Coming off back-to-back victories as NASCAR heads to Bristol Motor Speedway this weekend, Denny Hamlin might look like he is having the time of his life in the sport, being at the top and his very best.
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But altitude also gives one perspective, the opportunity to see the lay of the land a bit farther out, as well as look back on the distance already covered. And the 44-year-old Virginia native has quite a track record to look back on.
He is competing in his 20th year in the Cup Series this year. There’s no shortage of silver in his trophy cupboard — he is a 3X Daytona 500 winner and has a whopping 56 Cup Series wins under his belt. He’s already made it to NASCAR’s Hall of Fame, but that coveted championship trophy has stayed elusive.
Which is probably why the #11 Toyota Camry XSE driver dropped the bombshell that he did.
Appearing on Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Dirty Air show after his Darlington win, Hamlin admitted to thinking about his future after Joe Gibbs Racing, the team with which he has stayed with since his debut in 2005.
“You always have to plan for it [retirement], and you always want to give the team proper time to come up with their next plan as well,” he said.
And strangely, he appears to be headed in the same direction as his questioner!
Hamlin would like to focus more on 23XI Racing
Junior used to scratch his itch for racing after his retirement with part-time Xfinity Series appearances. Hamlin seems to be on the same path, wanting to focus more on 23XI Racing, the team he co-owns with basketball legend Michael Jordan.
“Running some at 23XI is something I’d like to do. I really would like to, even if I phased out and ran some there, that would be a cool goal of mine. It would be a cool way to phase out versus just stopping,” he said.
Hamlin admitted he would find it difficult to just wake up and stop one day, so “phasing out” slowly, competing in a few races at his own team might be an option. He added that he would like to retire from full-time racing when he was still winning, and not when he was past his prime.
Being in the sport for two decades, Hamlin understands the realities of it and the uncertainties for a driver all too well. Even if a racer is not past his prime, he could find himself getting phased out of a team due to sponsor implications or business decisions made by the team.
If that does ring a bell, yes, Kyle Busch, one of the best drivers ever seen in the NASCAR circuit, met with the same fate at JGR a few years back. With Hamlin’s cautious approach to how he gets to end his career on his terms, it seems as if he has a grip on what his legacy will be in the sport. How well that does pan out, however, is anyone’s guess.
