NASCAR insiders name Denny Hamlin among top contenders for 2025 Cup Series title

Denny Hamlin might be an elder statesman in the NASCAR Cup Series, but he’s still a title contender in 2025. At least that’s what Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic are thinking.

The Joe Gibbs Racing star had another awesome performance at Nashville this past weekend, and he already has multiple wins in 2025. Can he finally parlay his success into his first title at the sport’s highest level? Gluck can see the No. 11 team making a run after Hamlin’s 700th start this past weekend.

“I didn’t even realize that this was going to be Denny’s 700th start. Such a huge deal was made about Jimmie’s 700th start. Part of it was the place where he first made his first start, but he had a special logo for it and everything. It was like 700, 700. The other media people started asking Denny, ‘Oh, No. 700,’ I’m like, ‘Oh, it is?’ I totally missed that somehow. So, here’s this guy, and he said he really would have loved to win in No. 700, but once he was racing with Blaney, and once they kind of pulled away together, and then once Blaney pulled away from him, he realized it really wasn’t in the cards,” Gluck stated, via The Teardown.

“But man, the guy still, speaking of showing speed, he’s sort of right there. You can just see they’re still contenders. I could see them going on a run at some point. Now, it’s going to be tough with road courses coming up and stuff, but they’re right there.”

While the past month seemed a bit rough for Hamlin, there was more than meets the eye, says Bianchi. That’s why he’s not shying away from believing in the veteran wheelman going forward.

“We kind of forgot a little bit, because they had a really tough stretch in May. But you look at their results, you’ve got to look deeper,” Bianchi added. “They finished P38 at Texas, but he was running, you know, among the leaders and had a fresh car at Texas when he had a mechanical issue. P36 at Kansas, same thing, right? And then Charlotte, they didn’t get fuel in the car at the last pit stop, second to last pit stop, and then ended up having to make an extra stop there.

“So, they’ve had speed, week in and week out. They really haven’t had a bad race. They just haven’t had the finish to correspond with that. Denny is certainly in the mix. If you’re going to make a list of drivers who you feel like are championship contenders, Denny is certainly on that list, along with Blaney, along with Logano, along with Larson, along with Byron. I would propel him there.”

Whether Denny Hamlin can ascend to become a Cup Series champion remains to be seen, but he’s already among the best of his generation in NASCAR regardless. Still, a title is the one thing that’s eluded him, and it looks like he’ll have a shot to get it done when the time comes later this fall.