Denny Hamlin enters the 2026 Chase as the No. 1 seed and one of the strongest contenders for his first NASCAR Cup Series championship. After building momentum throughout the regular season, Hamlin now faces the pressure of delivering when the title is on the line. However, he will also have to manage a shoulder injury that has continued to bother him. The Joe Gibbs Racing star, though, says thankfully it does not bother him when he is inside the car.

“It’s bothered me a little bit more over the last month or so, and we’ll look at it in a month to kind of see where it’s at, but obviously need to get it worked on and get it fixed for sure. But inside the car, it doesn’t really bother me. It’s more afterwards and for the next few days after that,” Denny Hamlin told NASCAR reporter Steven Taranto.

Denny Hamlin’s right shoulder has become a little more troublesome as he prepares for the most important stretch of his 2026 season. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver revealed at the start of the year that he had torn his right shoulder. Hamlin also made it clear that surgery was not part of his plans during the 2026 season.

The injury had already been bothering him after the 2025 season. Things became worse after Hamlin fell into the rubble of his parents’ home following the devastating December fire. His terminally ill father died in the blaze, while his mother suffered significant burns.

“Took a little fall at my mom’s house, going through all the rubble and stuff, and it just didn’t feel right. I got it re-scanned and [was told I] re-tore it again,” Hamlin had revealed back in February.

Undergoing surgery during the season would have created another major problem. Hamlin could have been forced out of his race car for at least a couple of months during recovery.

Instead, he chose to manage the injury and continue racing. This is not the first time Hamlin has dealt with a significant right shoulder problem during his NASCAR career.

He originally aggravated the shoulder and pulled tendons while playing sports shortly before the October 15, 2023, Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Hamlin kept the injury quiet throughout the remainder of that season. He did not want his physical condition to become an explanation for his performances as he chased a spot in the Championship 4.

“It was painful, there were many times when they asked me to turn on a switch and I couldn’t reach it, I couldn’t touch it,” Hamlin said. “We were certainly up against the odds, but one thing is I didn’t want to use it as any kind of excuse for not making the final four.”

Despite the discomfort, Hamlin continued competing and finished 5th overall. After the 2023 season ended, he underwent successful arthroscopic surgery on his right shoulder on November 22. The procedure repaired a rotator cuff and labrum injury.

The rehabilitation process required roughly three months of rest and physical therapy. That briefly created uncertainty around his participation in the early 2024 exhibition events.

Hamlin eventually returned to full strength and continued his Cup career without allowing the injury to derail his ambitions, as Hamlin finished the 2024 season in eighth place. The current situation appears similar in one important respect. The shoulder has not prevented Hamlin from producing results.

He enters the 2026 Chase as the No. 1 seed after recording four wins and 14 top-five finishes during the regular season. Those numbers have made Hamlin the leading championship contender heading into the Chase. They also show that the shoulder problem has not significantly affected his performance behind the wheel.

The bigger concern may come after each race. Hamlin acknowledged that the shoulder bothers him more once he climbs out of the car. With ten races remaining in the Chase, that could become an issue as the physical demands increase.

For now, however, Hamlin is focused on competing rather than addressing the injury immediately. When asked whether he had already scheduled his surgery for the offseason, his answer was simple. “No date, no date yet.”

That means Hamlin will continue managing the shoulder while attempting to finally complete the championship run that has eluded him throughout his two decades of Cup career.