"I still feel like I can win": Denny Hamlin emphasizes 'way too competitive' mindset amid questions on his age
Despite a 5th-place finish at Martinsville, Denny Hamlin couldn't help his playoff cause enough to avoid elimination. The 2024 season thus became yet another year for the 43-year-old to come away without winning the elusive Cup championship.
But despite his age and the brewing clouds of retirement hovering on the horizon, Hamlin recently claimed he has no plans of hanging his race suit. In Actions Detrimental's post-Martinsville episode, the podcast's co-host mentioned that during the broadcast of the race, Hamlin's age was mentioned, and the fact that winning a championship around his age is rare.
It's worth mentioning that the oldest Cup champion in history is Bobby Allison, who won the 1983 title at 45 years and 11 months of age. Speaking about whether he can compete with the younger drivers for a championship at his age, Hamlin said:
"That is a million-dollar question and I believe that there is a day where the light switch turns off, but I still feel as though I'm just way too competitive to ever race when I don't think I can win. I will not go out of this sport on a downhill fall. I have too much pride for that. I'm way too competitive for that. I want to know that I have the ability to win my final race whenever that might be, and I still feel as though I can go to the racetrack and dominate any given week. So until that changes, no I still feel like I can win." [56:30]
Denny Hamlin reviews his season post-Martinsville race
After earning a top 5 finish at Martinsville, Denny Hamlin thanked his family and fans in a social media post. Hamlin's co-host brought up the post on his podcast and wondered if there's something he'd like to touch on before the season comes to an end.
The Joe Gibbs Racing veteran then proceeded to review his season, saying that the year began on a 'super optimistic' note for him. Hamlin said:
"We were talking about how many wins can we get. Can we get eight? Can we get ten? We had won four of the first 11 races but then we hit a hit a slump there for a while. We weren't getting the finishes we deserved. We had a few races that kind of derailed us but overall our performance was pretty good throughout the year. We just again didn't have that extra gear that we grabbed now. Our average finish throughout the playoff was better than it was during the regular season so we did improve our finishes." [54:30]
As for where the #11 team lacked, Hamlin deemed it to be a case of not getting enough stage points throughout the playoffs. He further pointed to the schedule having road courses and superspeedways, tracks on which he didn't get the points he needed to be comfortable.
Hamlin claimed he was just 'squeaking in'. But once the schedule entered 'normal racetracks' territory, the #11 driver claimed his performances went up as he termed them 'good.' Despite that, Denny Hamlin didn't think his performances touched on the 'great' category.