At an age where most other NASCAR Cup drivers have either already retired — or have one foot out the door already — Denny Hamlin is practically enjoying a career resurgence.
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The 44-year-old — the oldest full-time driver in Cup this season — comes into Sunday’s race at Nashville Superspeedway ready to be the 22nd driver in NASCAR history to make 700 career starts in the Cup Series. Amazingly, he last missed a race in 2014.
But Hamlin’s streak may have to be pushed back a week, as his partner Jordan Fish is due to deliver the couple’s third child — and first boy — also on Sunday. If Hamlin misses Sunday’s race, or has to hop out early to catch a flight back to Charlotte, Ryan Truex is standing by to fill in.
But while Hamlin is preparing to welcome the newest addition to his family, he is also serving as an inspiration to younger teammate Chase Briscoe, including the year Hamlin is having so far.
“700 starts is pretty unbelievable,” Briscoe said. “Just to be able to be in the sport for 700 starts, but then to do it as competitively as Denny has, it’s pretty impressive.”
Briscoe, who joined Joe Gibbs Racing this year after four seasons at the now-defunct Stewart-Haas Racing, drew comparisons between Hamlin and Briscoe’s other former elder statesman teammate at SHR, Kevin Harvick.
Briscoe was teammates with Harvick from 2021 until Harvick retired from Cup at 47 years old following the 2023 season. He sees a lot of Harvick in Hamlin and vice-versa.
“It’s been fun for me to be able to kind of be behind the scenes now and see what makes Denny so successful,” Briscoe said. “It honestly reminds me a lot of being teammates with Harvick, just their approach to things. It’s been a lot of fun to see what makes them so successful.”
Like Harvick, Hamlin puts in extra time to stay sharp at his craft
Harvick and Hamlin are cut from the same racing cloth, it appears. A good part of their respective success has been logging countless hours on racing sims to try and get a leg up on opponents for the next track on the schedule.
“Even the year he retired, Harvick’s been doing this for 20 years and he could easily just not be going to the simulator, studying, doing all these things,” Briscoe said.
“(Hamlin’s) been doing it long enough but he spends more time than anybody on the sim, at JGR for sure. It just shows that he’s not afraid to work still to this day. He’s got a lot of other stuff going on with 23XI (Racing, the Cup team Hamlin co-owns with NBA legend Michael Jordan) and everything else, so it’s pretty impressive.” he added.
Hamlin comes into Sunday’s race in sixth place in the Cup standings with two wins, five top-five and six top-10 finishes in the first 13 races.
As productive as he’s been this season — he’s a lock to make the playoffs for the 19th time in his career — Hamlin could probably continue being effective behind the wheel for several more years if he remains at his current rate.
