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For the first time in 407 races, Denny Hamlin will not compete in a NASCAR Cup Series event. The 44-year-old racer, who won last weekend's FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway, will not travel to Mexico City for the inaugural NASCAR Cup event at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez following the birth of his third child on Wednesday.
Joe Gibbs Racing confirmed on Thursday afternoon that Hamlin would not compete in Sunday's race, and that Ryan Truex, the team's reserve driver, will fill in behind the wheel of the No. 11 Yahoo! Toyota Camry XSE this weekend. In a statement in its press release, the team said, "JGR supports Hamlin in his decision."
NEWS@dennyhamlin will miss Sunday’s @NASCAR Cup Series race in Mexico City. We will apply for a waiver to maintain his status for the 2025 Playoffs.
— Joe Gibbs Racing (@JoeGibbsRacing) June 12, 2025
In Denny’s absence, @Ryan_Truex will pilot the No. 11 @Yahoo Toyota this weekend. pic.twitter.com/ilc5jNLaMG
The team will apply for a Playoff Waiver for Hamlin, which is expected to be granted as the birth of a child is one of the reasons listed in the NASCAR Cup Series Rule Book pertaining to Playoff Waivers.
Hamlin issued a statement via his social media channels, where he announced the birth of his son, and expressed that he will remain with his family as his fiancée Jordan Fish is expected to be released from the hospital to go home in the coming days.
"We are happy to announce the birth of our son," Hamlin said in his statement. "Everyone is doing well. My main priority is to be here at home for Jordan and our family over the next few days when she is able to go home and we transition to life as a family of five."
See you guys in Pocono pic.twitter.com/ggLoheBPuU
— Denny Hamlin (@dennyhamlin) June 12, 2025
Heading into this weekend, Hamlin is third in the NASCAR Cup Series regular season championship standings, and sits 82 points behind William Byron, the series point leader. By not competing this weekend, Hamlin's deficit to Byron will grow, but the driver has stated all along that he is committed to doing right by his family, even if that means skipping a race to do his part as a father and husband.
Ironically, Hamlin's last missed event came in March 2014 when he had an object lodged in his eye. That was the same season that Truex, 33, last competed in a NASCAR Cup Series race. Truex, who made 26 starts for underdog organizations HScott Motorsports and BK Racing between the 2013 and 2014 seasons, has a career-best NASCAR Cup Series finish of 20th. He should have a chance to better that result this weekend.
Truex has scored three victories in the NASCAR Xfinity Series driving for the Joe Gibbs Racing organization in a part-time role since the 2023 season, and won back-to-back ARCA Menards Series East (then NASCAR K&N Pro Series East) championships in 2009 and 2010.
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TODAY'S BEST
Denny Hamlin fires back at NASCAR ratings narrative
While the Saturday night NASCAR Cup Series races are a hit for fans in attendance, TV tends to suffer. One good example of that was this past Saturday’s race at Richmond Raceway, which earned a 0.75 rating and 1.4 million viewers on USA Network. The August 2024 Richmond race, which took place on Sunday night, got a 1.2 rating and 2.2 million viewers. Prior to Richmond, the last Saturday night race was June 28 at EchoPark Speedway in Atlanta. That race garnered 1.608 million viewers. The data is the data, but Denny Hamlin isn’t buying that viewership would be much different if the race were held 24 hours later. “Are we naive enough to think a million more tune in 24 hours later?” Hamlin wrote on X. Hamlin’s tweet was in response to Jeff Gluck of The Athletic reporting on the viewership numbers for Richmond. His response sparked debate under Gluck’s original tweet — Hamlin’s had some more thoughts. He believes there’s more to NASCAR’s viewership issues than “hitting the exact perfect time window every week.” Asked to explain his overall point, Hamlin offered one more response. Simply put, he doesn’t want to hear any excuses. “That fans are speaking with their remotes and we gotta stop making excuses of why,” Hamlin tweeted. 2026 NASCAR schedule missing much Saturday presence While NASCAR has yet to officially unveil the 2026 schedule, Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic obtained a copy of the final version. Notably, there are only three Saturday races. When NASCAR is in its usual Sunday timeslot, viewership holds steady above 2 million. Perhaps most importantly to those up top, NASCAR continues to top Formula One and IndyCar in viewership. That’s exactly why Ryan Blaney is unconcerned about the dip in viewers on Saturday nights. After the low rating for Atlanta, in which NASCAR still beat F1 by 500,000, Blaney tweeted the following: “So, we got 500k more folks tuned in,” Blaney wrote replied. “Why do people make it out to be a bad thing? We crush the parade every week, so why do we get down in the dumps by this? Nascar is currently crushing it.”
