The Denny Hamlin bandwagon is rolling down the road

At the moment, jumping on the Hamlin bandwagon seems like a pretty good deal.

With his 45th birthday looming in two months, Hamlin is one victory away from tying Kevin Harvick for 10th on NASCAR’s all-time wins list. He’s now locked into the second round of the NASCAR playoffs and is, as he is almost every year, a championship favorite.

You could say something feels different about Hamlin’s 2025 season. Pundits have been saying that for years, all for Hamlin to keep coming up short of the coveted Cup Series championship. But that aforementioned bandwagon is rolling at a scary pace, especially for Hamlin’s competitors.

That’s especially true considering how relatively close Hamlin is to retirement. His contract with Joe Gibbs Racing now runs through the end of 2027. In three years, barring a change of heart, Hamlin won’t be racing in the Cup Series on a weekly basis.

The path Hamlin has taken has been an intentional one that has led to him running just as good, if not better, in the twilight of his career than at any other time in his 20 years behind the wheel.

“Just got to be a means to an end,” Hamlin said in his post-race news conference when asked about his timeline for retirement. “I’m just not going to leave this sport on my deathbed, you know, just leaking oil, running in the back of the pack. I have way too much pride for that. I’m way too cocky for that. There’s just no way. I want to be able to win my last race. To do that, I’m going to have to retire when I’m racing like this.”

Team owner and Super Bowl-winning head coach Joe Gibbs has seen football players and NASCAR drivers alike slow down as they age. He, perhaps more than anyone else in the garage, knows that what Hamlin is doing at age 44 is special.

“The discussion is always at what point does somebody start going downhill?,” Gibbs said in a post-race news conference. “I think in Denny’s case, he’s got a real drive.

He’s got a real drive, I think, to succeed. It’s unusual for athletes because we’ve all witnessed it in this sport. At about that age, you know, they start to trail off. That’s not the case with him.”

There are still eight races left before we’ll know Hamlin’s 2025 fate in regard to the championship. But at the moment, it’s hard to not see the appeal of jumping on the No. 11 bandwagon and riding it all the way out to Phoenix in November.