Denny Hamlin will miss NASCAR's first Cup race in Mexico following birth of son
Hamlin announced that he will miss the Cup Series' first ever race in Mexico this weekend following the birth of his son. Hamlin and fiancée Jordan Fish also share daughters Taylor James, 12, and Molly Gold Hamlin, 7.
Advertisement
"We are happy to announce the birth of our son," Hamlin announced on social media on June 12. "Everyone is doing well. My main priority is to be here at home for Jordan and our family over the next few days when she is able to go home and we transition to life as a family of five."
Hamlin previously hinted at skipping the Viva México 250 earlier this week as his family awaited baby Hamlin's arrival, citing the distance between his North Carolina home and Mexico City as his main concern.
"Ultimately I need to be there for her," Hamlin said during a June 10 interview on SiriusXM NASCAR. "I'm just going to make sure I spend the proper time with her. The racing will come second this week.'
Advertisement
Hamlin is expected to return to racing next weekend. He signed off his birth announcement, writing, "See you guys in Pocono," referring to the Great American Getaway 400 at Pocono Raceway on June 22.
It's been an eventful month for Hamlin. Not only did the Hamlin family welcome baby No. 3, he also picked up his third NASCAR Cup Series victory of the season in the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway on June 8.
Hamlin has 57 wins in his Cup Series career, which ranks 11th on the all-time list. While a championship has eluded him, he finished runner-up in 2010 and third three times (2006, 2014 and 2021).
Drivers departed for Mexico City on Thursday with practice for the Viva Mexico 250 beginning Saturday ahead of the Sunday's June 15 Cup race at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
Advertisement
Ryan Truex will drive the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota in Mexico City, the team announced on June 12, stating that JGR intends to apply for "a waiver to maintain his status for the 2025 Playoffs."
NASCAR classifies the birth of a child as an exemption to its Playoff Waiver System, meaning Hamlin should be eligible to compete for the 2025 Cup Series championship later this year.
Contributing: Jon Hoefling
The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast. Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Denny Hamlin to miss NASCAR Cup race in Mexico following birth of son
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
4 hours ago
- USA Today
Over 100,000 Kia vehicles recalled. See impacted models.
Kia has recalled more than 100,000 cars after discovering the vehicles' rear window trim pieces may loosen and detach. The recall applies to certain Kia K5 cars in the model years 2023-2025, according to a recall notice posted on July 28 by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The vehicles' left and right rear window trim pieces may loosen and detach, creating a road hazard for other vehicles and increasing the risk of a crash, according to the recall notice. The issue can be remedied with the installment of a replacement garnish that can be fastened to the base, according to the recall notice. Here's what to know. Which Kia vehicles are being recalled? The recall applies to about 100,000 Kia K5 cars in the model years 2023-2025, according to the recall notice. Owners will be notified via letters that are expected to be mailed Sept. 26. Customers can also contact Kia customer service at 1-800-333-4542 and mention the number for this recall, SC346. What to do if your car has been recalled Owners with impacted vehicles should bring their car to a Kia dealer, who will replace the affected C-pillar garnish with one that is retained to the base of the car. The replacement will be made free of charge. How to check if your car has been recalled The latest status on recalls of vehicles, car parts or car accessories can be checked using the NHTSA recall database or USA TODAY's car and motor vehicle recall database. Car owners can check if their vehicles have been recalled by either searching their car's make or model. The NHTSA website also allows you to search directly using your vehicle's license plate number or vehicle identification number. Melina Khan is a national trending reporter for USA TODAY. She can be reached at
USA Today
4 hours ago
- USA Today
MLB Speedway Classic: How record-setting Bristol Motor Speedway game came to be
