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.
