AVONDALE, Ariz. – Denny Hamlin was three laps away from conquering his nemesis, the illustrious Bill France Cup trophy. It ended in bitter defeat during the Cup Series Championship race at Phoenix Raceway.
After climbing out of the No. 11 car, Hamlin was greeted by fiancée Jordan Fish. The raw emotions from daughters Taylor and Molly were evident, both sobbing hysterically. Hamlin boiled his championship defeat down to a set of unfortunate circumstances.
Hamlin was already racing with loads of emotion. He revealed earlier this week that it would likely be the final time his father, Dennis, sees him battle for a Cup title.
Hamlin led two-thirds of the 2025 season finale. But taking the checkered flag in sixth position, second in line among Championship 4 competitors, he sat on pit road, keeping to himself to gather his thoughts inside of the No. 11 Toyota for more than 90 seconds. The 60-time Cup winner couldn’t describe the feeling.
“Just numb about it because I’m just in shock,” a still-faced Hamlin said. “That’s about it.”
Hamlin controlled the bulk of regulation from the pole position. The No. 11 car led 208 laps and was less than a minute from taking the white flag to lock up his first Cup Series title. That’s when an untimely flat tire from fellow Championship 4 competitor William Byron brought out the caution after bouncing off the Turn 3 wall.
When Byron saw Hamlin inside the Media Center, he apologized for blowing a tire. Hamlin responded with, “it happens.”
“I don’t want to be that guy, even if I’m in the Championship 4,” Byron said. “Don’t want to change the outcome. So it sucks.”
Chris Gayle, crew chief of the No. 11 car, went with a standard four-tire call, similar to Corey Heim’s race-winning move in Friday evening’s Craftsman Truck Series race. Meanwhile, Cliff Daniels, crew chief for Kyle Larson, chose right-side tires to gain track position in a call he thought was a no-brainer given the No. 5 team’s circumstance of running in the back half of the top five.
“I just know we had talked about this ahead of time and knew that four tires was probably the plan unless there was a certain situation that was unique,” Gayle said. “This one is tough because it’s a two-lap shootout and how it gets jumbled up through Turn 1 and 2.”
The top three cars of Brad Keselowski, Ryan Preece and Alex Bowman stayed out, gambling to hold the field off for the overtime finish. Larson restarted in sixth, while Hamlin slotted in ninth. The No. 11 car got bogged down in the traffic on the inside, as the No. 5 car soared to third position. Hamlin placed sixth, a few car lengths shy of winning the Cup.
Hamlin didn’t think his chance at winning the title was done when the green flag waved for overtime. Tires mattered and in a similar position less than 40 laps earlier, the No. 11 car made quick work of the competition. He didn’t anticipate three drivers staying out and five more opting for two tires.
“I mean, we’re 40 seconds from a championship,” Hamlin said, trying to process how the No. 11 team weren’t crowned the 2025 champions. “It’s just unfortunate. The only difference before is the cautions came maybe a little sooner than that. Gosh, you work so hard. This sport can drive you absolutely crazy because sometimes speed, talent, all that stuff, just does not matter.”
With Larson and the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team celebrating in the background, Gayle consoled his driver after the checkered flag. Hamlin bolted over to his No. 11 team to assure the same.
“The only thing I said to him was he prepared like a champion,” Gayle added. “He is not going to walk away with the trophy, but he prepared like one and did everything he could do all weekend, the three weeks leading up, really all year. Even though he doesn’t have a trophy, I feel like he’s a champion.”
In the closing laps, Hamlin was praying for no cautions to fly. Despite the loss being out of his control, it doesn’t soothe the bitterness. His fellow Championship 4 competitors combined to lead 55 laps on the afternoon. Larson never paced the field, even with the race going seven laps past its scheduled distance.
“Kyle Larson has the trophy, but we dominated,” Hamlin stated. “We did our job. We did the best we could. When everyone had to bring their best, I think it was evident who was the best today.”
Larson, who is a confidant of Hamlin, had mixed emotions about becoming the third active multi-time Cup champion. He was gleeful of the No. 5 team after a few gut punches of its own in recent years and ending the 2025 season on a 24-race winless streak, Larson’s longest since joining Hendrick Motorsports in 2021. But he also showed empathy, knowing the No. 11 car was best in class on Sunday, and Hamlin is yet to achieve the career milestone of becoming a champion through 20 full-time seasons.
“I had all the elation, obviously, because we had just accomplished something that was not on our radar for a lot of it,” Larson said in his championship-winning press conference. “I was so happy and thrilled. I got done and I could see [Hamlin’s] car and team and him doing interviews. It kind of hit me like, ‘Oh, man, I can’t imagine what he’s feeling right now.
“We’ve all gone through our own defeats. I really can’t imagine what he’s feeling. It’s got to be something completely different than I ever felt before through any of my defeats. There’s definitely a large piece of me that feels really bad and sad. But at the same point, I’m happy. It’s such a weird feeling. When you don’t win the race, you don’t lead a lap, you win the championship, you steal it from a guy who has tried for so long and had it in his fingertips, it’s a really weird feeling.”
In a career that has had countless near misses, this is the closest Hamlin has been to being crowned a Cup champion. His “fun meter is pegged” after Phoenix, knowing he doesn’t have many chances left – he will begin a two-year extension with Joe Gibbs Racing in 2026, noting it’s likely his last contract – at winning a Cup title.
“In this moment, I never want to race a car ever again,” Hamlin said. “The last couple times I’ve been doing this, either wasn’t fast enough, or circumstances. There were some untimely yellows the last time I did this. Just takes all of a sudden everything we did preparing was right, where we guessed was right, and just didn’t work out, which is crazy.”
Hamlin finished runner-up in the championship standings for the second time in his career. The other was in 2010, when Jimmie Johnson overcame a sizable points deficit in the season finale to win his fifth of five consecutive championships.