Even now, nearly 24 hours after the fact, it’s difficult to understand exactly what happened denny hamlin in 2025 NASCAR season finale.
“At this moment,” he said Sunday night, “I never want to race a car again.”
The greatest driver in the 77 years of NASCAR racing to never put his name on the coveted Cup had produced arguably the greatest season of his two-decade career and dominated the final event of the season. His goal was to become the highest finisher of Championship 4. He did so, overcoming an evening obstacle course that threw everything at the 44-year-old with a portfolio of past heartbreaks in his chances for a season-finale title. There were bad pit stops and near-misses and a clutch that was softer than a marshmallow, but he still won the pole position and led 208 of the race’s scheduled 312 laps, including the final 28 in regulation… before regulation became overtime.
What happened next was difficult to accept for those who watched it on screen or from their seats – all horror movies are – but it was even more impossible for those who were behind the wheels of the race cars on Sunday night. Even the beneficiary of all this.
“To be honest, I still can’t believe it,” confessed kyle larson On Monday afternoon, he called from Phoenix after only an hour and a half of sleep, a night wasted celebrating his second Cup championship, only the 18th driver in NASCAR history to do so. But the reason for his insomnia also included a bit of survivor’s guilt. “It’s such a weird feeling, you’re so excited because you won the championship, but you know, I have heart. Denny is a great competitor and a good friend. To see someone who comes so close every time to winning at a championship, and it’s at their fingertips, doing everything right all day and weekend and it’s taken away from him late… When I finally get to see him tonight, I don’t even know what to say. Like, I’m saying, ‘Sorry.’
“Sorry” are exactly the words of Larson’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron Said to Hamlin when they were on stage together in the post-race media center. It was Champ 4 member Byron, desperately trying to keep distance with Hamlin late, who hit the wall and brought out the yellow flag which hit the reset button, causing overtime and sending all the leaders to pit road. It was during that final pit stop that Hamlin – carrying four tires while the others carried two or fewer – lost the lead, the race, and the championship.
It was in the same pit lane where countless competitors stood behind the checkered flag to console Hamlin as he ultimately fell to sixth in the race and second in the standings, three points behind Larson, who was three spots ahead in third.
It was certainly not the first time that a racer had lost a championship that seemed so inevitable. It was also not the first time that several other racers had come to the side of a rival’s car to embrace his bent neck. But this moment was also unique because it was a unique combination of both.
In 1998, when Dale Earnhardt finally won the Daytona 500, crew members from every other team famously included the man in the top five, breaking a two-decade losing streak in the sport’s biggest race. In 1984, when Richard Petty scored his 200th career win, his rivals joined in the celebration, with even Cale Yarborough – the man who had lost to Petty by a single second – stopping by for a postrace picnic with The King and the President, Ronald Reagan. Following the deaths of Adam Petty in 2000 and Earnhardt the following year, the Petty and Earnhardt families were once again surrounded by their fellow racers. In July 2001, the sport celebrated with Dale Earnhardt Jr. when he won his first race at Daytona since his father’s death in the 500 five months earlier.
Over nearly eight decades, there have been many instances where both triumphs and tragedies have united the Clicky Cup Series garage, but never have they all been swept away in the same wave of emotion because a racer failed to finish as we saw on Sunday night in Phoenix. Even when it was a driver like Hamlin who made a career out of being divisive, whether it was looking toward the grandstand and announcing to the crowd “I just beat your favorite driver” or using his podcast to call out rivals or Taking the entire game to court with antitrust claimsWhich he will do in December.
Larson continued, “It’s because we’ve all seen how hard Denny has worked to see everything he’s achieved, so he deserves to be champion.” “I hope that someday, before he hangs it up, he can experience what it’s like. And I think it will be an extremely rewarding feeling for him. Especially now.”
It’s a reminder of what Hamlin has done to earn the title no one wants: Greatest to Never Win It All. In the annals of NASCAR history, this is the first three-driver race.
Junior Johnson, aka The Last American Hero, won 50 races as a driver without a championship — although, as he often liked to remind us, he never drove a full season in pursuit of a title. Mark Martin won 40 races and finished in the top five in the Cup standings 13 times, including an impressive five runner-up efforts. Hamlin scored his 60th career win in October, clinching his title at Phoenix, moving him to 10th on the all-time wins list and including three Daytona 500 victories. This was his 10th time finishing in the top five in the final standings and his second runner-up finish.
All of Hamlin’s near-Cup finishes have come during NASCAR’s Chase/Playoff postseason era. The season has been punctuated with post-season search committee meetings, of which Hamlin has been a member. Entering Phoenix, there was still some debate about eliminating the existing one-race, four-driver, highest-finisher-takes-the-Cup format that has been in place since 2014. When Hamlin last fought his way to the front, it seemed like the fight would be in a “it still works, we’ll show you” format.
Now, anyone left who has dared to consider even the slightest endorsement is looking at the smoldering remains of Denny Hamlin’s 2025 season and saying, “Yeah, screw it.” And yes, that includes the guy who has now won two Cups through the same one-night bracket.
“I think if there were more races involved we would all feel like we had a better chance to win the championship,” Larson said. “So, if it’s 36 races or ten races or four, whatever the number is, I think I’ll feel like I have a better chance than just coming to one race.”
And why is that, Champ?
“Because, as was shown yesterday, you can have the best car and do the best work like Denny and not leave the champion. It doesn’t feel right. And we’re all definitely feeling that way today.”
