Denny Hamlin to skip NASCAR race in Mexico City due to the birth of his son
NASCAR championship contender Denny Hamlin will miss Sunday's Cup Series race in Mexico City following the birth of his son on Wednesday, Joe Gibbs Racing announced Thursday. Ryan Truex, JGR's reserve driver, will substitute to drive the No. 11 Toyota.
Hamlin's fiancé, Jordan Fish, has been expecting the couple's third child for the past 12 days and Hamlin has made it known he would miss a Cup race to be by Fish's side. Truex was on standby last week at Michigan International Speedway, but Hamlin not only drove in the race, but won.
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The Michigan win was Hamlin's third on the season and 57th of his career, second-most among active drivers. The 44-year-old has made 406 consecutive starts, last missing a race in 2014 at California Speedway due to an object in his eye.
Truex has been lauded for his ability behind the scenes in serving as JGR's reserve driver. These duties include full-time simulator testing that helps JGR refine chassis setups for a given track, though they do not include real-world testing of a car.
Truex last made a Cup start in 2014 and has 26 career starts at NASCAR's top level, with a career-best finish of 20th. He is the younger brother of 2017 Cup Series champion Martin Truex Jr., who retired after last season and was a former teammate of Hamlin's at JGR.
Because Hamlin is missing the Mexico City race, the first Cup points outside the continental United States since 1958, he will need NASCAR to grant him a waiver to maintain playoff eligibility. The expectation is that NASCAR will grant Hamlin a waiver, allowing him to compete for the Cup championship when the playoffs begin in September.
NASCAR Cup Series drivers must start all 26 regular-season points races to be eligible for the playoffs unless they have a NASCAR-issued waiver; the policy was revamped this year to include the birth of a child as an example of a valid reason to be given a waiver.
That clearly made Hamlin's decision to remain in the United States and skip the inaugural Mexico City race much easier, since his fiancé is still in the hospital as of Thursday, and they already have two children at home.
Travel to Mexico is also not as easy as simply flying his private jet to the racetrack, as he does every other week. Some teams who planned to take a charter flight to Mexico City on Thursday have been forced to scramble after a mechanical problem grounded their flight.
But in some ways, this is the best possible race for Hamlin to miss. He has struggled with his road racing and was unlikely to contend in Mexico (he is 1-for-57 in his Cup Series road racing career).
Meanwhile, it's a golden opportunity for Ryan Truex, who has been training for this moment all season. As we wrote earlier this year, Truex is JGR's reserve driver and is responsible for helping the teams with fine-tuning their setups in the Toyota simulator each week.
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Denny Hamlin to miss Cup race at Mexico City; Ryan Truex to substitute
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