NASCAR Insider gives update on Denny Hamlin Michigan race status amid baby watch

For the second consecutive week, Denny Hamlin is on baby watch. His fiancée Jordan Fish is due to give birth to the couple’s third child and first son.

Hamlin has said he will be head back to North Carolina should he get the call that Fish is in labor. The plan, however, remains to compete in Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway, per Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports. Joe Gibbs Racing reserve driver Ryan Truex is in the garage and on standby if Hamlin needs to leave.

Hamlin and Fish were anticipating their son’s arrival last week while Hamlin was racing at Nashville Superspeedway. The wait continues as NASCAR is set to go racing at Michigan.

“Just patiently waiting,” Hamlin said Saturday, via NASCAR.com. “Thought we’d be almost a week in by now, but just patiently waiting.”

Truex, meanwhile, has 26 Cup Series starts under his belt. None have come since 2014. That being said, Truex has been working on the sim and feels ready to step in if called upon.

“He’s been working in the sim to get acclimated,” Hamlin said of Truex. “I was worried about him reaching my pedals first of all. But it sounds like he fits fine. If they had overnight to adjust it, if that’s the case, if I get called tonight, they’ll be able to move the pedals back to make it all fit right for him. But overall, we’re basically the same kind of body size, so he’ll take over.”

Denny Hamlin has momentum heading into Michigan

Hamlin is coming off a P3 finish at Nashville, snapping a streak of five consecutive finishes outside the top 10. Hamlin had a fast car; he just had nothing for Ryan Blaney.

“Just couldn’t run with the 12 [Blaney] in the super long run,” Hamlin said. “After 40 laps, I could maintain with them, after that, he just pulled away and stretched it on us. Our best strategy at that point was to go long. You either catch a caution, another caution comes, we all were going to stay out because the lap times don’t fall off, and then got fresher tires.

“We got jumped by [Carson Hocevar]. Then the track went through a really weird phase the last 30 laps where everyone had it pinned to the bottom. I think there was not enough cars running the middle, so it threw dust into that middle and top lane that was not an option. That definitely hurt the passing.”