NASCAR Driver Denny Hamlin’s Dad Dennis Hamlin Dead After House Fire, Mom Critically Injured

Denny Hamlin is grieving an unimaginable loss. 

The NASCAR driver’s dad Dennis Hamlin died after sustaining injuries in a Dec. 28 house fire. He was 75. Meanwhile, Denny’s mom Mary Lou Hamlin, 69, remains hospitalized in critical condition.

At 6:27 local time, first responders arrived at the Hamlin family’s home in Gaston County, North Carolina after a fire was reported. Authorities, according to NASCAR, shared that two people escaped the blaze but suffered life threatening injuries and were rushed to a nearby hospital. 

The following day, the Gaston County Office of Emergency Management and Fire Services confirmed in a news release that Dennis had died. For her part, Mary Lou was transferred to a hospital in Winston-Salem, about 80 miles north of Charlotte.

The fire—which took nearly two hours to extinguish due to a lack of water in the area—destroyed the family’s entire four-bedroom house, WCNC reported, citing the Lucia-Riverbend Fire Department. The cause of the blaze has not yet been determined and an investigation is ongoing.