LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — As Denny Hamlin and his two special guests — U.S. military veterans — pulled up to the first tee at Walt Disney World’s Shades of Green resort Thursday morning, the 2016 Daytona 500 winner dropped some big news on the crowd of reporters watching.
“Mickey Mouse and I share the same birthday (November 18),” Hamlin, 36, said, smiling.
And as impressive as that statistic was, Hamlin’s golf swing was even better.
His two playing partners, U.S. Army veteran Joe Eason and U.S. Marines veteran Sean Rego were clearly having big moments, too, enjoying the time with one of their favorite NASCAR drivers. Hamlin presented the pair with tickets to the upcoming, July 1 Coke Zero 400 — the race he was in Florida to promote on Thursday.
“They are a prime example of why we celebrate Independence Day,” Hamlin said of the veterans.
A few surprises for veterans Sean Rego & Joe Eason
☑️Tix to the #CokeZero400
☑️Custom drinks from @CocaColaRacing
☑️@FedEx Denny die casts pic.twitter.com/u8vgnpculp– Daytona IntlSpeedway (@DISupdates) June 15, 2017
Hamlin is eager for another opportunity to celebrate — earning his first race win of the year. He and the rest of the four-driver Joe Gibbs Racing team — also including past Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champions Kyle Busch and Matt Kenseth, along with Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender Daniel Suarez — are amazingly winless 14 races into the season.
Hamlin has a pair of top-five showings and six top-10 runs in this No. 11 FedEx Toyota, but a third place showing at his hometown Richmond, Virginia track is the closest he’s come to winning so far this season.
Encouragingly, he’s won at seven of the remaining 12 tracks leading into the playoffs, including this week’s venue, Michigan (in 2010 and 2011).
“There’s no way you’d imagine that,” Hamlin says of the O-fer the Gibbs crew has endured this season, adding with a smile, “You’d think it had to happen somewhere, even accidentally.
“But,” he added, “When you look at the list of winners and those that haven’t won, it’s like, ‘oh boy.’ It could actually be really tight getting into the playoffs this year. You either better be way up there in points, or you need a win. We’re not taking that for granted. We know we need to run well and get a win very soon.”
Hamlin said he’s genuinely surprised that his championship JGR team is still looking for that first win of 2017.
“It is very bizarre,” he said. “Some of the races, we’ve been in position to win with the 18 (of Busch), mostly. But it’s a matter of time in my opinion and I wouldn’t be surprised that after we won the first, we’d win three in a row. It could happen in a hurry.
“I still think we have room to get better. It’s about executing and doing everything you need to do to win.”
Should Hamlin score a victory on the Daytona International Speedway high banks in three weeks, he would have won every type of NASCAR race at the sport’s most famous track. But with a trophy-less start to the season, a victory at Daytona isn’t just a historical achievement, it could also be a matter of championship necessity.
“To me, I feel like maybe our mile-and-a-half package or short track package isn’t where we need it to be but when we go to the superspeedways I always feel the field is level and there’s no reason why we can’t go out and win,” Hamlin said.
“Really with my success on the restrictor-plate racing tracks over the last five or six years, I always feel confident coming down here. I think right now, I’m not sure where the cut line is in the points, but it’s dangerously close to where I’m at. The only way I’d feel comfortable is getting a win. That’s the number one most important thing.
“We’ve had some surprise winners and any time you have three or four surprise winners in a season, that leaves very few spots for people to make it in on points. When it’s all said and done, hopefully at Richmond we’re resting easy at that point.”