![\"Dale](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2261157648.jpg\")
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Dale Earnhardt Jr. made his prediction for who will win the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series championship.<\/p>\n
Dale Earnhardt Jr. revealed who he believes will become the 2026 NASCAR<\/a> Cup Series champion. The retired driver and current analyst dropped his prediction on the most recent episode of his \u201cDale Jr. Download\u201d podcast.<\/p>\n After Denny Hamlin recorded his first victory of the 2026 season this past Sunday at Las Vegas, Earnhardt has made it clear who he believes will be hoisting the Cup Series championship trophy at season\u2019s end.<\/p>\n Dale Earnhardt Jr. predicts Denny Hamlin will win the 2026 NASCAR Cup title<\/p>\n Earnhardt Jr. and his Dirty Mo Media team recorded the most recent episode of his podcast<\/a> on Tuesday.<\/p>\n As they recapped this past Sunday\u2019s Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas, the owner of JR Motorsports believes Hamlin will continue to ride the momentum of the win all the way to the end of the season.<\/p>\n \u201cDenny Hamlin is my pick for the championship this year,\u201d Earnhardt Jr. said<\/a>.<\/p>\n The former driver of the No. 88 went on to say Hamlin\u2019s post-race interview sounded like something he\u2019s heard before.<\/p>\n Earnhardt Jr. noted that Hamlin often says he is not as talented as some of the sport\u2019s top drivers and has to work extensively to be competitive.<\/p>\n While Earnhardt Jr. believes Hamlin is working hard, the 51-year-old said that the driver of the No. 11 is more talented than he realizes.<\/p>\n \u201cI do believe he\u2019s as good as some of these guys. I think he\u2019s better than, quite possibly, a Cale Yarborough, some of those big names he\u2019s looked up to,\u201d Earnhardt Jr. said.<\/p>\n Hamlin broke the tie with Kevin Harvick for 10th on NASCAR\u2019s all-time wins list with his victory on Sunday. It was the 61st of the 45-year-old\u2019s career, putting him two wins behind Kyle Busch on the all-time list.<\/p>\n Hamlin also became the fifth driver in NASCAR history to win at least one race in 20 different seasons. He joined Richard Petty, Bobby Allison, Dale Earnhardt, and Jeff Gordon on that list.<\/p>\n Despite all the achievements, Hamlin is still seeking his first NASCAR Cup Series championship.<\/p>\n Dale Jr. believes Hamlin could be on NASCAR\u2019s Mount Rushmore in a few years<\/p>\n Amid his 21st full-time season of NASCAR competition, Hamlin is not slowing down.<\/p>\n Earnhardt Jr. pointed out that many drivers quit being competitive towards the end of their careers. However, that has not been the case with the Virginia native as he continues to be a contender for wins and championships.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are anomalies in our history of drivers who didn\u2019t fall off. A lot of guys tend to fall off around the same time frame in those early 40s, mid 40s. They\u2019re toast, and he\u2019s not doing that. He\u2019s an anomaly.\u201d<\/p>\n As great as Hamlin is, Earnhardt Jr. believes one could argue for him to be recognized among the greats on NASCAR\u2019s \u201cMount Rushmore\u201d of drivers.<\/p>\n \u201cA couple more years, you might put him on the Mount Rushmore. I do believe, talent wise, he ranks way higher than he wants to admit,\u201d Earnhardt Jr. said.<\/p>\n Following Sunday\u2019s victory, Hamlin now sits fourth in the points standings. He enters Darlington this Sunday as the defending winner of the Goodyear 400.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tJohn Breeden<\/a> John Breeden is a NASCAR contributor at Heavy Sports. He has five years of sports journalism experience. He graduated from James Madison University in May of 2022 with a degree in media arts and design. John is also a sports reporter for the Daily News-Record in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Previously, John was a sports writer for JMU’s The Breeze and a NASCAR content writer for Sportskeeda. More about John Breeden<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on NASCAR\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Dale Earnhardt Jr. made his prediction for who will win the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series championship. Dale…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":543312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":["post-543311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543311","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=543311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/543312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}