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Signed on the dotted line (again); Joe Gibbs Racing keeps Denny Hamlin, FedEx in stable

59th Annual DAYTONA 500 - Practice

DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 18: Denny Hamlin, driver of the #11 FedEx Express Toyota, walks through the garage area during practice for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series 59th Annual DAYTONA 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 18, 2017 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Joe Gibbs Racing announced Thursday that it has signed Denny Hamlin and sponsor FedEx each to a multi-year contract extension.

Terms of the deal - first reported by NBC Sports last month - were not disclosed.

This season marked the final year of Hamlin’s four-year deal with the team. The 36-year-old has 29 career Cup wins and finished sixth in last year’s standings, marking the 10th time in the last 11 years he has qualified for the playoffs (He missed the 2013 playoffs after he sat out four races because of a fractured back).

JGR is the only team Hamlin has raced for in his NASCAR Cup Series career. Hamlin, the reigning Daytona 500 champion, made his Cup debut Oct. 2005 at Kansas Speedway. His first full season was 2006.

Seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson is the only active Cup driver who has been with the same team longer than Hamlin. Johnson first drove for Hendrick Motorsports in 2001 and ran his first full season with the team in 2002.

Also, FedEx announced efforts to improve road safety through a new program, ''Delivering Laps for FedEx Cares’’ that it will donate $111 for each lap Hamlin leads and $11,000 for each victory to Safe Kids Worldwide, a nonprofit working to protect kids on the road. FedEx will also contribute $111,000 to Safe Kids if Hamlin wins the series title.

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