Hamlin's Canine Champions Take Down Local Leashes in Sin City Finals

Motorsport photo Crossing the finish line on Sunday, Denny Hamlin said ‘old dogs can still hunt,’ and that might have enough legs to become the slogan for his 2026 season. There were a lot of reasons to expect that maybe this old dog might start to get a little bit sluggish. For one, he went through absolute hell over the winter, with the death of his father in a house fire, that also hospitalized mother Mary Lou.

This delayed his ordinary ramp-up period and it was an open question whether or not Hamlin had enough gas left in the figurative tank to even find the gears needed early in the season after taking so much time to grieve and emotionally recover. And then, perhaps most importantly from a performance standpoint, Hamlin is 45-years-old and this is when many careers have stated to wind down whether a driver embraced it or not. Old Dog is more than a metaphor.

“I mean, this is gratifying because I saw, like, the legendary Mount Rushmore guys, and raced against them,” Hamlin said. “I think probably at least two on the Mount Rushmore I got to race against and know how good they are. ” Hamlin is no doubt referencing Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson.

“I also saw at the end of their career when they got to my age that the performance changed, for whatever reason,” he added. “I think Kevin Harvick is kind of the one that sticks out that he was still doing it at this level at this age. I don't know when he stopped winning.