Kevin Hamlin’s life has been sort of like a reverse Beverly Hillbillies. After striking racing gold in the West, Hamlin loaded up his car and moved to Carolina. North, that is. NASCAR’S home, big opportunities.
Unlike the Clampetts, though, Hamlin didn’t move into a mansion with a swimming pool. Instead, the move resulted in frustration and debt. But lately, things have been looking up for the former Snohomish resident.
Hamlin, who turned 26 Wednesday, received a three-race deal from Ken Schrader Racing this year, and after two races in which he finished in the top 10, he’s thinking big.
“It took a year to get something going,” Hamlin said from his home in Charlotte, N.C. “It feels good to be back into a car and racing again. It was the longest hiatus from racing since I was 3.”
Hamlin is a rookie on the ARCA circuit, a NASCAR minor league just below the BUSCH and Craftsman Truck series. But Hamlin is no newcomer to racing. In fact, Hamlin said he was born on a Tuesday and was at Evergreen Speedway that Saturday watching his father, Ken, race. He got into his own vehicle at 3 and moved into his first late-model car at 16.
“It’s all I’ve ever wanted to do,” Hamlin said.
He won his first race in the big cars at 17, but he also learned a valuable lesson that year. Racing at Evergreen, Hamlin was running third when he got a little too aggressive and spun his car out. His dad had a talk with him, explaining what he did wrong, but Kevin didn’t handle the lecture well.
“I was getting too big for my britches,” Hamlin said. “I was being stupid and I said to my dad, ‘If you’re so good, why don’t you do it?’ So he parked me for a couple of weeks. That straightened me out real quick.”
When Hamlin turned 18, he joined the NASCAR Northwest Series, and the next year he became the youngest driver to ever win a race on the tour. In 2001, he became the youngest champion in the circuit’s history, and he won the championship again in 2002. By the end of the 2003 season, he had 11 wins and 41 top fives in his Northwest Series career. That was enough to convince Hamlin he was ready to move on.
“I always knew that I had to move,” Hamlin said. “There is only so much you can do on the west coast, and I felt I had done everything at that level.”
“He made the right decision,” said Schrader racing’s Donnie Richeson, Hamlin’s crew chief. “It was either come out east and hopefully put something together, or stay doing what you’re doing, because he was as high as he could get on the west coast. If you want to make it in this sport, you need to get with the people who can make that happen, and those people are in the east.”
In June of last year, Hamlin and his wife, Mandi, moved to North Carolina with a deal in place to drive on the NASCAR Craftsman Truck series. But that deal fell through, leaving Hamlin with no ride, no job, and no real prospects. His ability to get into another car was limited, because NASCAR requires drivers to be approved to race on tracks. Racers start out on smaller tracks, get approved there, move on to the next size, and so on. Hamlin was not approved for the larger tracks that NASCAR typically races on.
“It was very frustrating,” Hamlin said. “I’d lost deals over the years but I was always at home and had a job. It was a tough time. We were living off of credit cards for three months. There were times I wanted to come home, but my wife and my family told me to stick it out. And my patience paid off.”
After being out of a car for more than a year, Hamlin took advantage of some contacts and made a call to Schrader, who agreed to give Hamlin a three-race ARCA deal. It was a big step, as the cars and tracks Hamlin would be handling are bigger and faster than anything he was used to.
Hamlin’s first race was May 14, the Harley Davidson of Cincinnati 150 at Kentucky Speedway, and he finished fifth. Then came the Hantz Group 200 at Michigan International Speedway, where Hamlin finished eighth.
“Just the fact that he had won championships told us he was a smart driver,” Richeson said. “And he’s shown that. He came in with no experience in these cars and things have gone exceptionally well.”
“I’m dealing with so much more horsepower than I’m used to,” said Hamlin, who reached 203 miles per hour in Michigan. “The competition at this level is so stiff, and me being as green as I am, I’ve been pleasantly surprised.”
The deal with Schrader came with its own pressures for Hamlin. The biggest is that he only has one car and one engine. If he wrecks it, that’s it. He said that has affected the way he drives, but hopes it hasn’t hurt him.
“At Michigan I was running real hard for fifth place and a guy I was racing was getting really aggressive,” Hamlin said. “I had to let him go because I didn’t want to wreck. I would rather run eighth than put the thing in the wall.”
“He’s taken care of things real well but he’s also been fast every time,” Richeson added. “That says a lot for his ability. We want him to do the best he can. We want him to go for his best finish and not just get laps. But I’m sure it weighs on him a little bit that this car is all he’s got.”
Hamlin hopes that won’t be the case for long. His final ARCA race is Aug. 13 at Nashville Superspeedway. But he’s also received a one-race deal to compete in the Craftsman Truck Series O’Reilly Auto Parts 250 July 2 at Kansas Speedway. Hamlin hopes to at least get a longer ARCA deal next year, if not a spot in a BUSCH car or Craftsman truck.
“It’s a tough business and not too many spots open up each year,” Richeson said. “At this point, it’s like musical chairs and he has to get whatever seat he can get. Either division would be a great step for him.”
“We’re working on next year right now,” Hamlin said. “I’m just trying to get my nose in. I’d love to even get a partial deal to drive a truck, that would be great.
“Some people back home will say that I’ve made it because of this year. But I won’t consider making it until I get a full-time ride and am competitive. I have high goals. I know what I’m doing now, a million other drivers would love. But it’s just made me want more.”
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