Denny Hamlin took his 56th career Cup win at the Darlington Raceway last weekend. Given that the season is not over yet, there is scope for him to add more to his collection. This is also his second consecutive win of the season after he triumphed at Martinsville earlier.

In a recent episode of his Actions Detrimental podcast, who could really blame him for gloating? Especially considering that at Martinsville, he decided to make a show of it. On that day, he clambered out of his car in Victory Lane and grabbed a small flag from a fan. It read, ‘2311 against the world’, and the stunt was supposed to be pretty controversial.

Fortunately, his Darlington win did not see too many theatrics. However, that did not stop the #11 driver from being a bit smug on his podcast, and he had every right to be that way. From there, the topic soon shifted to trophies that are presented to winning drivers. Hamlin is one of six drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series who have 56 or more wins, and he couldn’t help admiring one of his trophies.

Denny Hamlin spoke about one of the most unique NASCAR trophies

Hamlin said on his podcast, “It just kind of depends on the track, like Martinsville, you don’t actually get a trophy. You just get the clock and then hopefully, whoever goes in your house knows that that’s a trophy. Not that you inherited it from your great-grandmother. So someone comes in and tours your home and you’re like, ‘Here’s all my NASCAR trophies. I’ve got 50 of these, but there’s also 6 clocks around the house, they’re also trophies.'”

“I’ve had to spread them out quite a bit, probably 15% of trophies are in my office now at 23XI. Probably 30-40% are near the bowling alley, then I’ve got some by the basketball court. It’s spread out, and I’ve got some stuff that’s in the garage. The clocks, they’re spread out all over the place. Different people have them. It was really cool to see that in Victory Lane, loved it, it was fantastic. Certainly with 3 laps to go, unexpected.”

What’s unique about the Martinsville Speedway trophy is that it is actually an ornate grandfather clock. The interesting story behind the clock is that the city of Martinsville is best known for its furniture industry. In light of this, H. Clay Earles began a tradition in 1964 after Fred Lorenzen won the race. Earles and Gravely Furniture Ridgway Clock owners got together and came up with an idea. They wanted a special prize for the race winner, thus the idea of gifting ornate grandfather clocks was born.

Since then, the Martinsville Speedway organizers have always gifted grandfather clocks to race winners. Currently, Denny Hamlin has six grandfather clocks, the most out of any of the current Cup drivers. However, Richard Petty has an astounding 15 wins, but three of those came before the tradition began. So in actuality, the 7-time NASCAR Cup Series champion only has 12 grandfather clocks to his name.

But wait, there’s more to Hamlin’s story…

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The Joe Gibbs Racing star revealed what happened to his latest trophy

He continued, “Man, I didn’t bring the flag down here. The trophy stays at JGR for a couple of days. It allows all the employees to take pictures before I snatch it up. It’s a great trophy too. I didn’t see it before the race, but it was just this very wood and gold. The track president said that it was a sort of a replica of the very first Southern 5o0. The only part that’s different is the gold cut top. Man, I am such a fan of old-school silver/wooden/gold, just the combination as a trophy is fantastic. They usually have it at the drivers’ meeting, kind of sitting front and center over there.”

In other words, the trophy usually goes to the team workshop first, so that the rest of the team can celebrate. Only after that does it go back with Denny Hamlin for good. Frankly, he was quite fond of the trophy because it was very good-looking in his opinion. Now, the #11 driver will be keen to add more wins to his name as the momentum is now his heading to the next race at Bristol.