At 44, NASCAR's Denny Hamlin wakes up every morning wondering if he's ‘still got it’

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin admits he wakes up every morning wondering if he "still got it", as questions about his age continue to linger.

Hamlin has been racing in the NASCAR Cup Series since 2006 and will turn 45 by the time he completes his 20th full-time season in the championship this year.

His potential retirement has been a recurring topic of conversation in recent years, but the Floridian has consistently pushed back against calls to step away, saying in an interview in April that his “drive is still there.”

While age may be creeping up on him, Hamlin has shown no signs of slowing down, notching his fourth victory of the 2025 season last weekend at Dover after hard-fought intra-team battle with teammate Chase Briscoe.

Even as he maintains his front-running form, Hamlin is not afraid to admit he regularly wrestles with doubts about whether he can still perform at the top level.

“I just love that I’m able to still do it at a high level,” he said. “Every morning when I wake up, I’m just hoping I still got what I had yesterday. You just never when you get to this age, right?

“I don’t know. Last night I was looking at the TV. It was a little fuzzy. I think I was just tired. ‘Oh, man, I’m not losing my eyesight, am I?’ I get paranoid about little things that might hamper my ability to do things at a high level at my job.

“Every time I get in, like the first stage, I’m just driving through cars, it’s like, ‘We’re still good’.”

Hamlin’s triumph at the one-mile Dover Motor Speedway was the 58th of his career, putting him just two wins shy of becoming the 10th-winningest driver in NASCAR Cup Series history.

However, despite his remarkable success, Hamlin has never captured a Cup Series title. He came closest in 2010, entering the season finale as the championship leader, only to spin out and lose the title to Hendrick Motorsports rival Jimmie Johnson.

This year, Hamlin currently sits fourth in the championship standings, trailing the Hendrick Chevrolet trio of Chase Elliott, William Byron, and Kyle Larson.

While a Cup title remains a major goal, Hamlin says his focus is on amassing as many victories as possible before calling time on his career.

“It’s going to come down to one race or it’s going to come down to when we get into the Final 8, which I expect that’s what our minimum expectations are every year. Do you not have trouble that takes you out of being in the Final 4?," he said.

“That’s why I think the regular-season championship is really high. I hold it in super high regard. It’s 26 races. There’s no eliminations, not any of that other stuff.

“When you look at the standings, Chase has gone overlooked. He’s been consistent. There’s guys at the top that stubbed their toe. He hasn’t. But you can’t deny that when you look at the racetrack out there today, we were all running like one through five.

“It’s not an accident that the same five guys running up front every single week. It’s just a matter of can those five guys make it through this type of format in Playoffs? We couldn’t even make it out of 32nd seed in a bracket. It’s a tough format. When you shorten your seasons into three races, fricking anything can happen. I try not to just, Oh, we’re going to do it this year.

“If we do, we do. If we don’t, we don’t. I care about wins. Trust me, I want more trophies, more trophies, more trophies. When I’m done, I want to be in the top 10 of all-time winners. That will mean more than any other accomplishment I could have.”