Denny Hamlin predicted his Daytona 500 win in second grade
Denny Hamlin’s second grade prophecy has been fulfilled.
His mother Mary Lou tweeted a picture of a note Hamlin wrote when he was a kid saying that he would be a Daytona 500 winner. Hamlin won Sunday’s race over Martin Truex Jr. by .010 seconds. It’s the closest finish in Daytona 500 history:
“If I remember right, it was second grade, so I’m probably seven years old,” Hamlin said after the victory. “I said I wanted to win it. I think if you look at the date, it’s like February something 1998. I missed it by a little bit on the date. I didn’t know Mike Wheeler back then, but Kerry Barton was my best friend, so he was going to be my crew chief. Ernie Elliott was going to change my tires and I wanted my car to look just like Bill Elliott’s. We missed it on a few details. I totally forgot about it, but she showed me that picture this week. The things I talked about, being J.D.’s birthday, our 11th try, everything just came together. It’s like a story that you couldn’t have written a better ending to our week.”
Not too many of us get a chance to live our grade school dreams. Sunday was Hamlin’s 11th attempt at winning the 500 and it’s now a reality.
