{"id":283481,"date":"2025-11-14T22:54:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T22:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/283481\/"},"modified":"2025-11-14T22:54:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T22:54:07","slug":"denny-hamlin-addresses-nascar-future-whether-he-will-race-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/283481\/","title":{"rendered":"Denny Hamlin addresses NASCAR future, whether he will race in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following the conclusion of the 2025 NASCAR <\/a>season, many fans feared or hoped to see Denny Hamlin pull a Carl Edwards. It felt like an early retirement was very much possible after such a heartbreaking loss in the championship race. <\/p>\n

Denny Hamlin noted that he didn\u2019t want to do anything with racing after Phoenix. He expressed a need to have his space away from the sport and away from the wheel. Now, a couple of weeks after the fact, he\u2019s speaking out. <\/p>\n

On Actions Detrimental<\/a>, Hamlin opened up about his 2026 plans. In fact, if he had won the championship, he may have just called it quits right then and there. <\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I mean, listen, I would have begged Joe to let me quit had I won that race,\u201d Hamlin explained. \u201cI would have. I would have, just because it would have been the perfect way for me to go out. But I, they\u2019re not ready for that yet. They have to have time to work on my succession plan, and obviously, we set a date out now to at least, you know, come to when that is. We know what\u2019s the lifeline left. But I would have certainly really, really asked him to let me end on that one had it gone well.\u201d <\/p>\n

With the NASCAR Playoffs changing for 2026, does it make it easier? For Denny Hamlin, it does help getting back to it next season.<\/p>\n

\u201cVery. Very. It doesn\u2019t make me want to race right now in this moment anymore,\u201d Hamlin said. \u201cThey could say 36 races, which they\u2019re not. Get over it, you\u2019re going to get playoffs. But it\u2019s still, the offseason is still so fresh, I want nothing to do with racing right now. I\u2019ve got to get some more time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Denny Hamlin had \u2018taxing\u2019 2025 in and out of NASCAR<\/p>\n

On\u00a0Actions Detrimental, Hamlin also talked about the stress of his life<\/a> on and off the track this season. He is glad to see 2025 starting to turn over to 2026 in a matter of weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been quite the year,\u201d Hamlin said. \u201cI mean, I\u2019m so looking forward to January 1st. Just because, I mean, obviously this year, I\u2019m on track, off track, ownership, new baby, dad, race for championship, lawsuit. It just was, it was taxing for sure. I don\u2019t think I could redo 2025 again. No way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Denny Hamlin is in the middle of a lawsuit with NASCAR via his 23XI Racing organization. That trial is set for December. His personal life has seen a lot of change, highs, and lows. That\u2019s why he\u2019s happy to move on from this year and get to the next.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat all, I don\u2019t know, I just feel like I\u2019m doing damage to my internals that I don\u2019t know about,\u201d Hamlin explained. \u201cDoes that make any sense? You can\u2019t just have all the stress and it not eventually take a toll.\u201d<\/p>\n

There has been a lot said about Phoenix and the championship. Denny Hamlin has been the center of one of the most heartbreaking moments in the sport. However, his story isn\u2019t over yet. When the green flag falls at Daytona in February, he\u2019ll be in the 11 car.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following the conclusion of the 2025 NASCAR season, many fans feared or hoped to see Denny Hamlin pull…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-283481","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-nascar","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283481","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=283481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}