As the speculation around who will take over the No. 21 Wood Brothers car in the NASCAR Cup Series intensifies, Denny Hamlin has now added to the conversation. The Cup Series veteran has shared his verdict on the rumored replacement driver, Jesse Love. 

While discussing the silly season and talking about Love potentially replacing Berry in the No. 21 charter, Hamlin gave his opinion on whether he thinks that the 2025 defending O’Reilly champion is ready to make the jump to the Cup Series. 

"I think Jesse Love is good enough. I do. I’ve seen him drive enough in a Cup car, with as little experience as he has, I’ve seen enough technique-wise to say yes. Jesse Love can race Cup and be competitive," Hamlin said on the Actions Detrimental podcast on June 16.

On June 11th, Josh Berry and the Wood Brothers announced that they were parting ways at the end of the 2026 season. It is rumored that NASCAR’s oldest running Cup team has already picked its driver.

Most of the chatter surrounds 21-year-old O’Reilly Auto Parts driver Jesse Love. And the three-time Daytona 500 champion believes it would be a good choice. 

Hamlin’s opinion is backed by Love’s resume. The Richard Childress Racing driver has six Cup Series starts to his name, of which one took place earlier in the year at COTA.

Even though the O’Reilly Series driver has not finished in the top 10 in any of his six Cup race appearances so far, Hamlin believes there's more to judge than just results. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver’s comments only add more to the rumors about Love entering the Cup series. 

But the No. 11 driver also pointed out how the team has not been very competitive in the past few years, given their connection to Penske. He also observed that the Penske cars have been slow. 

Hamlin was uncertain if it would be good for Love to step into the 21 charter, saying, "I don't know. I'd have to think about that."

However, this is not the first time the No. 11 driver has given his opinion on an O’Reilly driver making the jump to the Cup Series.

Denny Hamlin Weighs in on Corey Day’s Move to the Cup Series

Back in April, after Corey Day won his first O’Reilly race, rumors began circling the NASCAR garage. They were about Day replacing the Hendrick Motorsports veteran Alex Bowman. 

While discussing the 20-year-old's win, Hamlin spoke about how it might be too early for the O’Reilly driver to jump to the Cup Series.

"Next year? Oh man, that would be quick. I wouldn’t advise that, but you never know," Hamlin said on an episode of the Action Detrimentals podcast. 

Although Corey Day has had impressive stats to back him up, Hamlin advised against it, just purely based on how different the Next Gen Cup cars are compared to the O’Reilly. 

Denny Hamlin’s comments seem to be contrasting, but also show that the evaluation goes beyond results on track. 

Read more at the RFK Racing Digest!

Written by

Chionia Libania Colaco

Edited by

Arundhoti Palit