BRISTOL, TN — Using a cliché to describe a sporting event has become, well, cliché. Some clichés have made a complete 360, where they start as a description of a sports situation, graduate to becoming totally figurative, and then come home to roost. Such is the situation in Bristol, Tennessee, where the NASCAR racetrack has such an uneven infield that 'leveling the playing field' is literally the task at hand. When Major League Baseball brings its 2025 jewel event to Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday, Aug. 2 , it will require sufficient gravel to create a level surface for the artificial turf. Longtime MLB ballpark consultant Murray Cook of BrightView says that it required 18,000 tons of gravel to be trucked into the venue to account for the 4-foot difference in elevation between the track and the center of the infield. Think about that. Legally, a fully loaded concrete truck is limited to a weight of 80,000 pounds, or 40 tons. That means when the Cincinnati Reds and Atlanta Braves take the field, they'll be running across the equivalent of 450 cement trucks worth of gravel. That's one of the impressive feats undertaken by MLB and its partners to be able to present a baseball game where none has been attempted before. 'We've explored that' 'You never know who's watching when you're putting on events,' says Jerry Caldwell, president of Bristol Motor Speedway, better known as 'BMS' in NASCAR circles. For instance, in 2016 the facility hosted The Battle of Bristol pitting the football teams from Tennessee and Virginia Tech. It sure took a lot of gravel to level a whole football field. But MLB noticed the way the event was staged. Around that time, MLB had started looking for unique places to hold games. Five years went by. Caldwell then received a call saying executives from MLB headquarters were in the area conducting business with Appalachian League teams and they wanted to look around the racetrack. Caldwell gladly obliged. During the tour, one BMS manager spoke up and said jokingly, 'You know, we could put a baseball diamond inside here. It would fit.' There was stunned silence when an MLB exec replied, 'You know what? We've explored that.' 'The driving force behind our ideation phase of looking for new events is always trying to find a diversified offering year over year,' says MLB's Senior VP of Global Events Jeremiah Yolkut. 'We want to bring attention to baseball outside of the 81 home games that all of our clubs play. 'Bristol checked a lot of boxes for us,' he continues. 'Number one, it achieves the commissioner's goal of playing games in states that don't get them all the time. Also, is there a fan base that would be interested in a game there?' Once it was decided to bring a game to this facility, there was the problem of logistics. Just because MLB wanted to play a game in Bristol, how do they pull it off? After all, this will end up being 'the most complex field build that we've ever had,' notes Yolkut. While Cook is enjoying the fact that this project is the closest to his home in Roanoke that MLB has ever planned an event, he still knows this is going to be a challenge getting everything installed in between events already scheduled at the venue. The heat and long days in Bristol have been a challenge for the Brightview crew. He likened this project to preparing the Olympic Stadium in London for MLB's games in 2019, 2023 and 2024. He faced similarly tight schedules there, and in fact is utilizing some of the same fencing and other materials used for those London Series contests. But 'this project is bigger. It was only 4,000 tons of gravel over there.' He felt better after the artificial turf had been rolled over all of that gravel. 'It's always great to see the green side up,' he chuckles. The surface being used is made by AstroTurf. It's the same material installed at Rogers Centre in Toronto when the Blue Jays made major renovations two years ago. Most jewel games have been on grass, but the very temporary nature of this year's event, plus the gravel underneath, makes a natural surface impossible. Creating a 'spectacle' There's been a noticeable progression in MLB's one-off jewel events, beginning with 2016's salute to the military by playing a regular-season game at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. This was followed by games at the College World Series park in Omaha, the minor league park in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, while the Little League World Series was happening across the river, the 'Field of Dreams' movie site in Iowa and last year's tribute to the Negro Leagues at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama. 'We're always looking for our next event to be bigger and to shine a light on the sport,' explains Yolkut. 'We knew that what they do around racing and also the football game they hosted, Bristol knows how to put on big events. 