It was a social media post from Denny Hamlin not long after he missed his shot at the final 4 in Phoenix that left many of his fans confused. “Been a hell of a ride. Thank you 11 fans,” Hamlin had written, forcing many of his fans to wonder if this was the last time they saw the Joe Gibbs Racing driver in NASCAR.
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However, on his podcast, Actions Detrimental, when Hamlin was confronted with this subject, he didn’t waste time in setting the record straight. Moreover, he also hammered the point regarding his future in the sport and what drives that decision for him.
Denny Hamlin isn’t retiring from NASCAR after all
During the podcast, Hamlin’s co-host Jared Allen touched on the topic of his seemingly cryptic social media post, insinuating whether this was his farewell from NASCAR after the Martinsville heartbreak. “Sure, I’ll be at Phoenix this weekend,” Hamlin replied cheekily.
Allen clarified his question this time, asking directly whether he meant he was retiring, especially considering his choice of words in the ‘hell of a ride’ part of his post, to which Hamlin replied, “It has, hasn’t it?”
“With the fans, back and forth. ‘It’s our year..’, ‘Ah s**t!. It’s not again.’ It’s been a fun ride. I’m not sending any other subliminal messages. I’m just saying it’s been a really fun ride,” he described. “The fans have been passionate about me all year long; I appreciate that. It’s been fun for me. I appreciate the noise, I really do. I thought by far this weekend, more #11 gear than I’ve ever seen. By far.”
Hamlin thanked the #11 fans for supporting and cheering on him, adding, “You make me wanna keep doing this for sure. And even the ones that boo, we’ve got their attention. We know they’re paying attention.”
“It’s just been a very fun year in the instance of being so competitive week in week out and then this back-and-forth with the fans weekly has been fun as well.”
Hamlin had clarified his stance on this subject after Martinsville as well
Way before he took the mic of his podcast to comment on this subject, Denny Hamlin cleared the air on how far he has left in NASCAR in pursuit of his Cup title. Hamlin claimed what fills his passion to keep doing this, to keep racing at the highest level of NASCAR is the fact that he has a shot to win every week.
“It’s not over by any means. We’ve got a long way to go,” he emphasized.
Hamlin further added that he was happy with how the 2023 year went for him and the #11 team, claiming that they were “substantially faster” this year at most racetracks compared to last year. However, it was the fact that “it’s racing” that became their undoing at Martinsville and left him out of a final-four berth in Phoenix.
