Denny Hamlin will carry a special throwback paint scheme in next weekend’s Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway, which will honor Carl Edwards, who was recently enshrined in the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
Hamlin’s No. 11 Sport Clips Haircuts Toyota Camry XSE will be adorned with the paint scheme that Carl Edwards utilized during the 2000s when he was sponsored by Office Depot.
Edwards scored 11 of his 28 career NASCAR Cup Series wins with the Office Depot colors on his race car.
The now NASCAR Hall of Famer never won a NASCAR Cup Series title, but he came as close as you can humanly get to winning a championship without hoisting the trophy. In 2011, Edwards lost out on a tie-breaker to Tony Stewart in the 10-race NASCAR Chase for the Cup format, a precursor to the current Playoff format.
Edwards led 119 laps in the season-finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway in 2011, but finished runner-up in the race to Stewart. The win allowed Stewart to tie the point total scored by Edwards, but with Edwards having just one win during the campaign, and Stewart having five wins, Stewart captured the championship.
After an 11-year stint with RFK Racing (then Roush Fenway Racing), Edwards moved to Joe Gibbs Racing in 2015. Edwards would win five races with JGR over a two-year stretch, but would abruptly retire following the 2016 season, a year where he was a NASCAR Cup Series Championship 4 competitor.
Edwards, who was leading late in the season-finale at Homestead in 2016, would see his day come to an end after being crashed while battling with Joey Logano for the race lead on a late-race restart, which was brought on by a questionable caution by NASCAR.
Hamlin, 44, has recorded 54 wins over an illustrious NASCAR Cup Series career. While he has piled a bunch of trophies in his mantle, Hamlin is still in search of his first-ever NASCAR Cup Series championship.
After six races in the 2025 season, Hamlin sits eighth in the NASCAR Cup Series championship standings. Hamlin finished fifth a week ago in the Straight Talk Wireless 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, and he has a season-best finish of second, which he achieved at Phoenix Raceway.
