Denny Hamlin is counting down the days to a date Joe Gibbs Racing is hell-bent on preventing from arriving. With the driver listing all his reasons for why he is looking forward to retiring at the end of the 2027 season, Joe Gibbs Racing’s President is contemplating whether the team could let go of the veteran driver when he has so much more to give. After all, even when the driver loses, he delivers his best season behind the wheel of his No. 11 Toyota. While Hamlin can reason all he wants, Joe Gibbs Racing is preparing to do whatever it takes to keep the driver from retiring.

During his appearance on the SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Interviews, Joe Gibbs Racing President Dave Alpern revealed that the team is not willing to take no for an answer from a driver who just finished third in the 2026 standings and was in contention till the final race of the season at 45 years old.

“It may be his plan, but I think I’ve said before, we may tackle him if he tries to leave,” disclosed Alpern. “If he doesn’t think he can win every week, he’s not going to want to do it. And as long as he thinks he can, he’s going to keep doing it.”

Dave Alpern’s desire to keep Denny Hamlin behind the wheel goes beyond his ability to deliver results. After spending more than two decades with Joe Gibbs Racing, Hamlin has become one of the team’s most valuable assets, bringing championship-level experience, leadership, and consistency to the No. 11 programme. Hamlin has 64 Cup Series victories to his name despite not having a title win and was a close contender to fight for the title in the recently concluded Chase 2026 campaign.

His continued competitiveness, even at 45, makes the prospect of losing him difficult to embrace, particularly when JGR would have to replace not just a driver but an established winner and a central figure in its identity. For Alpern, keeping Hamlin means preserving a proven championship contender while giving the organisation more time to prepare for life after him.

“In the back of our minds, we’re kind of hoping it doesn’t happen,” said Alpern.

Denny Hamlin’s headstrong take on retirement after the 2027 season

Hamlin first expressed his intent to retire when he signed what could be his final contract extension with Joe Gibbs Racing in July 2025. The multi-year contract will see him driving till the end of the 2027 season. And while most drivers contemplate retirement because of their lack of competitiveness or race-winning ability, Hamlin’s reason is quite the contrary.

“I want the ability to know I can win my last race,” Hamlin said. “That’s going to be the deciding factor. I’m not going to wait until I start to head downward and then retire. I don’t want to go through a whole year of that. I understand if it just happens naturally in the second half of the final year — then it just happens. But I don’t want to have to go through another season, if I start tailing off, then the next year I’ll just retire. I can retire whenever I want to retire.”

He doubled down on his take at a media availability session on September 7, 2025. Hamlin said, “”I’m just not going to leave this sport on my deathbed, you know, just leaking oil, running in the back of the pack.”

But Denny Hamlin’s most gut-wrenching take came after his Phoenix race fell away from his grasp, costing him the title he was so close to clinching. A heartbroken Hamlin revealed how he would have instantly walked away from his Cup Series career had he won the title-winning race in 2025. However, Hamlin returned to the 2026 season with renewed hope to fight for the title.

Despite starting the 2026 regular season competitively, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver was still confident that 2027 would be his last year as a Cup Series driver. This year, Denny Hamlin made his strongest case for retirement based on the physical toll of stretching his career beyond the threshold.

Following his Michigan victory, Hamlin was questioned by Dale Earnhardt Jr. on the Amazon Prime post-race show about whether he would reconsider retirement given his continued success. Hamlin revealed how a driver’s eyesight, reaction time, and physical condition get worse as they push to the limit and overstay their welcome.

Hamlin said, “I feel there are three things that happen. You lose your eyesight. You lose your reaction (time). And your body hurts.” He added, “The body hurts are there. During the week, I’m not recovering as quick. But the other two things, I still feel sharp. So, yeah, I want to go out like this. It’s a fantasy land to do it.”

The driver recently revealed that he pushed a critical shoulder surgery to keep racing in the 2026 season, as the recovery would take months.

Ahead of the Darlington race, Hamlin was asked whether his strong start to 2026 could convince him to race beyond 2027. He said he had given Joe Gibbs Racing sufficient notice to start preparing for his departure. Hamlin also hinted that Brent Crews would be the ideal successor to his No. 11 Toyota car, as he would seamlessly fit into the organization with the time he has to prepare for the transition.

The driver has had his fair share of back-and-forth around his retirement plan, but his expiry date remained the same, at the end of the 2027 season. And while he has expressed multiple reasons, like retiring at the top of his game and injuries making it harder to recover during the season, there’s more to why Denny Hamlin wants to retire.

The additional layers to why Hamlin wants to retire and JGR wants him to continue

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver has also expressed his interest in dedicating more time to his children and to his team, 23XI Racing, which he co-owns with Michael Jordan. On the other hand, JGR President Alpern believes Hamlin’s Father Time era can wait, as he still has a lot to deliver and a potential championship win is still hanging in the balance if the opportunity presents itself in 2027.

“Based on my eyeball test, he can still win every week,” explained Alpern. “When is Father Time going to catch up? I don’t know right now. Denny’s doing a pretty good job eluding Father Time.”

Besides his competitive form, the JGR insider also highlighted how Hamlin’s Progressive sponsorship is crucial to securing funding from drivers’ sponsors.

“Our sport is so unique… You’ve got to have a sponsor before you can sign your driver, because that’s how we fund it in this sport.”

Hamlin’s No. 11 programme is mainly funded by Progressive, which will serve as the car’s primary sponsor for 24 Cup Series races in 2027, making such partnerships and sponsorships crucial for the team. Losing Denny Hamlin will not only set the team back in performance, but also in terms of financial backing and support.

The No. 11 driver’s sensational 2026 season and his ambition for 2027

At 45, Denny Hamlin delivered one of his best Cup Series seasons this year by dominating the regular season and entering the Chase as the top seed for the title win. Hamlin secured four race wins, 16 top-five finishes and 24 top-10s across 36 races. He also secured six pole positions and led 1,120 laps, underlining his pace throughout the year.

While the Chase turned the season on its head for the veteran racer, he fought his way into contention and remained in the fight till the very last race of the season in Homestead-Miami. Although the 2026 season fell away from his grasp, the race-winning driver had expressed how he would be delighted if he could win the season finale race across the Cup, Craftsman Truck, and O’Reilly Series next year.

Over two decades of his Cup Series career, Hamlin has made a name for himself all while being loyal to the team that gave him his big break. And now Joe Gibbs Racing expects that very loyalty and love to be the reason its icon reconsiders his retirement. Team owner Joe Gibbs and Heather Gibbs have also revealed how they are equally involved in making the racer stay behind the wheel of his No. 11 Toyota.

While Hamlin is eyeing the big move away from NASCAR’s highest division, JGR has lived this story before with Carl Edwards retiring at the age of 38 in 2016. However, the parallel can only be matched as a stat, as Hamlin’s impact on the team is much greater than that of any other driver who has left the organization before him.

While Joe Gibbs Racing wants to do its best to convince Hamlin to reconsider his retirement, the top bosses and insiders have also agreed to let Hamlin make the final call. After all, they wouldn’t want to force the driver to stay, but are rather hoping he will make that decision himself.