Denny Hamlin reinjured repaired shoulder amidst difficult winter

Denny Hamlin is not 100 percent right now after an emotional rollercoaster of a winter and he may not get there until after the end of the 2026 season concludes.

That is because, in addition to the death of his father in a house fire that also hospitalized his mother, Hamlin also re-tore the right shoulder he got surgically repaired after the 2023 season. This happened during a fall while going through the rubble and remains of the house he purchased for his parents.

The fall occurred so late in the off-season that Hamlin couldn’t schedule surgery in time to be back behind the wheel of his Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11. He is going to have to deal with it until the first day of the off-season in November.

All of this is in addition to the aftermath of a bitter defeat in the NASCAR Cup Series championship race at Phoenix. He dominated that event until a late caution, pit stop and restart resulted in a second Kyle Larson title instead.

Then came the antitrust lawsuit and trial he brought against NASCAR on behalf of the 23XI Racing organization he co-owns with Michael Jordan alongside Front Row Motorsports. That ended in a settlement nine days into the proceedings.

All told, it’s objectively been a lot.

“The easy thing to say is poor me, but it’s like, I still have a fantastic life and a great family,” Hamlin said during a Wednesday press conference prior to the Cookout Clash. “A lot of people go through tragedies.

“While what happened to my family in the off-season was highly publicized, there are probably tons of those stories of crew members that it happened in their family and no one really knows about it.

“So everyone had to go through tough moments and I think those are kind of building moments for your character, how you respond to it.”

Hamlin will have surgery, but not right now

Hamlin says he is scheduling surgery for the week after the 2026 season ends and he’s going to have to nurse it through November. It’s not nearly as bad as it was near the end of the 2023 season but it’s also still early in the injury.

“It’s just a matter of making sure I’m doing everything right outside of the car,” Hamlin said. “I have to keep the range good and keep the strength good to get to that November date. I’m going to have to limit some of the physical things I enjoy doing because I have to keep priorities.

“I’m going to miss out on some fun things I like to do because it’s going to aggravate it. The tear, it’s kind of just hanging on. It’s torn but it has some parts and pieces hanging on that I need to stay intact for the full year.”

As a result, Hamlin says this season is either going to be great or its going to be terrible.

“I don’t think there is much of a middle road there,” he said. “It’s going to go really one way or the other and it’s up to me decide which turn I take. My focus right now is keeping this thing on the right track and making sure I spend these last couple of years accomplishing everything that I want to, uh, before my career is over.”

Hamlin, who has 60 wins at the highest level in 721 starts, has a well-documented physical fitness and race preparation routine. It’s a fair question to ask Hamlin when he will fully be able to lock-in with everything that has happened and he doesn’t have an answer yet.

Still, he’s trying.

“It’s TBD,” Hamlin said. “I wish I could predict the future and tell you, but I just don’t know. I certainly give my team the preparation they deserve as the leader of the team. There is no way I could actually show up this weekend and face them and not be prepared.

“So, I've done as much as I feel like I can to be prepared, given the amount of time I’ve got and everything that’s been going on. They know once I get in that car, they will never have to question whether I am capable of going out there and giving them their best opportunity to win.

“That is ultimately my job, to get them the results they have been preparing for all season and reap the benefits of their hard work.”