SOUTH BOSTON, VA :: The Denny Hamlin Foundation announced today that April 23, 2015 marks the eighth edition of the Denny Hamlin Short Track Showdown and the second consecutive year the celebrity Late Model charity race will be held at South Boston Speedway (Va.).

The Showdown, which features top NASCAR drivers competing against the best regional Late Model drivers, again serves as a weekday prelude to the weekend NASCAR races at Richmond International Raceway.  Proceeds from the Showdown go to support the Denny Hamlin Foundation, which has donated $150,000 in grants to help fund the Denny Hamlin Cystic Fibrosis Research Lab at Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU and support the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation-accredited Therapeutics Development Center at VCU.

“Keeping the race at South Boston for 2015 was a no-brainer for me,” said Hamlin, who regularly raced at South Boston before he made the jump to NASCAR. “Not only did it bring back a little bit of NASCAR to the South Boston community, it also brought one of the most competitive fields we have seen at this event so far.  The fans nearly sold out South Boston last year, and with the interest that we have already seen this year, I believe we will sell-out South Boston, and provide fans with another thrilling event.”

The driver line-up will be announced closer to the event, but Hamlin expects last year’s winner Matt Bowling, a Whelen All-American Series driver, to be first in line. Previous race winners include Kyle Busch, Hamlin, Tony Stewart, and C.E. Falk. Falk’s thrilling victory in 2010 at Southside Speedway, along with Bowling’s late race pass at South Boston last year, make Falk and Bowling the only non-NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers to win the event.

The Denny Hamlin Short Track Showdown began in 2008 at Southside Speedway, a local short track near Hamlin’s hometown of Chesterfield, Va., outside of Richmond, before moving to Richmond International Raceway in 2011 to pair up with the NASCAR K&N Series. In 2014, the race moved just over 100 miles to the southeast of Richmond to South Boston Speedway, another short track with a long history in stock car racing.  The annual race serves as a foretaste for fans attending the Toyota Owners 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race two nights later at Richmond International Raceway.

“I am extremely excited about hosting the event again this year,” said Cathy Rice, general manager of South Boston. “I felt it was