DARLINGTON, S.C. – A paint scheme from the earliest days of Denny Hamlin’s short-track racing career will be the livery he hopes to score his second-straight Bojangles’ Southern 500 victory with on Sept. 2.
Hamlin, last year’s Southern 500 winner and a product of Chesterfield, Va., unveiled his throwback paint scheme for the crown jewel event at Darlington Raceway on Monday afternoon in a special Twitter video featuring Hamlin and his parents, Dennis and Mary Lou.
The purple and white scheme, appropriate given it matches the colors of Hamlin’s long-time sponsor FedEx, was featured on Hamlin’s first-ever race car – a mini stock – during the 1997 season, when he was taking the short tracks of Virginia by storm as a teenager.
Hamlin raced the car at both Langley Speedway and Southside Speedway in Virginia.
“This is the 90s for me,” said Hamlin. “This is what I was doing in 1997, was driving this car. It’s amazing to me that I was racing a purple and white (No.) 11 back then and I’m racing a purple and white (No.) 11 right now. It’s crazy how everything worked out.”
The scheme was admittedly a bit of a surprise to the former Daytona 500 champion and Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship runner-up.
“FedEx doing this without me really knowing was awesome,” noted Hamlin. “They’ve essentially given us the whole canvas of the race car to throw back to my past, so it’s a big statement from them to me.
“A lot of people, from the outside at least, are going to understand what it is. It’s not going to be something they saw on TV on Sundays,” he continued. “But there’s people in Virginia that saw that car go around the short tracks that will remember it and realize how special this is to me.”
Hamlin won last year’s Southern 500 by leading a race-high 124 of 367 laps in a Ray Hendrick Flyin’ 11 modified tribute car. This year, he’ll try to replicate that in a car which resembles the one that means so much to his parents.
“It’s us three, as a family, that car belongs to,” said Dennis Hamlin. “Not just the son, but all three of us. As a team, we did it. It’s a family deal.”
“It’s going to be very emotional for a whole lot of people,” added Mary Lou Hamlin.
In addition to the throwback paint scheme, Hamlin will also wear a throwback helmet and a special fire suit design that hearken back to his time in go-karts as a kid.