Chicago Bears looking at bringing back familiar face at running back
The Chicago Bears don’t appear satisfied with their running back room with one week left to decide the 53-man roster. The Bears have until Aug. 26 to make their final cuts before preparing for the Minnesota Vikings in Week 1. The Bears entered training camp with questions at running back. Veteran D’Andre Swift had a down year in 2024. Roschon Johnson isn’t a long-term solution, and seventh-round pick Kyle Monangai will have a steep learning curve when the regular season begins. The Chicago Bears worked out a former running back Per Aaron Wilson of KPRC, the Bears worked out running backs Royce Freeman, undrafted rookie Kylin James and former Carolina Panthers practice-squad player Dillon Johnson. Royce Freeman played with the Bears in 2024 Of the three, Freeman is the only running back with stats at the NFL level. Freeman, a third-round pick by the Denver Broncos in 2018, has appeared in 79 games and started nine games. He’s rushed 471 times for 1,472 yards and 10 touchdowns. The Bears signed Freeman to the practice squad in December. He was then signed to the Los Angeles Rams practice squad in January. He last played a regular-season game in 2023, when he added 319 yards and two touchdowns in 14 games for the Rams. The Bears are signaling their need for a running back this summer. There are other options available in the trade market, as the Washington Commanders are shopping Brian Robinson Jr. during the preseason. More running backs will be available after other teams trim their rosters to 53 players, but they might not be the type of athletes to make a significant boost for the offense early in the regular season.
Aaron Judge seemed annoyed with Aaron Boone over troubling health update
New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone offered a concerning update on Tuesday about Aaron Judge's recovery from an elbow injury, and the slugger did not seem thrilled about that. Judge returned to the Yankees' lineup on Aug. 5 following a 10-day stint on the injured list. The two-time American League MVP had a flexor strain in his throwing elbow, and he has been slotted in as New York's designated hitter since he returned. In an interview with WFAN on Tuesday morning, Boone said he does not believe that Judge will get back to "throwing like he normally does" at any point for the remainder of the season. Judge was caught off guard by his manager's remarks. Before Tuesday night's game against the Tampa Bay Rays, Judge told reporters that he is unsure of why Boone provided the pessimistic update. "I don’t know why he said that. He hasn’t seen me throw the past two weeks," Judge said. "I’m pretty confident I’ll get back to that.” Boone later admitted that he may have misspoken during the WFAN interview. Many were surprised by the apparent disconnect between Judge and Boone. It is possible that what Boone said in the initial interview was accurate, and Judge did not want that information to be made public. The alternative is that Boone is not completely up to speed on his best player's recovery from an injury, which would be a bad look for the manager. Judge is batting .333 with 39 home runs and 91 RBI this season. His bat is far more important to the Yankees than his glove, but he has struggled at the plate a bit since returning. Judge is batting just .229 with a .429 slugging percentage in 11 games since he came off the injured list.
Cardinals Writer Makes Controversial JJ Wetherholt Assessment
The St. Louis Cardinals have seemingly waved the white flag on the season and the fan base is already preparing to riot for the call up and big league debut of top prospect JJ Wetherholt. Wetherholt is slashing .310/.403/.670 with nine home runs, a triple, and seven doubles in less than 30 games at the Triple-A level. Thomas Gauvain of Redbird Rants recently suggested that Wetherholt wasn't in the big leagues because he is blocked from receiving consistent playing time. Why hasn't JJ Wetherholt been called up yet? "Even with third baseman Nolan Arenado and second baseman Brendan Donovan on the IL, St. Louis Cardinals manager Oli Marmol is trying to squeeze in playing time for Masyn Winn, Nolan Gorman, and Thomas Saggese," Gauvain wrote. "Alec Burleson and Ivan Herrera are rotating between corner outfield duties and designated hitter appearances. There's not much time or space for Wetherholt on the major-league roster as things currently stand. "You don't promote a prospect of Wetherholt's caliber unless you intend on playing him every day. There's an argument that you make the roster work around JJ Wetherholt rather than the other way around, but the focus throughout the 2025 season in the majors has been to give young players full runway to prove their value or lack thereof. Bumping down Thomas Saggese, who is still only 23 and is 11 for his last 41, and Nolan Gorman, who has a .936 OPS over his last 11 games, for Wetherholt is a difficult argument to make." Every player listed who is supposedly blocking Wetherholt from receiving consistent playing time is under contract for next season, too. Would that mean the Cardinals would leave their top prospect in Triple-A next year? This doesn't make too much sense, as Wetherholt is the level of prospect that a team builds around. If he was the team's fifth or sixth ranked prospect, this argument would make sense. But he's the fifth or sixth ranked prospect in all of baseball. The star infielder has proved he can dominate at Triple-A. It's time for the Cardinals to bring him up to the big leagues to see what he can do. The rest of the roster can form around him.
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