{"id":209723,"date":"2025-09-08T08:14:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T08:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/209723\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T08:14:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T08:14:09","slug":"denny-hamlin-alludes-to-retirement-after-winning-gateway-race-in-nascar-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/209723\/","title":{"rendered":"Denny Hamlin alludes to retirement after winning Gateway race in NASCAR Playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following his 59th win in the NASCAR <\/a>Cup Series, Denny Hamlin spoke heavily in his press conference about retirement. Hamlin signed an extension with Joe Gibbs Racing through 2027, and it appears it will be his last. <\/p>\n

Denny Hamlin has talked about retirement in the past. Tonight, he more or less told everyone when he is going to do it. Hamlin has won five races this season <\/a>at 44 years old. He could keep racing until he is 50. It doesn\u2019t seem like he wants to do that, though. <\/p>\n

A number of questions from the media centered around Hamlin\u2019s career and retirement. He was open and honest about his thoughts. <\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, certainly there will be a huge, huge void. I\u2019ll find something else to latch onto. Yeah, I mean, certainly I\u2019m a results-based person,\u201d Hamlin said about retirement. \u201cWhen I can come out here and race against guys like half my age and be able to beat \u2019em, like, that\u2019s very gratifying for me. That\u2019s what I\u2019m going to miss. That will be the toughest part about hanging it up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even when Denny Hamlin was asked about his comments to the crowd after the win, he alluded to retirement. He\u2019s not holding back, because he might not get another chance to rile the crowd up like that.<\/a> <\/p>\n

\u201cYou never know when it\u2019s your last. This could be my last win,\u201d Hamlin said. \u201cThis could be the last time i\u2019m talking to you with my driver\u2019s suit on after a race. We just never know. I try my best to enjoy the moment and do the best I can to rile up the fans any chance I get.\u201d <\/p>\n

With all of the talk about his retirement, Denny was asked, Why? Why plan it out so far in advance and make 2027 your hard out? After all he\u2019s won five times this season<\/a>. Who is to say he can\u2019t keep that going? <\/p>\n

\u201cJust got to be a means to an end. I\u2019m 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\u2019m way too cocky for that,\u201d Hamlin said. \u201cThere\u2019s just no way. I want to be able to win my last race. To do that, I\u2019m going to have to retire when I\u2019m racing like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, is Denny Hamlin concerned he\u2019s running out of time? He looks like the man to beat for the championship right now. But what if he doesn\u2019t get it done again and loses another year? <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always been about number of races,\u201d Hamlin said about his expiring career. \u201cThe only one I thought about was this year and the Daytona 500, thinking that probably only going to do this twice more. Brickyards, right? I haven\u2019t won the freaking Brickyard. I\u2019m going to have two more shots at it, and that\u2019s it, to round this thing out. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s certain races that I do have countdowns for. Championships isn\u2019t one of \u2019em. Obviously, it\u2019s well-documented that I want to get the wins, and I feel like that will carry its weight long after. When you compare me to someone that\u2019s maybe got one or two, maybe three championships, and half the wins, I don\u2019t think that person\u2019s better than I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, Denny Hamlin is only sticking around a couple more years. What can he accomplish in that time? He is knocking on the door of 60 wins. Hamlin is great at Bristol and will have the chance to get that 60th win in a matter of days. Can he do it? Or will this dream season come to an end? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following his 59th win in the NASCAR Cup Series, Denny Hamlin spoke heavily in his press conference about…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":209724,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[1406,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-209723","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-nascar","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115167681894254637","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}