Dale Earnhardt Jr. suggests Denny Hamlin could ignore NASCAR career ‘off-ramp’ if wins keep coming

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is a big believer that Denny Hamlin will compete in the NASCAR Cup Series for as long as he wants. On the Dale Jr. Download podcast, Earnhardt talked about how long Hamlin would race for if he continues to keep winning.

“He said that he pretty much has an end date, or the end of the runway, in terms of his career,” Dale Earnhardt Jr. said. “I guess that he’s happy to win whatever races there are in that short period of time. But should he still be winning at the end of that off-ramp, I find it hard to beleive that he’s just going to hang it up and stop.”

Earnhardt then said that Denny Hamlin could seek other “targets,” like reaching the same number of wins as Dale Earnhardt Sr. Hamlin won his 60th career Cup Series race at Las Vegas on Sunday, and the elder Earnhardt has 76 victories. Dale Earnhardt Jr. said Hamlin could come close to reaching his father if he races another three or four years.

Denny Hamlin reacts to earning 60th Cup Series win

With Hamlin winning six races this season at 44 years old, he is showing no signs of slowing down. Earnhardt mentioned that in the last 30 years, the average age of a NASCAR Cup Series driver slowing down in production is 43 years old. He said that Hamlin is an “anomaly, and he’s in such good mental shape that I believe that he could carry this on and be this successful another three or four years without question.”

Hamlin’s six victories this season are the most for any Cup Series driver this year. And with his win at Las Vegas, Hamlin has clinched one of the four spots in the NASCAR Cup Series Championship race at Phoenix Raceway on Nov. 2.

During his post-race press conference at Las Vegas, Hamlin talked about the emotion he felt earning his 60th win. Clearly, it meant a lot to him.

“I don’t know if I could have scripted it better. I don’t know, like a win at Talladega for 60 would still be awesome, but not like this,” Hamlin said. “Not in the fashion I had to do it in the last 10 laps. This race, I talked about it before the weekend started, just how important this race was, right? I thought this was the most important. All of it. My friends all weekend. We’re getting 60 this weekend.”