Denny Hamlin Breaks Silence on NASCAR Retirement And How He Intends To End it With JGR

NASCAR veteran Denny Hamlin has opened up on his retirement plans and how he intends to end his long-standing career with Joe Gibbs Racing. The 44-year-old driver also revealed his plan to race for his own team, 23XI Racing, but stressed that he would race only if he was completely fit.

It could be surprising to hear Hamlin talk about retirement at this stage, when he secured two consecutive Cup Series wins in the last two races, bringing his tally to 56 victories. However, the JGR driver has it all planned in his mind. Speaking to Dale Earnhardt Jr. on the Dale Jr. Download, Hamlin was asked about his retirement. He said:

“Not right now. I mean, you always have to plan for it, and you want to give the team proper time to come up with their next plan as well.

“I think that running some at 23XI is something that I’d like to do. You know, Joe Gibbs Racing’s been amazing to me over the 20 years that I’ve been with them. Just fantastic, couldn’t be any better. Joe and that whole group has just been amazing.

“But you know, there’s certain things that are different. I do have a race team. You know, I really would like – even if I phased out and ran some there, that would be a cool goal of mine. Just whatever it is. Five races, 25, whatever it might be. It’d be a cool way to phase out instead of just stopping. I think I’d have a tough time just stopping. But I want to be competitive when I do it. I don’t want to do it when I’m passed my prime of winning. However that timing works, that’s how I would like for it to work, but you don’t always get to decide.

“That’s the thing is sometimes, the people that employ you, they’ve got a business to run and sometimes it just doesn’t make sense for them anymore. They bank on your decline, not necessarily what you’re doing. So, it, you know, we never know how this thing’s going to end up. Certainly, you always have to look towards the end and how you want it to go.”

With NASCAR all set for the race weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway, all eyes will be on Hamlin, who is being tipped for a third consecutive race win in the Food City 500. Despite the high chances, the race at Darlington showed how an incident can potentially alter race outcomes, and thus, nothing can be said right now until the chequered flag is waved on Sunday.