'We knew Bristol could create a spectacle.' To make the scheduling work around this spectacle, the Reds and Braves face off in Cincinnati on July 31 at 7:10 and Aug. 1 at 12:40. Then it's off to the hills of East Tennessee for the night game. A rare off-day is scheduled the following day. This is to permit a game if Aug. 2 is washed out. Progressing There's also been a progression in the entertainment and game-day experience presented prior to the games in these jewel events. The first at Fort Bragg was basically the game itself between the Braves and Marlins, and that was it. Last year, MLB scheduled three days of events in Alabama, starting with a minor league game, followed by numerous tributes to the recently-passed Willie Mays, a celebrity softball game, and a stunning musical performance by Jon Batiste that rivaled a Super Bowl halftime show. And all of this was before the first pitch of the Cardinals-Giants game had been thrown. This year in Eastern Tennessee, the festivities will start the day before the MLB game. The Appalachian League (a college summer league and a 'partner league' of MLB) will conduct its championship game in its showcase ballpark in Johnson City at 7 p.m. on Aug. 1. Boyd Sports, owners of the Class AA Knoxville Smokies, possesses five franchises in the Appy League. 'Considering we own half the teams in the circuit, we'd love for fans coming to Bristol to also attend the league championship game the day before,' says Boyd's president Chris Allen. 'TVA Credit Union Ballpark is a really cool place, and it's only about 20 minutes from the racetrack.' During the day Saturday, those with tickets will find an enormous amount to do in and around the speedway. If you've ever been to a NASCAR race, you know there is as much going on outside the seating bowl as within. 'We've really leaned into the operations of how this venue works,' says Michael Kinard of Populous, MLB's longtime event planner for special games like this. 'It's such a massive venue, but we didn't want to change too much when we put an MLB thumbprint on it. As you walk around outside, you'll be able to stop at (various) fan activations.' There are smaller stages with performers outside, plus sponsors have tents and stands showing off their wares. And there will be no shortage of merchandise that mixes baseball and racing themes. Adjacent to the main stadium is the Bristol Dragway, the quarter-mile drag racing track that has as busy a schedule of races as the stock car track a few feet away. While drag races aren't scheduled this weekend, fans would no doubt enjoy a 40-yard dash pitting the Reds' Elly De La Cruz against Atlanta's 'The Freeze' mascot. Once batting practice is concluded, those inside the massive seating bowl will be entertained by two of the biggest names in music – country legend Tim McGraw (whose father, Tug, racked up 180 saves during his big-league career) and hip-hop star Pitbull. MLB has hinted that the player introductions will be handled with a true NASCAR feel as the Braves and Reds are raced around the track. Going really big Bristol Motor Speedway and its neighbor to the east in Martinsville are the two shortest racetracks on the regular NASCAR schedule, both coming in at about half a mile. Even though BMS is a 'short track,' you won't find it the least bit undersized when you step inside. For one thing, it's rare for a racetrack to have its grandstands completely encircle the track, with roughly the same number of rows all around. Imagine the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. And if your ticket is for the top row, you'll be watching the action from the equivalent of the roof of an eight-story building. You'll also have 189 very steep steps to reach your seat, as there are almost 100 rows of seats in the venue nicknamed The Last Great Colosseum. 'Many people are going to be further away from the field, so we're trying to make sure that we're doing things in different locations in the venue so you'll still feel connected,' notes Brian O'Gara, the VP of Special Events for MLB. If you think that it was a tight fit getting the baseball field into this 'short-track' venue, think again. Because the baseball field only occupies half of the track's infield space, 'there is so much space left for the concert stage, clubhouses, our tent village (for media and other operations), concessions, bathrooms and a fan plaza,' explains Yolkut. 'All of these have always been outside the ballparks at the jewel events, but now there's space for all of that on the inside.' If you're wondering why the baseball field isn't situated in the very center of the racetrack's infield so there would be grandstands on all sides, there's a very, very large reason: Colossus. Colossus is the massive video board and sound system that is suspended over the very center of the racetrack's infield. The 30-foot-tall screens on the 700-ton beast can be seen from all points in the grandstand. However, it's only 155 feet above the level of the infield. That's higher than the lowest catwalk at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida, but far too low to hang over the middle of a playing field. So the solution here was to place the baseball field on one end