Denny Hamlin has already achieved a significant amount in his NASCAR Cup Series career. Now, he has unveiled some important goals after signing what he expects to be his last contract extension.
Interestingly enough, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver did not mention the Cup Series championship. He pointed to another accomplishment.
"Just more crown jewels," Hamlin said at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Friday. "I don't know exactly how many I have now. Seven? So, if I can get (to) eight or nine, I don't know if that changes much, but it certainly makes me feel a little better."
What are the crown jewels in NASCAR? They are the four races that mean so much extra to drivers, teams, and historians.
This list of crown jewels includes the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway, the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.
Hamlin has seven so far. He has three Daytona 500 wins, three Southern 500 wins, and one Coca-Cola 600 win. What he is missing is the Brickyard 400. This is the crown jewel that he truly wants to win before his two-year extension expires.
Of course, his goals also include winning more of the other crown jewel races.
"You have to have goals, and those crown jewels will be one that you know we go to races like this (Brickyard 400), they're going to talk about ones that people that have won here at this race track and won crown jewel events," Hamlin added.
"I want to be high on the crown jewel list of winners."
Only four drivers have won all four crown jewel races, which NASCAR calls the Grand Slam. Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt, Kevin Harvick, and Jimmie Johnson are the members of this elite group. If Hamlin can check off the Brickyard 400, he will join them while adding to what is already a Hall of Fame resume.
Gordon has 17 crown jewel wins, highlighted by five Brickyard 400s. Johnson won 12 crown jewel races. Earnhardt and Harvick each won eight crown jewel races.
Richard Petty and Bobby Allison both scored 10 crown jewels, but they stopped racing before NASCAR introduced the Brickyard 400. The same goes for Cale Yarborough, who won nine crown jewel races.
If Hamlin wins the Brickyard 400 this weekend, he will move one win closer to another of his pre-retirement goals -- reaching and surpassing 60 wins.
The veteran driver enters the race weekend at 58 wins. This puts him only two away from tying Harvick, who is 10th on the all-time Cup Series wins list. Hamlin has repeatedly mentioned that he wants to hit 60 wins before stepping away from the sport, which is entirely possible this season.
If he checks off this goal, what comes next?
"I want to be high on the crown jewel list of winners," Hamlin said. "If I can get a couple more of those and again put myself well into the 60s, if not a bigger number, then (pause). if I get nothing else, truly, I'm going to be happy.
"I'll be disappointed because you know, setting my goals now accordingly based off how things are going. But truthfully, I would be happy with just calling it and saying this is how many races I won, this is my winning percentage, this is how many crown jewels I have."