Denny Hamlin teases retirement, plans to race after JGR to Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Denny Hamlin just won back-to-back races in the NASCAR Cup Series at 44 years old. Is he thinking about retirement at all? Hamlin might be the first test of what modern sports science can do for drivers.

Of course, there have been old guys winning races in NASCAR from the start. Harry Gant, Bobby Allison, Mark Martin – could Denny Hamlin join that group and win races well into his late 40s and early 50s?

Talking to Dale Earnhardt Jr. this week on the Dale Jr. Download, Hamlin was asked about retirement. Here is what he had to say:

“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,” Hamlin explained. “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,” Denny Hamlin continued. “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.”

When he does hang up his helmet, Denny Hamlin will be an all-time great. Championship or not. 56 wins and counting, he was one of the most exciting rookies to hit the track in the 2000s, and his impact goes beyond that with team ownership at 23XI Racing.

Heck, depending on how the NASCAR lawsuit plays out, Hamlin might have more of an impact on this sport than everyone not named Bill France Sr., Richard Petty, or Dale Earnhardt.