It would not be an overstatement to say that Denny Hamlin is the Mark Martin of his generation.
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The Virginia native has won 56 NASCAR Cup races, reached the championship-deciding race six times, yet has come away with zero championships.
Martin was much the same way, winning 40 Cup races and finishing runner-up in five different seasons. But like Hamlin (at least to date), the NASCAR Hall of Famer also never earned a Cup championship, making them the two most successful drivers in Cup who never won a championship.
There’s an argument to be made that Dale Earnhardt Jr. should also be in that category, as he won 26 Cup races but also never won a championship (the closest he came was third in 2003).
One of the seasons Martin came closest to the elusive crown was his runner-up year of 2009, when his age of 50 years old proved to be just a number as the Batesville, Ark., native won five races in a season where he reached the half-century mark of age.
Martin eventually retired in 2013 at the age of 54.
“Mark Martin did it when he was 50, he was fantastic,” Hamlin said in a session with media Saturday at Bristol Motor Speedway.
But don’t expect Hamlin to stick around another 10 years and still be driving when he’s 54.
“There is no way I’ll ever make it that far for sure,” Hamlin said. “But again, everyone’s body, everyone’s mind, everyone’s eyesight is all different, and it goes away at different times.”
At 44, Hamlin is the oldest full-time driver in the Cup Series, yet he’s still as productive and successful as ever. He comes into Sunday’s Cup race at Bristol Motor Speedway having won the last two back-to-back races at Martinsville Speedway and Darlington Raceway.
Hamlin has won 19 of his 56 Cup victories since the COVID-19 season of 2020
In fact, since the COVID-19-affected season of 2020, Denny Hamlin has won 19 races since then, including his two victories this season.
Showing that he still has a lot of gas left in his tank, Hamlin probably has two or maybe three more years left driving a Cup car.
And there’s a good likelihood that his final season will not be for Joe Gibbs Racing, but with the team he co-owns with NBA legend Michael Jordan, 23XI Racing. Hamlin has expressed that potential scenario countless times in his career, including several times this season.
“I think that it has been different for everyone,” Hamlin said. “People like (Kevin) Harvick … was he 48 when he retired (actually, Harvick was 47)? He was still on top of his game.
“I think it is different for everyone. Some you get to 43, 44, (and) the light switch goes off. You just never know.
“My drive is still there. Obviously, the performance is still there. I’m just going to keep trying to win all that I can in this window when it is still there.”
