The Better Half Dash is a NASCAR fan favorite, with both fans and racers’ better halves looking forward to it each year. Last year, Zane Smith’s girlfriend topped the practice speed records, but this time she’ll be competing against Denny Hamlin’s fiancée, Jordan Fish. However, Denny Hamlin appeared dissatisfied while tutoring his soon-to-be wife. In fact, he seemed eager to get out of there. But why the urgency, Hamlin?
Did Denny Hamlin truly not want to coach his soon-to-be wife?
Speedway Motorsports is preparing to host the MRO Better Half Dash at Trackhouse Motorplex in Mooresville, North Carolina. This event, full of energy and goodwill, will take place on May 29, 2024, between 4:00 PM and 9:00 PM. It’s a day of high-speed excitement for racing fans and their families. In addition, on June 5, it will be broadcast on Fox Sports 1. The Better Half Dash adds excitement to go-kart racing by allowing elite racers’ wives and girlfriends to demonstrate their driving abilities in nail-biting races.
After her 2014 appearance, Denny Hamlin’s fiancée, Jordan Fish, will join the fray this year, too! She’s been training hard to add to Hamlin’s 74 trophies across all 3 NASCAR series, practicing through rain or shine. The #11 JGR driver himself spilled the beans on his podcast. When Jared Allen asked how Jordan was doing with her track training the other day, Hamlin beamed, “She did great!” Even when the conditions weren’t ideal, or as Hamlin put it, “the worst conditions possible.”
We were in the partial wet and dry. She’s on me the entire week like, ‘We’ve gotta go.’ And I’m like, ‘Jordan, it’s pouring rain. I’m not going out there in the rain.’ She’s like, ‘Well, these other girls have already gotten practice, and look! There’s a window. It’s not gonna rain from 5 to 8.’” Despite Hamlin’s reluctance, Fish convinced him, and he thought, “God dang it!” But when they reached the track – with its partial wet and dry conditions – Hamlin told his fiancée, “Jordan, these are the worst possible conditions for you to learn to drive.” Fish wasn’t one to budge, though.
Hamlin explained, “I said, ‘Alright, I’m gonna drive in front of you. When my hand is up, you’re off the gas on the brake; when my hand is down, you’re on the gas.’ So, I let her ride behind me and I’m doing all these hand signals.” But Hamlin was distracted by something – or rather, a few someones’ presence. He recalled, “TRD had frickin’ all their young drivers there… Corey Heim. And all I want to do is go out there and race and compete against Corey and these other people. And I’m like driving around there, going really slow doing these things. It’s just so painful because I’m like, ‘I just wanna go. I wanna go.’”
Jordan Fish may have won the battle against Denny Hamlin to get him to the track to help her practice, but the 54-time Cup race winner’s mind was elsewhere. But the bottom line is that she managed to convince him, which may be something she’ll have to do again before the race in light of Hamlin’s comments from a few weeks ago.
Just as Hamlin drives the #11 in the Cup Series, Fish will pilot the #11 cart at the Better Half Dash. Interestingly, her profile on the race’s official website read, “My Spotter Denny Hamlin.” Hamlin may not be a stranger to being a spotter, but it sure seemed like he didn’t want to be his fiancée’s crew chief. In an earlier episode of Actions Detrimental, Jaren Allen asked him about the Dash, and Hamlin said, “Jordan signed up for the Better Half Dash, so I don’t think I have to spot. That’s good news. I think I saw a thing like, ‘Spotter Denny Hamlin.’ I ain’t spotting no go-kart race. They don’t listen, anyway.”
Well, when the time comes for the green flag to fly at the Better Half Dash, we’ll know if Jordan Fish will have Denny Hamlin as her crew chief. That said, the JGR driver may have helped her practice for the Dash, but he believed she didn’t really need it.
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