For almost two decades, Denny Hamlin has been chasing that elusive championship. Battling it out with racing legends, amassing more than 50 wins, including winning the crown jewel Daytona 500 three times. But that championship crown has always been just out of his reach, no matter how much he tries. And while he was in contention for the trophy with Chris Gabehart, the Next Gen era has proven to be an uphill climb, pushing him further away from his dream.
Since 2022, the veteran driver has been unable to reach the championship race in Phoenix. And the task looks more so distant without his former chief Gabehart moving into a new role at JGR. Interestingly, you have Christopher Bell who has now emerged as the clear front-runner to compete for the biggest prize in NASCAR. With three wins in a row in 2025 and two championship race appearances in the Gen 7 era, he is the favorite to lift the Bill France trophy for JGR, again. And even Denny Hamlin seems to have accepted the changing dynamics within the organization. Especially when he’s not been able to match strides with the best-running JGR team and driver.
Denny Hamlin and the Weight of Unfulfilled Ambition
It’s been 28 races since Hamlin won at Dover back in 2024, making it the 9th longest winless streak in the Cup Series. Last Sunday Hamlin came agonizingly close, just 0.049 seconds away from ending his winless streak at the Phoenix Raceway. But he was outpaced by his teammate Christopher Bell, who would set a new bar with a three-peat in the Next Gen era.
As the dust settled, and the hype of Phoenix died down, Hamlin’s focus wasn’t on Sunday’s race, but on the 29 others that he hadn’t won since Dover last season. Denny Hamlin who once led the charge for Joe Gibbs Racing is now under the shadow of a rising star. Despite coming oh so close to winning the race at the Desert Mile, he couldn’t help but look back at the struggles of last year.
“It sucks we lost some speed at the end of the last year. Now we’re starting to come back to these racetracks where we’re going to start to gauge where we’re at as far as this season’s concerned. So it feels like an eternity.” Hamlin said this in an interview ahead of the race in Vegas.
To understand better the weight and importance of these words, we must go to last year, when Joe Gibbs Racing adopted the ‘all-in’ mentality to win that championship. The No. 11 team bagged three race wins in the first 11 races and they were in contention every other weekend. After Hamlin’s win in Dover, he had straight four consecutive top 5 finishes which included a runner-up finish at World Wide Technology Raceway. But this early momentum was lost once the Olympic break kicked in.
Not to forget, Hamlin and his team were brandished with an L2 engine penalty by NASCAR for using the race-winning engine from Bristol without their authorization. 75 points docked along with 10 playoff points severely impacted Hamlin’s playoff charge, and he couldn’t even rely on the bonus points when he needed them the most. FedEx’s departure and Chris Gabehart’s exit from the #11 team was like a final nail in the coffin, which tells how disappointing the 2024 campaign was for Hamlin.
Apr 29, 2023; Dover, Delaware, USA; NASCAR Cup Series driver Denny Hamlin stands with his crew chief Chris Gabehart (left) during practice and qualifying for the Wurth 400 at Dover Motor Speedway. Mandatory Credit: Matthew OHaren-USA TODAY Sports
As Hamlin tries to find some sort of stability with his new crew chief, Chris Gayle his teammate Bell is making his strides towards another record. If the Oklahoma native manages to win four races in a row, he will become the first driver since Jimmie Johnson in 2007 to be able to achieve this milestone. Since 1972 only eight drivers have been able to get four wins in a row and five of those have gone on to win the championship.
At 44 years old, Hamlin is the oldest full-time driver in the NASCAR Cup Series and after 2 decades of failure to win the championship is facing rising scrutiny if he can still compete and be successful at the highest level of American stock car racing.
A Glimpse into Hamlin’s NASCAR Future
“He had so many great years where we were thinking, ‘Man, this is the year,’…It’s an unfortunate thing, right, to be good enough and not get it. I think Denny [Hamlin], understanding his age, understanding where he is in his life, realizes it’s now or never,” NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Jr. said about Hamlin and his struggles with that elusive championship.
Hamlin’s struggles are not just about wins and losses, it’s about his legacy and his future in the sport. With 58 career wins in the Cup Series everyone knows he is good, but the absence of that championship is keeping him from being counted as one of the greats. We’ve seen this story before with the likes of Mark Martin and Carl Edwards, and slowly it is feeling like the JGR driver is going to suffer a similar fate. At best Hamlin has two more years of racing left in him, but will it be enough for him to add the missing piece of puzzle to his storied NASCAR career?
There’s no doubt that Denny Hamlin is going to be a future Hall of Famer, but does he have enough in his fuel tank to go the extra mile? Will he be able to fend off future stars greats like Bell and Larson? And will he silence his critics for once and all? There are a lot of questions and the one big answer to all of them is a NASCAR championship triumph, and hopefully, it’s not too late for Hamlin.
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