Denny Hamlin moves goalpost on career goals, takes shot at Kyle Larson

Denny Hamlin is a victim of his own success. Or at least his career goals are.

For the past few years, Hamlin has been blunt about his goal. He wants to get to 60 career wins. It’s what fuels his fire on a day-to-day basis in the sport.

“I’m just goal-driven. I know that’s such a cliche answer, right?” Hamlin said on the Dale Jr. Download this week, fresh off a win at Dover. “But I’m just a goals-driven person, right? I said I want to win 60 races. Well if I get to 60 then I’m going to tell you I want to get to 70.”

The hosts of the Dale Jr. Download, including Dale Earnhardt Jr., immediately laughed and provided some pushback. Why not 65? Seventy wins seems mighty ambitious.

But Denny Hamlin didn’t back down from that next goal in the slightest. If anything, he doubled down.

“I mean four a year for the next couple years? Finish this year off with a couple more? I don’t know,” Hamlin said. “Who knows? I don’t know. If you don’t have goals, if they’re just so easily attainable is it really a goal? It’s more like a want at that point. I don’t know. I just feel like I want to win as many races as I possibly possibly can.”

Currently, Denny Hamlin is sitting on 58 career wins. He’s just outside NASCAR’s Top 10 all-time, chasing Kevin Harvick‘s 60-win total.

Hamlin wants to leave Harvick in the dust, though. He doesn’t just want to pull even.

“I really want to finish my career in the top 10 of winners list,” Hamlin said. “I’ve got to plan on a few guys coming up that will beat that one day, right? So you can’t just be 10th. You’re going to end up being 11th or 13th when this thing is all said and done. So I’ve got to get myself well inside that top 10, and certainly I think today it’s harder to win than ever. I think that the wins get spread out more than other years past.”

Denny Hamlin ended with a little ribbing at another driver he’s been quite competitive with over the last few years. It was typical Hamlin.

“So I don’t know,” he said. “As long as I can keep winning and keep guys like Kyle Larson from winning it’ll keep them from passing me in a quicker fashion.”