Denny Hamlin — and sponsor FedEx — will continue with Joe Gibbs Racing for years to come.
JGR announced extensions for both driver and sponsor Monday.
The length of the extensions were not disclosed, but are multi-year deals.
“The relationship between FedEx and our organization has been a tremendous success story in so many ways and we’re excited that FedEx will continue to support Denny and our No. 11 team,” team owner Joe Gibbs said in a release. “Denny continues to perform at the top of our sport and our goal is to continue to position him and FedEx to win a championship.”
“I’m so fortunate to have the support of FedEx behind me throughout my career,” Hamlin said in the release. “I take a tremendous amount of pride in having the opportunity to represent them not only on the racetrack, but also in the community through the countless programs they have supported for the better part of these past two decades.”
The Hamlin-FedEx partnership has persisted throughout the entirety of Hamlin’s NASCAR Cup Series career, beginning with his part-time debut in the series in 2005.
Hamlin is coming off a seven-win 2020 season, finishing fourth in points with 18 top fives and 21 top 10s.
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Geez, you’d think he would have planned on driving a car on his own team eventually. Unless he doesn’t expect them to be able to contend in the next 5 years. As I have said before, how little faith he has in the future of is own team. If I were MJ I would not be happy.
Seriously! I guess he can always play the Dale Sr. card on that one if questioned. Or he could just admit this is just a social justice PR stunt.
MJ doesn’t care about winning, look at his basketball team. He doesn’t need to spend big money to get a winner. He makes money on them regards. He can care less how bubba does. Sponsors will line his pockets for his name, as will Nascar. Why do you think bubba got the ride.
I suppose that could be true but historically it takes years to turn a profit in motorsports. Unless you just want to ride around at the back and be a start and park car (use old equipment, have a token pit crew, don’t buy tires, etc.), then you can eek out a profit on paper.
I’m glad to see this renewal. This has been a good relationship for all parties involved. I imagine this is a 2-year extension beyond ’21. By then Hamlin will be 43 years old and ready to hang up his helmet and concentrate on his team ownership role.
For those upset that Hamlin didn’t decide to move over to his own team in ’22, remember that he needs to keep having success as a driver and JGR is his best opportunity to continue that success. It will be much more effective to have Hamlin attract potential sponsors for the 23XI team as a recent winner of Cup races, than struggling each week finishing in the 10’s & 20’s with a fledgling team.
Some would argue that a top tier driver is what would be needed to rise above that 10’s and 20’s finishes.
So by not driving for his team he is acknowledging that he expects his team NOT to be a contender before he retires. Once again, not a very strong endorsement for his team and his expectation. The old adage, “put your money where your mouth is” comes to mind. Unless sponsors are idiots, him winning in JGR cars aren’t going to suddenly make sponsors want to put their money on a loser team.
It’s too bad Denny doesn’t want to driver for his own team. It would be interesting to compare results for Denny and Danica 2.0 with his team.