For years, Denny Hamlin kept his eyes on the 60 win mark, hinting that there’s not much left for him to achieve in the sport once he reached that number. His win in Las Vegas last Sunday means he now sits at 61, leaving the garage wondering what’s next. Well, Hamlin has decided he wants to go after that one thing that slipped through his fingers in 2025.
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Hamlin’s Cup Series Championship aspirations came crashing at the Phoenix Raceway last season following a dodgy last-lap call made by crew chief Chris Gayle. Since then, Hamlin has treated wins as the measure that no one can take away. With his deal at Joe Gibbs Racing set to run through next season, he has marked 67 as the number to reach before he calls time on his run. Yet the chase is not tied to a number alone.
The Title sits at the top of his list after his near miss in 2025. Speaking ahead of the race at Darlington Raceway, Hamlin stated that the end goal has not changed.
“It’s just now, can we get the big prize at the end of the year? That’s the only goal left to have, other than the Brickyard (400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway), is certainly one that still is mindful (for) me personally,” he said.
With 61 wins on the board, he is closing in on Kyle Busch and his mark of 63, a number that could fall before long. Some have looked further up the chart and drawn a line to Dale Earnhardt, who has a total of 76. Hamlin, for his part, does not see that as a road he will travel.
Hamlin has called that target a stretch, pointing to the time left in his own career and the gap that still stands. In his view, Busch has more years ahead to keep adding to his total, whereas his own window is narrower. Hamlin knows where he stands and where he may land, even as he leaves room for the sport to throw up the odd surprise.
Each win has pushed the bar a notch higher. At one stage, 50 was Hamlin’s goal. He cleared that and kept moving the line as far as he could. The tally has already gone beyond what he once had in mind, and he believes there may still be a few more to come before the curtain falls.
But to reach Earnhardt’s mark, he would need more time and a higher count at this stage of his run. That path looks out of reach, and he has not tried to dress it up as anything else.
For now, the focus narrows to the task at hand. Darlington is next, and he returns as the defending winner. It will give the Joe Gibbs Racing river another shot to chip away at Busch’s total and close the gap to within one. Having qualified ninth for the race, Hamlin will have a shot at winning the race. First, because he has an average finish of 9.3 over his last six starts, and second, he has already won the race at Darlington despite starting from P9 back in 2017.
