Denny Hamlin would be leaving a lot of money on the table if he opts to retire early, following his heartbreaking loss to Kyle Larson at Phoenix.<\/p>\n
Despite leading for 208 laps, a botched pit decision doomed Hamlin to watch Larson win his second NASCAR<\/a> Cup Series championship, throwing the 44-year-old’s future in doubt. Hamlin<\/a> is the oldest full-time driver in the sport currently and is still seeking his first Cup Series title.\u00a0<\/p>\n With his future very much in the air, many around the sport are speculating what the star will do in the wake of his heartbreaking defeat to Larson. Should he choose to walk away from his contract early<\/a>, the Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) star would be leaving a lot on the table.\u00a0<\/p>\n If Hamlin decides to walk away before the end of his multi-year deal with JGR<\/a>, the star could be leaving more than $10 million by calling it a career. It is worth noting that NASCAR’s teams do not disclose contract information; however, Front Office Sports reported<\/a> that Hamlin earns $13.1 million annually.\u00a0<\/p>\n Hamlin reportedly is the second-highest-paid driver in the field, with Kyle Busch taking the top spot, earning $16.9 million driving for Richard Childress Racing.\u00a0<\/p>\n Sign up to our NASCAR newsletter here.<\/a><\/p>\n It remains to be seen whether Hamlin’s recent disappointment will influence his decision to either return next season or retire. Immediately following his loss at Phoenix, Hamlin told reporters<\/a> that he “never want to race a race ever again” and that his “fun meter is pegged.”<\/p>\n Before the NASCAR Awards Ceremony<\/a>, two days after his defeat, the JGR star was asked if he planned on racing after having time to think about the events of the weekend. Hamlin remained mum, stating he still needs more time to think about his future in the sport<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI plan to [race in 2026],\u201d he told reporters at the time. \u201cI have a contract to<\/a>. But there’s, at this point, there’s just absolutely no way that I would even\u2026I don’t even think about race cars right now. It just\u2026Yeah, I’m going to need some time on this one.\u201d<\/p>\n He added: “I think where I feel I’ve gotten better with age is just being able to move on to the next thing. But yeah, I just can’t, like I say in the moment, I can’t imagine having to go through the process I went through to prepare for that race, doing it all over again. I don’t see how there’s any way.\u201d<\/p>\n In July 2025, Hamlin signed a multi-year extension with JGR and though teams don’t disclose terms, it was assumed to be a two-year deal, with the star stating that that number was what he was “comfortable with.”\u00a0<\/p>\n “I wanted to make sure I gave them the proper time and make sure I commit to them for not one year but multiple years, to let them try to continue to build the program. I want to make sure I’m still at my peak form in my final year,” Hamlin said, according to ESPN.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Denny Hamlin would be leaving a lot of money on the table if he opts to retire early,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270599,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,3932,2332,634,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-270598","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-denny-hamlin","11":"tag-motorsport-section","12":"tag-nascar","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}