After a three-year absence, Davey “D.J.” Hamilton Jr. will contend for the Stadium Super Trucks championship. On Friday, SST announced Hamilton will run the full 2022 season in the #14 truck with sponsorship from GO FAST TAKE CHANCES, The Skyline Agency, and Thin Energy Complete. The season begins with the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach on 8–10 April.
Hamilton made his SST début in 2017 at St. Petersburg and would run six races that year. When the series visited China for the first time with a round at Beijing National Stadium, he led the most laps and won but was disqualified after not taking the Joker Lap. He returned to the series for the Long Beach and Race of Champions weekends, scoring his best career finish of fifth in Race #1 of the former. His father Davey Sr., who raced in IndyCar throughout the 1990s and 2000s, also has six SST starts to his name from 2013 to 2016.
He intiailly revealed his return to the series while speaking with Speed Sport in early January and teased his plans later in the month on Instagram, though an itinerary was not confirmed until Friday.
Outside of stadium trucks, he mainly competes in asphalt sprint cars. For 2022, he is running at least twenty-eight such events for Kirk Morgan‘s team in divisions like the USAC Silver Crown and Southern Sprint Car Shootout Series. Hamilton has also raced on dirt in quarter midgets, which included entering the prestigious Chili Bowl Nationals in 2017. He won the King of the Wing championship in 2016 and started on the pole for the Little 500 two years later; King of the Wing was founded by Hamilton’s father, and one of his team-mates was current SST driver Robert Stout.
Hamilton made three starts in Indy Lights in 2016 and 2018, the latter of which saw him finish seventh in the series’ former flagship event Freedom 100 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Between those years, he did a stock car one-off in the now-ARCA Menards Series West where he finished fifteenth of twenty-seven at Kern County.
His career paused in February 2019 when he was arrested and charged with false imprisonment and aggravated assault after holding his ex-girlfriend at knife-point in her Florida hotel room. Hamilton, who struggled with mental health, was sentenced to probation for five years without prison time. Over the next three years, he worked to reshape his life through means like starting businesses. One such company was DHJR Ventures LLC, founded in October 2021, whose mission “is to be a proving ground that you can still pursue your dreams and accomplish your goals no matter what setbacks you encounter. Not only has (Hamilton) made it ‘Back on Track’ racing, but he has also expanded into multiple businesses venues.”
He rejoined the racing world in October 2021 in sprint cars.
Thin Energy Complete, a plant-based non-caffeinated energy drink, has Hamilton as a brand ambassador. Pertinent to his recent life, he also represents the unrelated Brian Hamilton Foundation, a non-profit organisation that helps those with criminal histories become entrepreneurs.
Hamilton’s commitment to the 2022 SST schedule is the second driver-related news in as many days. On Thursday, off-road racer Ryan Arciero announced he will join the series at Long Beach.
