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Kevin Harvick airs it out on Denny Hamlin success at age 44: 'Complete disaster everywhere but driver seat'

Brian Jones Profile Picby: Brian Jones07/22/25brianjones_93
Denny Hamlin (61)
Matthew O'Haren-Imagn Images

Denny Hamlin won his fourth race of the NASCAR Cup Series season on Sunday, and Kevin Harvick is not surprised by his success. On Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour, Harvick shared his thoughts on Hamlin continuing to win races at 44 years old.

“I think as long as Denny’s in position to win and willing to put in the time like he does, I almost think that the crew chief change probably helped the longevity of how much longer he’ll drive because he had a new challenge,” Kevin Harvick said about Denny Hamlin. “Everything we do with Denny is about a challenge. It’s a complete disaster everywhere but the driver seat outside of that.

“You look at the lawsuit, the 45 (Tyler Reddick) and the 23 (Bubba Wallace) not running great, everything around him is… Maybe it’s not a disaster, but it’s in turmoil. Now you got to go all the way into the end of the year to have this December trail and everything with NASCAR. Your cars are unchartered, you’ve got a new baby at home that you’re trying to figure out how to balance life. But I think he does better when it’s like that. I think that it’s just those individual challenges of trying to say, ‘Okay, well, this is new. So this is intriguing.'”

More on Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin

Harvick also said the different challenges motivated him at the end of his career. The former NASCAR star was a full-time driver from 2001 to 2023 and won 47 races. His last two victories came in 2022 when he was 46 years old.

Denny Hamlin will likely continue to compete full-time until he is no longer top driver in the sport. Before he can call it a career, Hamlin is seeking one big accomplishment, and that’s winning his first NASCAR Cup Series championship.

“I mean, I love it. I just love that I’m able to still do it at a high level, Hamlin told reporters after the Dover race. I mean, every morning when I wake up, I’m just hoping I still got what I had yesterday, you know? You just never know when you get to this age, right?”