Denny Hamlin won the NASCAR Cup Series race on Sunday at Darlington Raceway driving a paint scheme that paid tribute to former Joe Gibbs Racing teammate and newly inducted Hall of Famer Carl Edwards.
Specifically, this was a paint scheme that reflected the ones Edwards had while sponsored by Office Depot while at Roush Racing from 2004 to 2014 before joining Hamlin at JGR. Hamlin won the race but was not going to replicate what Edwards did after winning with a signature back flip.
“Me attempting a backflip would end my career immediately,” Denny Hamlin told Harvick on his Happy Hour show on Monday.
It’s also what he told Jamie Little on FOX Sports on the frontstretch immediately after winning the race.
“I’ll pass. If Carl is here, he’s more than welcome to jump off the car,” Hamlin said.
Hamlin also detailed during his post-race winner’s press conference a conversation he shared pre-race with Edwards.
“Well, I think he said, ‘Don’t win this race, they might make you do a backflip’ and I said, ‘There’s no chance.”
And again, for the same reasons:
“I probably would break the back of my head because I wouldn’t even get full 180 flip, so…,” Hamlin said. “He’s way more athletic than I am in that sense.
“I just told him that it was an honor to carry the scheme because truthfully me and Carl probably talk more now or have talked more now that he’s out of the sport, we’re no longer teammates. That has been my relationship with most of my teammates, that the relationship grows after they’re gone.
“Really getting to know Carl, we’re so blessed to have him coming back to the sport in the TV role. Yeah, I’ve just had some great conversations with him. I loved the scheme. It was just one that I raced against, one that I got beat by a lot. Carl is someone that you certainly look up to.”
