By David Morgan, Associate Editor
LEBANON, Tenn. – Denny Hamlin will become the latest driver in the NASCAR Cup Series garage to cross the 700-start threshold when the green flag drops on Sunday’s Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville Superspeedway.
The driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota has been a mainstay in the Cup Series since his debut in October 2005 at Kansas, winning 56 races along the way, including three Daytona 500s, and has established himself as a perennial championship contender – though has yet to capture that elusive Cup title.
Hamlin will start on the outside of the front row for Sunday’s 300-lap race on the 1.333-mile concrete oval. In four starts at Nashville, Hamlin has scored one top-five finish and two top-10 finishes.
“Honestly, it feels good to be still as competitive as I was in start one,” said Hamlin. “I mean, that’s what I’m most grateful for in all of this is that 700 starts later. I still can go out here and win this weekend. I don’t know if anyone’s won it in their 700th, but I’d like to.”
Hamlin added that a key to his success and longevity in the series is not only having driven for the same team from the start, but his willingness to always keep learning and evolving as the years pass.
“That’s a big part of it. Absolutely. I mean, you don’t take for granted that you’re driving for one of the top three organizations that essentially wins all the races. That plays a lot into the statistical columns that have gotten filled throughout my career. So that’s certainly been helpful,” Hamlin said.
“But I think most of it has just been my ability to, and willingness to adapt to just different scenarios, different cars, different tracks, different aero packages. Just, I never stop learning every racetrack I go to. It could be the 25th time I’m going to it, but I guarantee you, I’m taking something there this weekend that I hadn’t thought of or hadn’t approached that way in the past. So, just always learning.”
Hamlin continued, saying that his competitive fire still burns as bright as ever, though with the end of his career closer than the beginning, he won’t apologize for taking the losses harder along the way.
“I think it’s just my competitive nature that loves winning. It doesn’t matter what it is. I love working and I love winning and I like putting in the work and seeing the results from that,” said Hamlin.
“…I know that I only have a very limited amount of time left, so I just want to take advantage of every weekend, which is why I’m probably gonna go backwards in the sense of when I started in the Cup series. I used to take losses horribly because it was like, oh, this is just the world’s ending.
“But, you know, I got told that you’re gonna be in the sport for a long time and it’s okay, you’re gonna have so many other opportunities. And now it’s like when you start to see the end, it’s, well, if I’m gonna get to the goal, I can’t let this weekend slip, I can’t let next weekend slip. I certainly am letting the bad weekends frustrate me a little more than I did just a few years ago.”
On Baby Watch
There may be a chance that start No. 700 may have to wait a week should Hamlin’s fiancé Jordan Fish give birth to their third child – and first son – on Sunday.
Hamlin noted Saturday that if the call comes, he will be heading home to his family.
With two wins already in the bank thus far in 2025 and a Playoff waiver available should he be called away, Hamlin will be leaving the No. 11 Toyota in the capable hands of Ryan Truex on Sunday.
“Just waiting on a call. You know, it’s obviously any moment, so I think Ryan’s got to fit it in there. You know, if I get a call, I gotta go,” said Hamlin.
Hamlin said as of Saturday afternoon he didn’t have a deadline for when he would have to make a call on whether to stay or go, but would be working on that overnight.
“I didn’t put a time on it. I think that there’s probably an eight-hour window there that where I don’t think that it’d be possible for me to do both. But I haven’t put a timeline truthfully. I probably should. That’s probably something I should work on,” Hamlin said.
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