Besides Tyler Reddick, if there's one driver who grabbed all the attention in NASCAR this season, it is Denny Hamlin. The Joe Gibbs Racing star, who has claimed three wins this season, including the non-championship All-Star race, has been at his very best coming into 2026.

Moreover, former NASCAR driver Kyle Petty has hailed him and labeled this phase of Hamlin's career as the "greatest." On the "Inside The Race" podcast, Petty said:

"What we have seen in the last 12-18 months is the greatest period in Denny Hamlin's career. He is doing things that he didn't do before. Denny Hamlin schooled Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe."

Bell and Briscoe are Hamlin's teammates, but the duo did not seem to have an answer to the No. 11 driver's racecraft during the Cracker Barrel 400. While Hamlin, at 45 years old, has undoubtedly been the poster boy for JGR, there is hardly any doubt over his achievement in the last one and a half years.

"The veteran showed them how you win a race with a car that's not the fastest car. He snookers them into driving off in the corner way over their heads, way over their heads. And he comes out on top, and they can't come back," Petty further added.

Hamlin has claimed nine wins in total (including one non-championship race) since the beginning of 2025, a feat matched by none of his rivals so far: six in 2025, and three this year. Given the form he is in, one can expect him to win many more upcoming races.

Denny Hamlin Shares His Thoughts On Nearing Kyle Busch's NASCAR Milestone

After the victory in Nashville on Sunday, Denny Hamlin reached 62 career wins in the Cup Series and stands one win behind Kyle Busch. As he won the race and did the signature bow to pay respect to the late driver, here's what he said about reaching Busch's record:

"| thought about it and certainly aspired to eventually get there," Hamlin told Cup Scene on YouTube, speaking about reaching Busch's tally. "I knew my career was going to end before his career was going to end. We didn't know what was going to happen, but I had kind of resigned to the fact that I thought we weren't going to overtake Kyle. We still might not."

Denny Hamlin started the race from the pole, but was pushed to the rear, as NASCAR penalized him for a jump start. He recovered to 19th place at the end of that stage, and further improved to fifth place by the end of Stage 2.

In the end, Denny Hamlin grabbed the victory by denying his teammates, Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe.

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Written by

Sabyasachi Biswas

Edited by

Yask Kotak