NASCAR legend Denny Hamlin confirms Cup Series retirement verdict

Joe Gibbs Racing star Denny Hamlin has confirmed what it will take for him to retire from the NASCAR Cup Series whilst also revealing that his latest deal will likely be his last in the sport.

Hamlin announced that he had signed a new multi-year deal with JGR ahead of this weekend's action at Indianapolis, but despite that, he was quizzed about retirement when speaking to the media.

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The No. 11 driver revealed that his new deal would 'most likely' be the last of his career, but when asked if he had a specific retirement age in mind, Hamlin said a number of factors would come into play when deciding on when to call it a day.

"I don’t know, I like to just see kind of where I’m at two years from right now," Hamlin told the media. "Just kind of where’s the team at, what’s their Plan B? Where are they at with that?

"And then just see how competitive I am, how good do I feel, how bad do I want it. All those things are just big factors in it, but I just want the ability to know I can win my last race. That’s going to be the deciding factor. I’m not going to wait until I start to head downward and then retire.

"I don’t want to go through a whole year. I understand if it just happens naturally in the second half of the final year, then it just happens, but I don’t want to have to go through another season ... if I’m starting to tail off the end of next year, I’ll just retire.

"I could retire whenever I want to retire, so I think that I’m just going to see how things go."

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What will Denny Hamlin do after NASCAR retirement?

When Hamlin does eventually call it a day, it will leave him with a massive vacuum to fill in his life, with the Cup Series scheduling demanding a huge amount of time and dedication.

Hamlin is likely to still be in and around the NASCAR scene in some capacity, however, although he plans to make plenty of time for golf and fishing, too.

"I think I just need to see what retirement is like, whether I'm bored or not," Hamlin added.

"I just don't see myself as someone that is able to go from this crazy world and life that I live with all these things to then just shutting it down to zero. So, I think I need to just feel those first few months out.

"Obviously, feel like with 23XI, there's an opportunity there to be winners of the sport long after I'm done driving.

"That will take up more time, I'll give more time to that. But then beyond that, I don't know. I'll figure out how much golf I could play and how many fish I can catch."

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