Denny Hamlin's victory at Nashville was more than another line on a Hall-of-Fame resume. With his 62nd NASCAR Cup Series win, Hamlin moved to within a single triumph of Kyle Busch's career tally of 63 — a milestone made achingly poignant by the fact that it came just 10 days after Busch's death.
For 15 years the pair were Joe Gibbs Racing teammates, sometime rivals and a constant measuring stick for one another. Now Hamlin finds himself chasing down a number set by a man he never expected to overhaul.
"I thought about it and certainly aspired to eventually get there," Hamlin said of catching Busch on the all-time wins list. "I knew my career was going to end before his career was going to end, and we didn't know what was going to happen, but I had kind of resigned to the fact that I thought we weren't going to overtake Kyle, and we still might not."
The Nashville win, his 62nd, leaves him one shy of Busch's 63 — a haul that for years looked safely out of reach given Busch was the younger driver with, it seemed, more racing ahead of him. Busch's death has changed that calculus in the cruellest way, and Hamlin was careful to frame the chase as a tribute rather than a conquest.
"It was an honor to be his teammate for 15 years," Hamlin said. "He raised my game. Without him as teammate, there's no way I win the races I win, especially the ones like today."
That acknowledgement spoke to a relationship that was rarely simple but always sharpened both men. The two pushed each other through more than a decade at Gibbs, and Hamlin's admission that Busch made him a better driver underlined how intertwined their careers became.
"We don't know if this is the last one," Hamlin said. "We don't know."
The uncertainty only adds to the weight of the moment. Reaching 62 victories so soon after losing the man whose record he is chasing has turned what might have been a routine statistical footnote into one of the season's most emotional storylines. For Hamlin, the prospect of equalling Busch carries equal parts ambition and grief — a target he once thought unreachable, now within a single win, but one he plainly wishes had stayed his teammate's alone.
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*Originally published on [Motorsports Global](https://motorsports.global/article/hamlin-one-win-from-kyle-busch-record-nashville-2026). Visit for full coverage.*
