Denny Hamlin isn’t that far from fellow NASCAR Cup Series competitor Kevin Harvick when it comes to their age. Both drivers have crossed the 40-year mark, but Harvick is still on the older side. However, after the end of this season, Harvick would be calling quits and will retire after a long and illustrious career.
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But Hamlin does not have any such plans like that at the moment.
Recently, while speaking about his NASCAR outlook, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver shed some light on his prospects and plans going forward. While doing so, he used Harvick’s example, calling him an anomaly in the sport, where the competition is usually much younger.
Denny Hamlin talks about his NASCAR future using Kevin Harvick’s example
While speaking during the driver’s press conference, Hamlin mentioned, “I said from the very beginning, I want to start my career and end my career at Joe Gibbs Racing. That’s continuing to be the goal… I think this is another step towards that. I don’t know if this is the last one or not.”
“I think, certainly know how many more times I will run for sure. But that doesn’t mean that it’s over at that point. I think that there’s still an opportunity to keep going beyond that, as long as I’ve known about competitive on high levels.”
“So I think people like Kevin Harvick are an anomaly, being able to be that fast and that competitive that late in his career. That’s gonna be really, really hard to do. So I don’t think the runway is that long.”
Furthermore, Hamlin believes that the Gibbs family provides him with the best opportunity to win a championship at the moment. Although, he hopes to start and end his career with this team, but acknowledges that the future is uncertain and he may encounter unexpected challenges. The JGR veteran concluded by saying that he values the opportunity to race with a championship-caliber team, as there are only a limited number of such teams within the sport.
Can Kevin Harvick get himself out of the bottom four ahead of the eliminations?
While the SHR driver did make it into the playoffs successfully, he still has a lot to overcome before planning his steps for the remainder of his final postseason run. Of course, both he and his fans would love to see him at least try to reach the championship four later on, but that at the moment seems too far-fetched.
Just looking back at his last race, he did have the chance to push for a win, but a late race caution due to an error by fellow competitor Tyler Reddick ended up Harvick causing an unfortunate pit lane penalty. Thereafter, all he could do was muster a finish to the 19th place.
But aside from his misfortune, Harvick did show a good pace and a competitive spirit to go for the win. Now heading into the race at Kansas, we should be keeping a lookout for the 2014 Cup Series champion, despite his 20th place start for Sunday’s race.
