Denny Hamlin has spent two decades building his NASCAR career, but he’s already thinking about how he wants to bring it to a close. With the Joe Gibbs Racing driver planning to retire at the end of 2027, there’s still plenty left for him to accomplish before he walks away. At 45, Hamlin isn’t ready to slow down just yet, and a recent revelation about his retirement plans suggests he has something rather unusual in mind for his final stretch in the sport.

“I have a personal goal, and that is to win my last start in all three NASCAR top series,” Hamlin revealed on the Rubbin is Racing podcast. “So I’ve won my last scheduled start in O’Reilly’s. I plan on running a truck race and winning it, and I want to win my final start in NASCAR, which is why I want to quit at the end of next year. Knowing that I can still do it at the top of my game. I think that would be the ultimate flex is to win your last races. In Truck, O’Reilly, and Cup.”

Hamlin has already checked off the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series portion of that plan. His 18 career wins in the division include his September 2023 victory at Darlington Raceway, where he passed Austin Hill in overtime to claim his sixth win at the track. That remains his most recent victory in the series, and he has not made another start since. He now wants to add a final Truck Series appearance to the list before taking one last shot in Cup.

The Truck Series goal should not be dismissed as a novelty. Hamlin has two career wins in the division, both at Martinsville Speedway, in 2011 and 2012. He knows how to get the job done in a truck, but a one-off appearance leaves little room for error. He would need the right equipment, a competitive setup and a clean race to deliver the result he wants. His aim is not simply to take part in all three series before retirement; he wants to win his final race in each.

Still, no victory would mean more than a Cup Series championship. Hamlin has won the Daytona 500 three times and owns 64 Cup victories, placing him among the most successful drivers of his generation. Yet he has never won the title. He finished second to Jimmie Johnson in 2010 and came close again in 2025, ending that season as runner-up. For a driver with that many wins, the missing championship remains the most obvious gap on his résumé.

The 2026 season looked promising enough to change that. Hamlin entered the Chase as the regular-season points leader and built momentum with three consecutive wins at Nashville, Michigan, and Pocono. Four victories overall have kept him among the season’s strongest drivers, and his No. 11 Toyota has shown race-winning speed. For a time, Hamlin had every reason to believe this could finally be his year.

The Chase has been a tougher story. Mistakes on pit road and difficult finishes have chipped away at his advantage. After finishing 16th at Las Vegas and fifth at Charlotte, Hamlin endured a 28th-place result at Phoenix. Kyle Larson’s own troubles at Phoenix helped keep the gap manageable, but Hamlin still sits fourth in the standings, 31 points behind Larson with three races remaining. Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe are also ahead of him, leaving Hamlin with ground to make up and little margin for another bad Sunday.

That is what makes the coming weeks so important. Hamlin is not merely trying to stretch his career; he is trying to secure the one achievement that would answer the biggest question about it. A Cup title in 2026 would give him a different kind of ending to work toward in 2027, when he intends to leave while he can still compete at the highest level.