Joe Gibbs Racing president Dave Alpern has cast some light doubt on Denny Hamlin's plans to retire from NASCAR at the end of next year.
Hamlin's long-stated intention to call it quits at the end of his current contract with JGR has been called into question lately, not least by team co-owner Heather Gibbs after his All-Star Race win at Dover.
Alpern has now added to that, admitting he has a 'hard time' believing that the long-time driver of the No. 11 car will actually call it quits if he continues to dominate the sport at the highest level.
The 45-year-old took his second non-exhibition win of the year on Sunday at Nashville, sits comfortably second in the points standings, and has led far more laps than any other Cup Series driver in 2026.
In short, as Kyle Petty said after Sunday's race, Hamlin is in the single greatest period of his career.
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Speaking on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Wednesday, Alpern said: "He may have to fight us to leave. If he's racing like this, they'll be some conversations. I actually saw Denny yesterday and I joked about that, I said, 'Let's not get too hasty'.
"The great thing about Denny, he doesn't want to do this unless he feels like he can win every weekend. Right now, he does. The way I think it'll go down, I think we'll get to about this time next year and we'll evaluate. If he's still running like he's running now this time next year, I'd have a hard time thinking he's leaving. But you never know."
Alpern did, though, insist that the team still have options very much in place for Hamlin's eventual retirement – whether that comes in 2027 or a year or two later.
"Just like NFL teams have a draft board and a free agent board where they always know the status of people, you're looking at all your options all the time," he explained. "We've got young guys in [the O'Reilly Series]. You never know what the situation is in the garage with other drivers. There's a lot of moving pieces."
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