SPEEDWAY, Ind. — Joe Gibbs Racing announced Friday that Denny Hamlin signed a multiyear contract extension that keeps the No. 11 driver behind the wheel with the organization through 2027.
Hamlin ranks 11th all-time with 58 NASCAR Cup Series victories and currently leads the field in wins this season after collecting his fourth at Dover Motor Speedway last Sunday.
When asked if the extension would be his last, Hamlin replied with a simple “most likely,” but laid out why the door remains open to continue racing beyond his 45th birthday in November.
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“I would say it’s kind of a two-fold thing,” Hamlin said Friday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. “Some of it is myself, motivating, right? I have goals I’d like to reach in the Cup Series and a really strong relationship with [team owner] Joe [Gibbs] and doing it for them and their family as well to keep going. Then, obviously, the ability to win week in, week out, that certainly is a high-motivating factor in wanting to do this. I think about on a weekly basis, would I want to do this if I didn’t have the ability or couldn’t win as much? It probably would not. The motivation wouldn’t be there. But certainly, as competitive as I am, I’m motivated by being able to win.”
Hamlin’s resume is prestigious, and he’s certainly in line to be a Hall of Famer when he chooses to step aside from full-time racing.
The 20-year Cup veteran owns three Daytona 500 trophies (2016, 2019, 2020), three Southern 500s (2010, 2017, 2021) and a Coca-Cola 600 triumph (2022). Hamlin owns the record for Cup Series Playoffs appearances with 18 and has made the Championship 4 on four occasions (2014, 2019, 2020, 2021).
From raising three kids to running a Cup team, Hamlin’s life is consumed with factors outside of piloting the No. 11 Toyota on a weekly basis. However, regardless of age, Hamlin says he won’t wait until the proverbial cliff approaches on his on-track abilities before hanging up the fire suit.
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“I want the ability to know I can win my last race,” Hamlin said. “That’s going to be the deciding factor. I’m not going to wait until I start to head downward and then retire. I don’t want to go through a whole year of that. I understand if it just happens naturally in the second half of the final year — then it just happens. But I don’t want to have to go through another season, if I start tailing off, then the next year I’ll just retire. I can retire whenever I want to retire.”