Hamlin's parents are proud, but nervous

She is 11mommalou , providing constant updates coated with love. He doesn't tweet, but he brags a lot.

She interrupts him to say he's rattling on. He isn't rattling; he's gushing. Any of us with kids or someone we're proud of can relate.

Proud parents Mary Lou and Dennis Hamlin should be. Their son, Denny, goes for the NASCAR Sprint Cup championship today at Homestead Miami Speedway.

"I could not sleep last night," Mary Lou said Friday morning. "I haven't been nervous, and (Thursday), when I started to listen to all the media stuff, oh gosh, I couldn't sleep."

"This is the first race I've ever been nervous at," Dennis echoes.

Mary Lou was born in Tampa, went to St. Patrick's Catholic School for eight years and graduated from Robinson High. Dennis came down from Virginia after high school and worked on the air conditioning at Tampa General Hospital.

They met while Mary Lou was at Madison Junior High. She was 15; he was 20 and divorced with two daughters. Mary Lou's mom, Thelma Clark, eventually encouraged them to marry. They'll celebrate their 37th anniversary in December.

Enter Denny, born in 1980 at St. Joseph's Women's Hospital when Mary Lou and Dennis lived in Brandon. Although Denny spent but two years in Florida, ties here remain.

There's one aunt, Judy Jones, in Palma Ceia, and another, Rosaire Singleton, in Wesley Chapel. Thelma, Denny's beloved grandmother, passed away in July 2009 at 91 while living at the Patrician Arms retirement community on South Manhattan Avenue.

There are cousins in the Tampa area, an uncle with a condo on Clearwater Beach. Several of them were tailgating at the track Saturday.

"They're all going to be here (today)," Mary Lou said.

True believer

If you've followed Denny Hamlin's career, you know of Thelma, his biggest fan.

She lost most of her eyesight near the end but would still watch the races 3 inches from a small TV mounted at the side of her couch. Bingo friends would watch with her sometimes.

When Denny was 14, Thelma wrote a letter to Jeff Gordon. She wanted the NASCAR star to know her grandson had talent, that he was coming up in go-karts just as he did. Thelma kept a rough draft of the letter in her purse. It was there when she died.

"It's funny," Mary Lou said. "On the letter she sent off, she wrote on the bottom of it, 'Remember the name Denny Hamlin. You may be racing against him one day.' "

Indeed.

Dennis was working for Great Dane Trailers in Tampa when the company made him a sales manager in Virginia. He packed up the family, including two adopted sons, and moved to Chesterfield.

Denny's interest in racing already was blooming. Dad - actually, everybody calls Dennis Dad - was a Dale Earnhardt fan. Denny, to be different, was a Bill Elliott fan. "He was 3 years old, and he knew every car, every driver, every number," Dennis said.

It wasn't long before Denny was riding one of his dad's four-wheelers. He was so small he had to bend down and shift the foot pedal with his hand. He caught on quickly.

"We would go hunting, and he would be banging me in the rear the whole time," Dennis said.

Four-wheelers were followed by go-karts, which were followed by mini-stocks and street stocks and late models. As Mom and Dad tell it, Denny won his first go-kart race with two-by-four wood blocks for pedal extenders. He won his first mini-stock race while driving a stick-shift car for the first time.

Racing was Denny's obsession; his parents indulged it.

"We never had any trouble with him," Dennis said. "He was absolutely a pleasure to raise. If I got in the truck, he got in the truck. And if he wasn't allowed in somewhere, I didn't go in. I went nowhere without him. He was my heartbeat and still is."

Whatever it takes

But it wasn't easy.

The Hamlins mortgaged their house "two or three times" to keep Denny's career going. They sold off a cherished '32 Ford "I waited all my life to own," Dennis says, and a '67 Camaro convertible he rebuilt for Mary Lou.

They were broke and ready to quit when friend Ron Roberts came through with money for an engine. Later, Jim Dean supplied cars. Dennis and his crew of volunteers - "their only deal in life was to give Denny the opportunity," Dennis says - maintained them.

After he'd made it big years later, Denny pulled up at his parents' place in Virginia and handed them the keys to the house in Charlotte, N.C., he was moving out of. He bought Dennis a boat and told him to go play; he was retired.

For Father's Day this year, Denny parked a power-blue and white '55 Chevy in his father's driveway. "Love ya, pops," Denny said in a tweet.

Break of a lifetime

Mary Lou and Dennis know Denny made it to NASCAR in part because he was in the right place at the right time. There are hundreds of Denny Hamlins with dazzling talent who never get the chance.

But Denny had come to the attention of team owners Joe and J.D. Gibbs through his short-track feats, and the timing was such that he got to compete for the job of driving their Fed-Ex-sponsored No. 11 car after Jason Leffler was fired.

Hamlin got the job and had a sensational rookie season, finishing third in the Chase. Today, with a lead of 15 points over four-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson and 46 over Kevin Harvick, he goes for his crowning achievement.

"It's big for the whole family," Hamlin said. "Win, lose or draw, it's a weekend to experience."

How bad does Denny Hamlin want it? In February, he postponed surgery on a torn ACL in his left knee to the end of the season so he wouldn't miss any time in the car.

He wound up nearing surgery anyway in March after also tearing his meniscus.

Hamlin began his rehab "hours" after getting out of the hospital, Mary Lou said. Ten days later, he ran the full race at Phoenix.

Since then, Hamlin has recorded seven of his series-best eight wins, with two coming in the Chase.

Dad and mom couldn't be more proud.

"I always joke that if we knew he was going to be this good, we'd have had four or five more," Dennis says. "And I'd have leased them out