Avondale, Arizona — kyle larson Knew he wasn’t gonna catch denny hamlin In the final round on Sunday, not without the kind of help that only a caution flag can bring.
Larson got his lucky break.
Hamlin was simply heartbroken.
Larson is now a two-time NASCAR champion, having denied Hamlin his first career title when a late caution at Phoenix Raceway sent the championship-deciding finale into overtime.
Without the caution that would have come with three laps to run, Hamlin had closed it out and was finally ready to shed the label of the greatest NASCAR driver to never win a championship. But fellow title contenders William Byron A tire burst and he hit the wall to bring out the caution, and after a few minutes, it was over.
“Absolutely incredible,” Larson said. “I can not believe it.”
Neither could Hamlin.
“I don’t have much of an emotion right now. Just numb about it, just in shock,” Hamlin said after consoling his crying daughters on pit road. “We were 40 seconds away from the championship. This game can drive you absolutely crazy because sometimes speed, talent, none of that matters.”
When the caution came out for Byron, Hamlin led the field onto pit road and put four new tires on his Toyota; Larson only had two tires on his Chevrolet. This meant that Larson was in fifth place by the end of the two-lap sprint, with Hamlin in 10th.
With little time to overtake Larson, Hamlin finished sixth while Larson finished third. Ryan BlaneyWho were out of the title race last week, won the race.
It is the second championship for Larson, who won his first when he joined Hendrick Motorsports in 2021.
As Larson celebrated, Hamlin sat motionless in his car for several seconds, then wiped his face with a white towel, showing no emotion.
Larson, who had been in a slump since his disastrous Memorial Day attempt to race in both the Indianapolis 500 and Coca-Cola 600 on the same day, was also in shock.
“We didn’t lead a single lap and won the championship,” Larson said. “We had an average car and the right front tire went down, missed a lap and got swept around, saved by a caution with a wave all around. It’s absolutely unbelievable. What a year this motorsports team has had.”
When Hamlin finally got out of his car he hugged his crew members but it was a scene of disbelief among the Joe Gibbs Racing crowd. The team members were crying, some sitting on the sidewalk in shock, Gibbs himself stood silent, one hand on his hip and a look of disbelief on his face.
This marked the sixth time for Gibbs to snatch the title from Hamlin in 20 years of driving. He led 208 of the 319 laps and started from pole.
Hamlin said, “I couldn’t have done anything differently. I mean, I prepared as best I could coming into the weekend, and my team gave me a great car.” “Just didn’t work. I was just praying ‘no precautions’ and we had one there. What can you do? That shouldn’t have happened.”
He said crew chief Chris Gayle made the right decision with four tires, but several others only took two, creating too large a gap for Hamlin to close on Larson in such a short period of time.
The 44-year-old Virginia native had his heart broken in the last five championship finals due to bad luck, poor strategy and bad cars in 2010, 2014, 2019, 2020 and 2021.
Hamlin remained remarkably loose and cool all week, renting out three homes in Scottsdale for 30 friends and family, winning the pole and then dominating Sunday’s race.
He just didn’t turn it off.
“Man, if you can’t win that, I don’t know what else you can win,” Hamlin said.
Larson was fine during the race, but has not won since the beginning of May, a decline that has now extended to 24 consecutive races.
hamlin teammates chase brisco He finished 18th in his championship final debut, while Larson’s teammate Byron finished 33rd after his final points. He felt bad for ruining Hamlin’s chance, even though his Hendrick Motorsports teammate went on to win the championship.
“I’m very disappointed that it was obviously a caution. I hate it. Hate it for Denny. I hate it for the 11 team,” Byrne said. “I mean, Denny was going that way. I hate it. There’s a lot of respect there. I obviously didn’t want to throw the caution. If I had known what tire it was, known before we got to the corner that a tire was going down, I would have done something different.”
