By David Morgan, Associate Editor
SPEEDWAY, Ind. – Denny Hamlin will remain the driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota for the foreseeable future after inking a multi-year contract extension with the team that has been his home for the entirety of his NASCAR Cup Series career.
Since joining JGR as a rookie in 2005, the 44-year-old native of Chesterfield, Virginia has amassed 58 wins driving the No. 11 car for JGR, along with 244 top-five finishes, 276 top-10 finishes, and 44 poles across 706 starts in NASCAR’s premier division.
Though a Cup Series title has eluded him thus far, he has been able to bank wins in nearly all of NASCAR’s crown jewel events, with three Daytona 500 wins, two Southern 500 wins, and a Coca-Cola 600 win on his resume.
Thus far in 2025, Hamlin has scored four wins, including a win a week ago at Dover – his best season win total since scoring seven wins in 2020. So, it’s only natural that he would want to continue this ride into the future.
“Kind of a two-fold thing. Some of it is motivating myself. I have goals I want to reach in the Cup Series. I have a really strong relationship with Joe (Gibbs, owner) and his family. An obviously, the ability to win,” Hamlin said of why being able to sign an extension with JGR was important to him at this phase of his career.
“That’s a high factor to be wanting to do this. I think about that on a weekly basis, would I want to do this if I didn’t have the ability to win as much? Probably not, the motivation wouldn’t be there. Certainly, as competitive as I am, I’m motivated if I’m able to win.”
Hamlin added that his record he has been able to amass in the Cup Series is all the more special having been able to do it all with one team over the years.
“They’re the ones that went out on a limb and hired me when I had nothing,” said Hamlin. “They took a chance on me and JD (Gibbs) obviously believed in me quite a bit. So yeah, you want to pay back that loyalty to the family that gave you that start and you know, it’ll be well over 20 years that I’ll be with them and couldn’t imagine racing for any other organization, much less family.”
Asked what his goals are over the course of his remaining tenure in the Cup Series were, Hamlin immediately pointed to reaching the 60-win mark, which would put him in elite company in Cup Series history.
Currently, 10 drivers sit ahead of him on the all-time wins list, among them being Richard Petty, David Pearson, Jeff Gordon, Bobby Allison, Darrell Waltrip, Jimmie Johnson, Cale Yarborough, Dale Earnhardt, Kyle Busch, and Kevin Harvick.
Harvick is the closest with 60 wins, with Busch being the only active full-time driver ahead on the list with 63 wins.
“I’d love to get 60 this year,” said Hamlin. “That would put me in a really good spot over the next couple of years and then get into the 60s where I think that could hold up for quite some time until someone young comes in and moves up the list.
“It’s going to continue to get harder and harder. The field gets closer and closer, and the wins are going to get more spread out. So, we’re not in the era of three competitive cars and four competitive drivers. Wins are always going to get more spread out now than what they were back in the 1960s and 1970s, in those days. I’d like to firmly get in there, and then make people chase it from that from that point on.”
After that, Hamlin explained that he just wants to add more Crown Jewel wins to his trophy case and pad his resume to be able to walk away from the sport satisfied when that time comes to hang up the helmet.
“Just more Crown Jewels. I don’t know exactly how many I have now. Seven? So, if I can get (to) eight or nine, I don’t know if that changes much, but it certainly makes me feel a little better,” said Hamlin.
“You have to have goals, and those Crown Jewels will be one that you know we go to races like this (Brickyard 400), they’re going to talk about ones that people that have won here at this race track and won Crown Jewel events. I want to be high on the Crown Jewel list of winners.
“If I can get a couple more of those and again put myself well into the 60s (career wins), if not a bigger number, then (pause). if I get nothing else, truly, I’m going to be happy. I’ll be disappointed because you know, setting my goals now accordingly based off how things are going.
“But truthfully, I would be happy with just calling it and saying this is how many races I won, this is my winning percentage, this is how many Crown Jewels I have.”
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