LAS VEGAS — Denny Hamlin had every reason to walk away from NASCAR Cup Series racing at the end of 2025: a crushing championship loss, personal tragedy, 20 years of dedication devoted to being an elite driver.

And still, it took just five races into 2026 for Hamlin to lead his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team back to Victory Lane for the 61st time, a milestone achieved Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway that places him alone in 10th on NASCAR’s all-time wins list. The only names ahead of him are Richard Petty, David Pearson, Jeff Gordon, Bobby Allison, Darrell Waltrip, Jimmie Johnson, Cale Yarborough, Dale Earnhardt and Kyle Busch. He now joins Petty, Pearson, Earnhardt and Gordon as the only five drivers who have won across 20 Cup Series seasons.

“My name is not like others,” Hamlin said with a laugh.

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Legacy is one thing. Another is resilience in the face of adversity — at both professional and personal levels. In the 30,000-foot view remains the heartbreak of November’s championship defeat in overtime after a dominant day at Phoenix Raceway didn’t reward him with the trophy he finally appeared destined to win. Just a month and a half later, Hamlin’s father, Dennis, died at age 75 after injuries sustained in a house fire that left Hamlin’s mother, Mary Lou, critically injured. Toss in a re-aggravated shoulder injury for Hamlin, incurred while scouring the rubble of the burnt property, and you have all the pieces to justify why the 45-year-old could have decided to step away from racing altogether.

That’s not who Denny Hamlin is. Instead, he is defined by a stubborn relentlessness that has driven him to unimaginable long-term success — first as a driver and now as a 23XI Racing co-owner.

“I think for me ultimately, I said it before, it’s a promise to (JGR owner) Joe Gibbs and that family that I’d fulfill my obligations to them,” Hamlin said. “And then the thrill of going out there and getting more wins. That to me is what drives me. It makes me work as hard as I do at this. Everyone goes through tragedies and stuff. But it doesn’t change who I am, and that’s a competitor that loves to go out there. This is my life’s work.”

Sunday’s performance at Las Vegas was the culmination of that competitive desire that propelled Hamlin to his 60th career win back in October 2025 — except this time with more authority. Leaning into a “belt-to-ass” domination on social media, Hamlin overcame a speeding penalty levied ahead of Stage 2 by carving through the field, seemingly passing cars with more ease and efficiency than anyone else and still managing to lead a race-high 134 laps en route to the win.

“When we got to fifth by the end of the second stage, I’m like, ‘OK, I’m back in it,'” Hamlin said. “I’m close enough to the front that surely those guys up front looking at the scoring pylon and have had to think, ‘Holy [expletive], he’s back already.'”

That’s a good way to summarize how folks feel about Hamlin’s return, both for Sunday’s race and for the entirety of the young 2026 campaign. Adversity — whether in the form of tragedy or competitive setbacks — never seems to keep Hamlin down for long. So despite a 31st-place finish in the Daytona 500, Hamlin has managed one win, two top fives and three top 10s in five races this year.

Oh, and as team owner of 23XI Racing, Tyler Reddick’s historic three-peat to open the campaign means Hamlin has contributed to wins in four of the first five races this season.

“Obviously, things have gone really well for me personally and the team,” Hamlin said. “To win early in the season is always a really good thing. To have my cars going out there and winning three straight to start the season, I mean, those are all big momentum builders. It certainly helps me.

“If anything, Tyler’s wins fueled me to shake the tree and, like, OK, let’s get ours now.”

Hamlin signed a contract extension with JGR last summer that keeps him behind the wheel of the No. 11 Toyota through the 2027 campaign, which means we are witnessing the tail end of a career that will certainly propel the three-time Daytona 500 champion into the NASCAR Hall of Fame one day. At the end of that contract — which Hamlin has stated will be his last — Hamlin will be nearing age 47.

Even after just a three-month offseason, Hamlin wondered if he still had it. Few drivers have ever been this competitive for this long, let alone at this age. Few drivers are Denny Hamlin.

“It’s gratifying because I saw, like, the legendary Mount Rushmore guys, I’ve raced against them,” Hamlin said. “I think probably at least two on the Mount Rushmore, I got to race against and know how good they are. I also saw at the end of their career, when they got my age, that the performance changed, for whatever reason. I think Kevin Harvick is kind of the one that sticks out that he was still doing it at this level at this age. I don’t know when he stopped winning. Maybe 46-ish, 47-ish. I’m not really sure. That was, like, motivation to me that, OK, it’s possible. Not everyone ages the same. Not everyone’s eyesight is the same, reaction is the same at the same age. But that gave me hope that, like, I think that I can still do this.”

Unsurprisingly, that was on his mind after the checkered flag. After a congratulatory message from crew chief Chris Gayle on the cool-down lap, Hamlin simply replied: “Old dogs can hunt.”

“I’m no fool. I know my reaction’s deteriorating. There’s all kind of things that are deteriorating. Father Time is undefeated,” Hamlin said. “Three months is a long time where it’s like, ‘OK, am I still at the level that I was last year, especially to end last year?’ Today confirmed that nothing has changed, which is really good. It’s a good sign that we’re still able to do it at a really, really high level. So it’s just gratifying to me that I still, at this age, can get it done.”

Gibbs credits that ability in part to Hamlin’s work ethic. The shy kid who entered the JGR shop in the early 2000s has been winning at the Cup level since his rookie year in 2006, but he has also put in the work to maintain elite status behind the wheel.

“He’s been through a lot. Denny seems to have the ability to continue to work through things,” Gibbs said. “He has a way of just really still being very competitive. He stays in a sim, hard work, really, after it. I appreciate him so much. We’re riding Denny for about 20 years. It’s been an awful good trip for us.”

The level of effort Hamlin pours into his work waned entering this season. He admitted again Sunday that he only “locked in” for the season a couple of weeks ago as he shook off months of life-altering heartache.

“I mean, I can tell you, there are Mondays and Tuesdays where I’m, like, I’m over it,” Hamlin said. I just don’t … I don’t know whether I just want to keep doing this grind over and over. It happens after you have the failures at like Phoenix, where it’s like I spend all that time working, all that time studying, I ace the test and failed. That’s where it was, like, discouraging. Do I really want to do this again?

“So days like today … Last night I was grinding still. I was working hours and hours and hours after this practice was over to try to figure out how we could make our car better, communicating with the team on that. It feels good when you get the cookie at the end.”

What made it sweeter was having his family in attendance, with his infant son Jameson present along with Hamlin’s fiancee Jordan, their daughters Taylor and Molly, and, perhaps most importantly, his mom, Mary Lou.

“This is a family sport,” Hamlin said. “My family obviously had so much sacrifice to help me get here. Now that I’ve grown and have generations of Hamlins following me … it’s great Mom gets to see this. I know Dad’s still saying, ‘That’s my boy.’ Hell of a day.”