon us.\u00a0Three days of racing in the Finger Lakes begins on Friday with the Craftsman Truck Series race at 5pm, the green flag will drop on Xfinity Series Race on Saturday at 3pm and the NASCAR Cup Series Race is set to begin at 2pm on Sunday.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n
In anticipation of the weekend, News10NBC Investigative Reporter and NASCAR Fan Jennifer Lewke and her 8-year old son Jett spoke with NASCAR Driver Denny Hamlin.\u00a0 Hamlin has 4 wins, 11 top 5\u2019s and 12 top 10\u2019s so far this season.<\/p>\n
Full interview: <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Jennifer Lewke (News10NBC):\u00a0 \u201cWhat do you like and not like about Watkins Glen, you\u2019ve won here before but it\u2019s been a while.\u201d<\/p>\n
Denny Hamlin:\u00a0 \u201cYea, I like Watkins Glen, I think it races almost like an intermediate type track with our cars, it\u2019s one of the highest speed road courses that we have. My favorite thing about Watkins Glen has nothing to do with the racetrack though, it really is kind of the infield there, we\u2019ve seen people come out in huge numbers to hang out in Watkins Glen infield.\u00a0 The midway there, the fan area is filled with different activations and stuff, there\u2019s tons of stuff to do so, I\u2019ve explored around that racetrack and it\u2019s been a blast.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jennifer Lewke:\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cWhat I also love about Watkins is they let you, as fans, drive the course in your own personal car, I\u2019ve done it with my two sons and my husband and the S\u2019s, we got up to like 80 and then I made them pull back, I was like okay, this is getting a little crazy\u2026 the race itself and the track\u2026 it\u2019s fast for a road course.\u201d<\/p>\n
Denny Hamlin:\u00a0 \u201cIt is, it\u2019s extremely fast.\u00a0 It\u2019s fast but it\u2019s technical.\u00a0 Like when you talk about the S\u2019s\u2026that\u2019s probably the most treacherous corner that we enter on all of our circuit.\u00a0 Is turn 2 there, so the car really unloads and then you\u2019ve got to switch back the other direction into a blind corner, it\u2019s really, really difficult.\u00a0 And certainly, I\u2019ve only been able to win there one time so it tell you that race track has its own challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jennifer Lewke:\u00a0 \u201cYou mentioned the experience of it all, I think that\u2019s what it is for a lot of folks who spend the weekend at the Glen\u2026I mean, we have the Buffalo Bills here, we have other professional sports, but you don\u2019t really get as close to the stars of the sport, I think, as you do in NASCAR, how big of a role do you think that plays in expanding the sport beyond just the hardcore NASCAR fans?<\/p>\n
Denny Hamlin:\u00a0 \u201cWell, that\u2019s the difference in our sport than others, it is the access.\u00a0 You\u2019re able to more than likely get an autograph or take a picture with your favorite driver just an hour before they\u2019re getting in the race car.\u00a0 You never get that access to the locker room in any other sports and so the access is what makes us different.\u00a0 You\u2019re not just going for the event itself, you\u2019re making a weekend out of it with your family or friends and getting to explore all that Watkins Glen has to offer.<\/p>\n
Jennifer Lewke:\u00a0 \u201cAre you ever able to explore beyond the track when you\u2019re in Upstate New York?\u201d<\/p>\n
Denny Hamlin:\u00a0 \u201cI check out the town a little bit, I do try to golf when I\u2019m in that town.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jennifer Lewke:\u00a0 \u201cDenny, if you don\u2019t mind, I kind of have a special guest off to the side, it\u2019s my 8 year-old, he is a huge NASCAR fan and he happens to be a huge, Denny Hamlin fan.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Denny: \u201cHey, my man!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jennifer Lewke:\u00a0 \u201cThis is Jett, he wanted to say Hi, I let him stay home from Summer camp, did you want to ask Denny a question?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jett (Jennifer Lewke\u2019s Son): \u00a0\u201cYes, and by the way\u2026 I met you before as you can see in this picture.\u201d (Jett holds up a photo from Watkins Glen in 2023 where he is posing with Denny)\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Denny Hamlin:\u00a0 \u201cI see that.\u00a0 Man you got the hat and the shirt and everything!\u00a0 What\u2019s your question bud?\u201d<\/p>\n
Jett: \u00a0\u201cAt what was the age you knew you wanted to be a NASCAR driver?\u201d<\/p>\n
Denny Hamlin:\u00a0 \u201cI was 8 years-old.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jett: \u201cThat\u2019s my age right now!\u201d<\/p>\n
Denny Hamlin: \u201cYea, well let\u2019s see that\u2019s the first time I got into a go-cart.\u00a0 I went to a race when I was 5 and at that point, I smelled the tires and fuel and saw all the cars that were roaring by and I was like, \u201coh I love this\u201d right?\u00a0 And so, at that time, back then, you couldn\u2019t get into a go-cart until you were 8 years-old so, my parents bought me a go-cart when I was 8, I got in, they showed me\u2026 this is how you go, this is how you stop, this is how you steer and they sent me around this little dirt track and when I went around there they saw that I was getting it sideways and correcting it, and they\u2019re like\u2026 \u201coh, he\u2019s got good car control\u201d so\u2013like maybe we\u2019ll put him in a race in a few weeks, so they put me in a race and I won my very first race.\u00a0 You give an 8 year-old a trophy and a go-cart and it\u2019s like\u2026 this is what I want to do, I want to be a race car driver!\u201d<\/p>\n
Jett:\u00a0 \u201cAnd um\u2026What do you think about SVG at Watkins Glen, do you think he\u2019ll be a challenge to race with?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Denny Hamlin:\u00a0 \u201cYes, I think he\u2019s going to be a challenge to keep up with, more than anything.\u00a0 He\u2019s just really good on the road courses obviously, he almost won last year and then if you think about it, the team he was with was not as good as the team he\u2019s with now.\u00a0 So, I think he\u2019s going to be extremely hard to beat, I\u2019ll be lucky, I just want to keep him in sight during that race, that\u2019s my goal at Watkins Glen, I\u2019m going to keep him in sight, get us a top 5 and get out of there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jennifer Lewke: \u201cThank you so much for your time and for taking Jett\u2019s questions.\u00a0 He\u2019s always one, when we were at Daytona last year, he\u2019s always one to stick up for you against people in the crowd who throw those boo\u2019s your way.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0Denny Hamlin:\u00a0 \u201cI like that!\u00a0 Yea, you cheer alright!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jett: \u201cYea!\u201d<\/p>\n
A limited number of tickets are still available for NASCAR weekends at Watkins Glen International.\u00a0 For more information, Click here<\/a>. <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFor Related Stories:\u00a0nascar<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Watkins Glen<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0denny hamlin<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0racing<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Watkins Glen International<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The News10NBC Team details breaking News, Traffic and Weather. NASCAR Weekend at Watkins Glen International is upon us.\u00a0Three…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61253,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[425,99],"class_list":["post-61252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}