Right now, Denny Hamlin isn’t showing any signs of slowing down.
The 45-year-old driver won his second consecutive NASCAR Cup Series race on Sunday, winning the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan by the largest margin of victory in his career, 11.11 seconds. Hamlin now has three wins on the season, also taking the checkered flag at Nashville and Las Vegas. He’s second in the point standings, trailing Tyler Reddick by just 51.
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“This might be the most exceptional thing he’s done,” Joe Gibbs, owner of Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota, said after the race.
While Hamlin is putting forth some of the best racing of his career on the track, questions about retirement will swirl around him as he is the oldest full-time driver competing in the top-level Cup Series.
After winning at Michigan — which gave him 63 career victories in the Cup Series, putting him in a tie for ninth with the late Kyle Busch — Hamlin seemingly confirmed what his retirement plans might be in a post-race interview with Prime Sports.
“Well, I mean, I have a commitment to (Gibbs), no matter what, whether we win (the championship) this year or not. At the end of next year — Listen, I told them, ‘Just check with me in six months.’ But I don’t want to leave them kind of in flux,” Hamlin said. “They’ve got a great driver in Brent Crews that’s going to be ready, more than likely, by the end of next year. So, I don’t know. It’d be hard. If it was right now, it would be really hard. But I find it hard to believe that we’re going to be at this level at this time next year.”
The Athletic reported last August that Hamlin’s current contract with JGR runs through the 2027 season and mentioned Crews as a possible replacement for the No. 11 Toyota if Hamlin decides to walk away. Crews, an 18-year-old from Hickory, North Carolina, signed to JGR as a development driver. He’s placed in the top five of 12 second-tier O’Reilly Auto Parts races this season, has four top-10 finishes in 11 Craftsman Truck Series competitions, and has six victories in the third-tier ARCA Menards Series.
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In his post-race press conference with reporters, Hamlin explained that he’s pessimistic about being able to race this well for years to come because he believes Father Time will catch up with him.
“I’m planning for the downfall that I know will come,” Hamlin said. “I always say there’s like three things that happen. In no particular order, it’s your eyesight, your reaction, and then your body hurts. I’ve already got the body hurts part of it, right? It’s just the other two things that have remained really sharp.”
Hamlin also doesn’t believe he can get to eighth place on the all-time wins leaderboard, where Dale Earnhardt sits with 76 victories.
“It was certainly a goal to get to 63… I ain’t getting to eighth, so what am I doing? You know what I mean? I’m content,” Hamlin said. “Nobody cares. You’ll be forgotten within six months of when you’re not here.”
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Hamlin has never won a Cup Series championship. He’s placed in the top-four seven times, including last season when he finished second to Kyle Larson.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin alludes to retirement plans after Michigan win
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