of the infield, with the outfield fence hugging what would be Turns 1 and 2 of the track. Colossus then hangs roughly over the third-base dugout. Yolkut notes that the placement of the stage where McGraw and Pitbull will perform opens up the opportunity to promote tickets that would ordinarily have limited or no visibility of the baseball action. With reserved seats almost sold out, 'perhaps there are fans who still want to come to the venue and experience the fan zone, see the concert, watch the game on Colossus, but just not have a traditional seat.' All told, attendance should be about 85,000 for MLB's first regular-season game in the state of Tennessee, which will set an MLB attendance record. Says Yolkut, 'We knew we could go really big at Bristol.' Telling the story Yolkut notes that the Fox TV network 'had a great interest in this event. They know the venue because they've done races there. They also love the idea of a spectacle, a show that they could put on TV in the middle of the summer on a Saturday night.' Perhaps most important if you're watching from home, 'Fox really knows how to tell a story. One of the benefits of them as a partner is that they really know how to bring to life what's happening in the venue.' Never was this truer than last year when MLB honored the players of the Negro Leagues at America's oldest ballpark, Rickwood Field in Birmingham. As for the batters hoping to hit a long drive onto the racetrack in Turn 2, the dimensions aren't that different from big-league norms. It's 330 feet down each foul line, 400 to center, 385 to left center, and 375 to right center, where the wall is a little higher because there's a building that couldn't be moved. 'It's just striking to see that baseball field plopped down in the middle of this half-mile track,' says Caldwell. 'It's going to be one of those memorable events that you'll be glad you were here. It will be a spectacle.' When Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the 2004 night race on this track, he exclaimed a phrase that has echoed through the surrounding valleys ever since: 'It's Bristol, baby!' Expect to hear those three words on Fox's telecast. Often. Cook knows the clock is ticking as soon as the last out is made in the game. 'We'll be packing up and getting everything out just as quick as we can, so they can get back to racing here,' he says. And part of the 'everything' to be removed is many, many tons of gravel. And that's no cliché, baby.
NBC Sports
5 hours ago
- NBC Sports
How to watch Sunday's Cup race at Iowa Speedway: Start time, TV info and weather
With four races remaining in the regular season, the NASCAR Cup Series playoff race heads to Iowa Speedway with varying points battles across the standings. On the bubble, the margin is as large as it's been this season with Chris Buescher hanging onto the final provisional spot by 42 points over Ryan Preece. But it'll be hard to get comfortable for the three drivers above the cutline: Buescher, Alex Bowman (plus-63) and Tyler Reddick (plus-138). Since the advent of the Next Gen car, at least one driver below the cutline has won in the last four races of the regular season. Buescher, Ross Chastain and Bubba Wallace were bumped from the playoffs despite being above the cutline with four races left. In the battle for the regular-season championship, the top four are separated by 20 points — the closest margin after 22 races since a 17-point gap among the top four in 2012. Hendrick Motorsports teammates Chase Elliott, William Byron and Kyle Larson occupy the top three spots for the seventh week this season. Elliott leads Byron by four points with Iowa, Watkins Glen, Richmond and Daytona remaining in the regular season. Sunday's will mark the second for Cup at the 0.875-mile oval. Ryan Blaney won the inaugural race last year. The track's 25,000-seat grandstands have been announced as a sellout. Details for Sunday's Cup race at Iowa Speedway (All times Eastern) START: The command to start engines will be given at 3:38 p.m. ... The green flag is scheduled to wave at 3:47 p.m. PRERACE: The Cup garage will open at 12:30 p.m. ... The national anthem will be performed at 3:31 p.m. DISTANCE: The race is 350 laps (306.25 miles) on the 0.875-mile oval in Newton, Iowa. STAGES: Stage 1 ends at Lap 70. Stage 2 ends at Lap 210. PURSE: $9,797,935 ENTRY LIST: Click here for the 37 cars entered at Iowa Speedway. TV/RADIO: USA Network will broadcast the race starting at 3 p.m. ... Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will have radio coverage. FORECAST: WeatherUnderground — Sunshine with some clouds. A high of 77 degrees with winds from the southeast at 5 to 10 mph. It's expected to be 75 degrees with a 4% chance of rain at the start of the Cup race. LAST TIME: Ryan Blaney led 201 of 350 laps to win the inaugural Cup race at Iowa Speedway on June 16, 2024.
