Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Denny Hamlin Still Can't Get Over Losing The Championship: I Can Relate | Coffee With Kenny
Transcript
- 0:00Happy Monday morning everybody. Just a reminder that 9:00 right
- 0:07now, within an hour, Central Standard Time here in Saint
- 0:10Louis, shop Kenny wallaceracing.com opens up and
- 0:17we are excited to fulfill those orders.
- 0:21Hats, T-shirts, decals. We got the best looking souvenir
- 0:25items in America. Yes we do.
- 0:29We got quality items so check it out.
- 0:32Over 500 people have already signed up.
- 0:34They have their e-mail and they will be notified.
- 0:37That is shop kennywallace.com. We sold out right away at the
- 0:43craft show these awesome coffee mugs.
- 0:45We sold 48 in no time. So we're happy to fulfill your
- 0:51orders in quality, style and great service.
- 0:54If you have any questions, call my wife Kim's cell number.
- 0:58She gives it out all the time. 704-361-7116 All right, I feel
- 1:13good this morning. I feel light.
- 1:16I feel very light and happy. Racing season is over, and as
- 1:21much as I love racing, I get so serious about it that I get on
- 1:25defense. What can I do to make my car
- 1:28faster? How can I drive better?
- 1:31How's the maintenance on my car? My defense mechanism is down.
- 1:37I feel good, man, Do I feel good.
- 1:41It's like Father John said when he married Kim and myself.
- 1:45Young man, what are you going to do for a living?
- 1:47I said, Father John, I'm going to be a race car driver and
- 1:51Father John looked at me square in the eye and he said, oh, my
- 1:54young man, be careful, Competition will kill you.
- 2:00I knew exactly what he meant. I think of him often.
- 2:06All right, laid up. It's cold.
- 2:12It's cold today, but Can you believe it's going to be in the
- 2:1570s here in a couple days? This weather is crazy.
- 2:21OK, Today's subject matter, Denny Hamlin getting over his
- 2:27heartbreak of losing a championship.
- 2:33I can relate. In 1991, I lost the Bush Trend
- 2:38National Championship on the very last race at Martinsville
- 2:43to Bobby Labonte. It crushed me.
- 2:47I took sports therapy there. I admit it.
- 2:50I hope you feel better. I I made myself feel bad to make
- 2:55you feel better when I lost the 1991 Bush Grand National
- 3:03Championship on the last race, when I lost it to Bobby Labonte,
- 3:09it was a crushing blow. You can see my face getting
- 3:13serious right now. I really don't even want to talk
- 3:16about it, but I I need to not for me, but for all of you to
- 3:20explain where I'm going to go with this.
- 3:22You know, I took sports therapy up in Topeka, KS.
- 3:27So much to say. So Denny Hamlin, you know,
- 3:33getting over the heartbreak of the championship right there.
- 3:38He hadn't won. He hadn't won, as he said, 40
- 3:42seconds and he was going to be the NASCAR Cup champion in his
- 3:47dream was going to be realized. So it's going to take Denny
- 3:52Hamlin a while to get over his heartbreak.
- 3:56Now, the reason I bring this up today is yesterday on Sunday
- 4:00evening, Denny is smart. So he most likely edits up some
- 4:06of his own social media and he showed himself and Taylor, his
- 4:15daughter. I call her Taylor TV 'cause she,
- 4:18she's going to be famous. Denny Hamlin and Jordan, they
- 4:24raised some good kids that Taylor, she's going to be
- 4:27famous. She would do some recording in
- 4:32the NASCAR day some three years ago.
- 4:34She's a great actress, a good singer.
- 4:36But yesterday, Sunday, Denny Hamlin and his daughter Taylor
- 4:41went way back in time and they went to Denny's very first dirt
- 4:47go Kart track. It was a go Kart track and it
- 4:50was dirt. And I know exactly what I was
- 4:53doing. When you're 62 years old like
- 4:56me, you learn a lot. You learn a lot of tricks of the
- 5:00trade. You, you learn how to trick your
- 5:02brain. Most likely.
- 5:05Denny got some great advice from Sports Therapy and if you have
- 5:11reoccurring dreams they tell you to go back.
- 5:14Now I nobody told me I learned this on my own.
- 5:17When you have reoccurring dreams the only way to stop them is to
- 5:20go to the origin. It means origin means the place
- 5:25that they, the dreams happen. So Danny goes back to where it
- 5:30all started. Why he loves racing in the first
- 5:34place, in the 1st place. Why did I want to become a race
- 5:38car driver? So Danny goes back to that dirt
- 5:41go Kart track. Now you can go check out Danny
- 5:44Hamlin's video. It's over on Instagram and it's
- 5:48very heartfelt. It shows him reflecting, why do
- 5:54I even race? Well, here's why you raced
- 5:57Danny, because you went back, you know, you, you went back to
- 6:00the origin, you went back to that dirt track.
- 6:03It makes you, it reminds you why you love racing.
- 6:09You know, this day I got a decal in my dirt car of my mom and dad
- 6:13in Victory Lane. And when you know, I'm upset
- 6:17about racing or why the hell do I even race?
- 6:20I look at that picture and I'm like, that's why I race because
- 6:24my dad was a racer and my mom ran powder puffs and I love this
- 6:29sport. I love it for as cruel as
- 6:33anything can be in life, whether you're a golfer or a fisherman,
- 6:39you know, wanting to catch that big fish, the euphoria, the
- 6:41happiness or the day that you don't catch any fish.
- 6:45Why do I fish? Why do I golf for that hole in
- 6:50one in golfing for that 5 LB bass?
- 6:54Why do I race? I race because of weekends like
- 6:59I just had what was it called? The human drama of athletic
- 7:05competition. On Friday night, I got wrecked.
- 7:09But I didn't give up and I just kept.
- 7:11I kept digging. I work till 2:00 in the morning.
- 7:14Then I worked five hours the next day fixing my race car, and
- 7:19I read the rewards that I sowed. I won it all, won two
- 7:23championships. So Denny Hamlin went back and
- 7:32he's not done. He's going to get over it.
- 7:34He will get over it the same way I got over losing the 1991 Bush
- 7:41Grand National Championship to Bobby Labonte.
- 7:44I was crushed. It destroyed me.
- 7:48To this day it bothers me. I lost the championship for so
- 7:54many reasons. The rearing broke in the race
- 7:57car, the ignition went bad, whatever it was.
- 8:01So I just wanted to tell you what I see and I I know Denny
- 8:06Hamlin will heal up and he'll be back, but I do feel bad for him
- 8:11to have that championship snatched away, literally
- 8:15snatched away. I hope you all enjoy the thrill
- 8:21of victory and the agony of defeat.
- 8:24That is so true. That is a well said statement
- 8:27for any, any competition. The thrill of victory, the
- 8:32thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.
- 8:36All right, have a have a great Monday, everybody.