Denny Hamlin is having one of his best competitive seasons, but earlier this year, following his win at Michigan, he finally hinted at a potential successor at JGR in 2027. 

Based on Hamlin’s comments, 18-year-old Brent Crews has emerged as a potential candidate for the future, and the latter has now reacted to it.

In an interaction with SiriusXM NASCAR, Crews revealed he never expected his childhood hero to mention his name in such a conversation. 

“I did not expect him to say that whatsoever. I swear to you, that was wild. I had a big ol' smile on my face when he did say it because I had no idea. But yeah, that was really nice of Denny to say, and I'm very grateful that he's been watching. That stuff's really cool. 

"Denny was my favorite driver as a little kid. My favorite football player was Julio Jones, and he was number 11. So automatically, Denny was my favorite driver. To think, when I was five years old, what I knew now, I don't know what I would do. But no, it was super cool,” Crews said.

However, while it would certainly be a dream-come-true moment for Crews, he stressed the importance of focusing on the present and that he wants to be the best in his current race programme, i.e the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. 

“Obviously, that's my dream. That's everybody's dream, especially from a young age. But at the end of the day, we have a long season left to go and a lot of races left to go, and I still have a ton to learn and a lot of races to go try to win. So until that happens, my eyes and body and mind is all focused on doing my best to win O'Reilly races,” Crews added.

Crews has participated in the Trans-Am series and ARCA Menards, where he has been quite successful. He currently drives the No.19 Supra for Joe Gibbs Racing in the NOAPS, along with part-time appearances for Tricon Garage in the Truck Series. He currently sits 11th on the table and has seven top-5s so far. 

Crews isn’t the only youngster Hamlin spoke of in recent times, though. 

Connor Zilisch is on track to beat SVG in a few years, says Denny Hamlin

On his Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin and co-hosts discussed Connor Zilisch’s recent career-best 7th place finish at Sonoma. He feels Zilisch could be a serious contender to beat Gisbergen in the years to come, and also commended how he grabbed the opportunity with both hands.  

“About time, right? I mean, that's what we expect from Connor. I thought that we talked about Connor. Was it in between seasons where I was like, yeah, he's not going to run with SVG right now in the Cup Series. I think, give it a couple of years, I think he could be a suitor to beat him. 

"I thought it was going to be a tall task for him to do it in the Cup Series right now. And he fell right in line with where you would think he would run, and that's inside the top five. He didn't have any, you know, negative restarts, pit strategies, wrecks, things like that. So he finally got the finish he deserved,” Hamlin said.

After a series of unlucky DNFs (six so far), Zilisch finally secured his first top-10 of the season. His transition from the O'Reilly Series (where he enjoyed ten wins in 2025) to the Cup Series has not gone the way it was supposed to, at all. Sonoma was a relief from that.

The hosts also noted the audience’s tendency to forget that Shane Van Gisbergen has been around racing for many years, while Zilisch’s full-time stint in the Cup Series has only just begun. 

Read more at RFK Racing Digest 

Written by

Aaradhya Singh

Edited by

Suyashdeep Sason