“He’s got a real drive”: Joe Gibbs marvels at how Denny Hamlin defies age and continues to win 

Denny Hamlin became the first driver in the 2025 NASCAR season to secure five victories, a win that came at the World Wide Technology Raceway. While the Tampa-born driver is 44, he is still performing at a high level in the field and sharing his thoughts on it. JGR owner Joe Gibbs shed light on how his driver is still going on winning races due to his inner drive that he has.

Hamlin has been racing in the top league of NASCAR racing for over two decades. Moreover, he ranks second among the current field in the tally of race wins, merely four victories behind Kyle Busch, despite not having a Cup Series championship to his name.

Hamlin is also not looking to stop anytime soon in the wins department, as he won the recent race in Illinois. With the 44-year-old seemingly beating the usually age-related drawbacks, Joe Gibbs shared how Hamlin has an inner drive to excel in the series, as he said (via NBC Sports):

"The discussion is always at what point does somebody start going downhill? I think in Denny’s case, he’s got a real drive. To be quite truthful, he has a lot that he gets excited about... He’s got a real drive I think to succeed. Yeah, 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."

Though Denny Hamlin is here to stay in the Cup Series field till 2027, he has already admitted that this contract extension to probably be his last one in the championship.

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Denny Hamlin shares his thoughts on retirement from NASCAR despite being in impressive form lately

Denny Hamlin after winning the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Race at WWTR - Source: Imagn

Denny Hamlin's win at World Wide Technology Raceway has given him a confirmed spot in the Round of 12. Moreover, with his impressive points tally already, he is regarded to be at least being in the playoff picture till the Round of 8, with the final 4 being the most likely situation.

Though he is still going strong in the series, he had opened the floodgates of retirement early on in the season when he glanced over the prospect of saying cayonara to the sport after the 2027 season. So sharing his thoughts on it, he said (via NASCAR):

"I feel confident that I got two years left and that'll be it. But I just feel like, I just wanna keep doing this at a high level and I feel like that's a confident number in which I can still do it at this type of level, and I have too much ego, too much pride to just continue to do this, well after I'm competitive."

"So I'd rather shut it down early, whatever the result is, it is."

Hamlin and Chase Briscoe are the only two drivers to have won races in the playoffs so far.