🇺🇸 Denny Hamlin

Denny Hamlin is an elite professional racing in the NASCAR Cup Series, a national single-class championship that fields drivers from amateur to professional level on the same grid. He drives the No. 11 Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing and co-owns 23XI Racing with Michael Jordan. His rating of 7,385 places him among the strongest active drivers in the sport.[1]

Hamlin has won two NASCAR Cup Series championships, in 2025 and 2026, across 336 starts in the series that have yielded 35 wins and 90 podiums. He races ovals almost exclusively in Cup competition; 297 of his 336 starts have been on oval tracks. His career spans 23 seasons beginning in 2004, with 18 wins and 47 podiums across 164 NASCAR Xfinity starts and a single win from 3 NASCAR Truck starts, both series run for Joe Gibbs Racing and Kyle Busch Motorsports respectively. He totals 54 wins and 138 podiums across all three championships.[2]

Hamlin's record against the strongest drivers on the Cup grid places him at the elite level. He has beaten Ryan Blaney, an elite professional and consistent front-runner with 337 Cup starts, 199 times across their careers. Against Kyle Busch, an established professional and five-time NASCAR Xfinity champion who has raced 326 Cup events, Hamlin runs closely matched. Brad Keselowski, another established professional with 334 Cup starts, has been a regular competitor at the same level. The calibre of opposition Hamlin regularly defeats confirms his standing among the sport's strongest active drivers.