Hamlin Looks to Find Comfort In Return to Racing Routine
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By Dennis Krause
Consider the last few months in Denny Hamlin’s life.
The driver of the No. 11 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing in NASCAR’s Cup Series, and the co-owner of 23XI Racing, appeared to have won an elusive first series title in the championship-deciding final race of the season at Phoenix Raceway in November, only to lose it to Kyle Larson because of a decision to take four tires instead of two during a pit stop with three laps to go.
Afterwards, Hamlin forced a smile and said, “I never want to race a car ever again. I mean, my fun meter is pegged.”
In his role as co-owner of 23XI Racing with long time friend and basketball great Michael Jordan, Hamlin played a major role in a lawsuit against NASCAR, alleging antitrust actions by the sanctioning body. The year’s long legal action resulted in a trial after the season ended, only to be settled by the parties involved before going to the jury.
Most tragically, Hamlin lost his terminally ill father, Dennis, to a house fire at a property the racer owns, that also critically injured his mother, Mary Lou, in late December. Hamlin says his mom is recovering from her injuries.
“She’s getting better. She’s actually down in Florida with some family this week. She’s definitely getting better physically and mentally certainly will take some time. She’s getting in a better place.”
Chris Graten/Getty Images
Needless to say, Hamlin enters the 2026 season looking to find comfort in a return to a racing routine.
“I’m doing good. It’s hard to believe I’m going to be in the Clash in a couple of hours,” said Hamlin, prior to practice for Wednesday night’s twice postponed Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium. “I’ll have some rust. Didn’t get much of an offseason, obviously. No vacations, no fun stuff, anything like that. Just back on it now. I think getting back in a racing certainly will just put me back into a routine more like I’m used to.
“Everyday is a new challenge,” continued Hamlin. “Certainly priorities definitely shifted in the offseason, just doing non racing stuff. I’ve had a day at the race shop since Phoenix. It’s just going to take a little while to get back into the swing of things. I’ve been doing my work the last twenty something years and this is a kind of a good warm up to that. Certainly has not been an easy offseason by any means. I’m sure I’m in a different headspace than most of the competitors that have been rip roaring ready to go racing the last month or so. I’m probably in a different spot than that. I would appreciate a few more months, but I don’t have that but we’ll just kind of see how it goes.”
Complicating matters, the 45-year-old Hamlin has re-injured his right shoulder.
“Got some unfortunate news that I re-tore my shoulder that I had from 2024. I’m going to go into the season the way I was before there. I don’t think that it ever healed properly, there were just some issues. Kind of a little after the season it was nagging me a bit and took a little fall at my mom’s house going through all the rubble and stuff. It didn’t feel right and got it scanned and they said it had re-tore again.”
According to Hamlin, surgery was an option, but he intends to tough it out until November.
“I could, the option was just do it now and miss the first three or four months, or just tough it out and do it the first day of the offseason and that’s what I’ll do.
“As the year goes on it just kind depends on making sure I’m doing the things out of the car. Keeping the range good and keeping the strength good to kind of get to that November date where I can work on it and get it fixed again.
“It’s limiting the things I like to do and that’s not going to be a priority during the season, unfortunately. I’m going to miss out on a lot of the fun things, but I can’t do some things I like to do simply because that aggravates it and it causes the tear to get worse. It’s kind of hanging on currently, but still has a few parts and pieces hanging on that I need to keep intact for the full year.”
Joe Gibbs Racing
Considered by many the greatest driver in NASCAR’s Cup Series to have never won a championship, the 60-race winner admits his perspective on life has changed since he stepped out of his car at Phoenix in November.
“Yeah, I think certainly it’s different.
“The easy thing for me to say is poor me, but I still have a fantastic life, a great family. A lot of people go through tragedies. A lot of people go through what happened. What happened to me in the offseason was highly publicized, but there’s probably tons of stories that have happened to other crew members that happened this offseason and during the season that nobody knows about. Everyone has their times where they have to go through tough moments. I think those are building moments for your character and how your respond to it.
“This season for me could go one of two ways and I think not much of a middle road. It’s going really one way or really the other way. It's up to me which way I decided to turn. Right now my focus is keeping this thing on the right track and spending these last couple of years accomplishing everything that I want to before my career is over.”
Dennis Krause has spent decades covering all forms of motorsports, including over 40 Indianapolis 500s, with stints at WIBA Radio, PIT PASS - Radio’s Premier Motorsports Magazine and Motorsports Minute. Follow him on X @DennisKrause500 or motorsportsminute.bluesky.social or motorsportsminute on Threads or MotorsportsMinute+ on Facebook.