NASCAR Teams Honor Young Race Fan With Leukemia Who Passed Away at Age 11
Caleb Hammond will be remembered by the entire motorsport community as 12 NASCAR entries wear special #TeamCaleb stickers on Monday.
Caleb Hammond, the 11 year-old-boy who was the focus of a bittersweet story which flooded the internet in August, sadly passed away early Monday morning after a longtime fight with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
After sending out a request for racing stickers to cover his casket early last month, Caleb once again made headlines when he was treated to a ride around his local Iowa Speedway in a Ferrari 488 Challenge car courtesy of a Florida dealership who heard his story and sent out a full track day experience. Now, to honor his courage and passion for motorsport, a total of 12 NASCAR entries will tout special #TeamCaleb stickers at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Monday.
Shawn Magee Design created the decals and announced on Twitter that it would be sending them out for teams to run in the rain-delayed doubleheader which includes the Lilly Diabetes 250 and Brickyard 400.
SMD Owner Shawn Magee reportedly decided to create the designs after talking with NASCAR Team Social Coordinator Shane Smith. An ESPN report quotes Magee saying, "As a father of 4 young kids, Caleb's story breaks my heart. Shane and I agreed that we had to do something for Caleb and the family had already expressed that they had more than enough decals shipped to them already."
"Shawn and I developed the idea and used our connections within NASCAR to get placement for the #TeamCaleb decal," Smith added.
As a result, the Oskaloosa, Iowa, native will be remembered by a slew of NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series teams with the following crews honoring Caleb at IMS:
NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series:
Front Row Motorsports- No. 38 David Ragan
Front Row Motorsports- No. 34 Michael McDowell
TriStar Motorsports- No. 72 Corey LaJoie
NASCAR Xfinity Series:
Mike Harmon Racing - No. 74 Mike Harmon
JD Motorsports - No. 15 BJ McLeod
BJ McLeod Motorsports - No. 78 Tommy Joe Martins
BJ McLeod Motorsports - No. 8 Caesar Bacarella
JP Motorsports - No. 45 Josh Bilicki
JP Motorsports - No. 55 Bayley Currey
RSS Racing - No. 39 Ryan Sieg
RSS Racing - No. 38 JJ Yeley
RSS Racing - No. 93 Jeff Green
"We've had tremendous support from NASCAR teams, coordinators and drivers," Magee concluded. "It's really cool to see our NASCAR family rally behind Caleb and help put a smile on his face when he counts all of the race cars at Indy that include a decal with his name on it."
