Even now, practically 24 hours after the very fact, it’s troublesome to correctly course of what occurred to Denny Hamlin within the 2025 NASCAR season finale.
“On this second,” he stated Sunday evening, “I by no means wish to race a automobile once more.”
The best driver in 77 years of NASCAR racing to by no means engrave his title on the coveted Cup had produced arguably the best season of his two-decade profession and had dominated the season’s remaining occasion. His aim was to be the very best finisher of the Championship 4. He did that, steering via an impediment course of a night that threw every little thing it had on the 44-year-old with a portfolio of previous heartbreak in season-finale title possibilities. There have been dangerous pit stops and near-misses and a clutch that was softer than marshmallow, however but he nonetheless gained the pole place and led 208 of the race’s scheduled 312 laps, together with the final 28 in regulation … earlier than that regulation turned extra time.
What occurred subsequent was troublesome to just accept for individuals who watched it on display or from their seats — all horror motion pictures are — nevertheless it was much more impossibly incomprehensible to those that have been behind the wheels of the race automobiles on Sunday evening. Even the beneficiary of all of it.
“Actually, I am unable to consider it nonetheless,” confessed Kyle Larson on Monday afternoon, calling in from Phoenix after solely an hour and half of sleep, an evening misplaced to celebrating his second Cup championship, solely the 18th driver in NASCAR historical past to take action. But additionally combined into the trigger for his insomnia was greater than a bit of little bit of survivor’s guilt. “It is such an odd feeling of, you are so excited since you gained the championship, however , I do have a coronary heart. Denny is a good competitor and a superb good friend. To see someone that is simply gotten so shut each time to win within the championship, and have it of their fingertips, doing every little thing proper all through the day and weekend and get it snatched from him late … Once I lastly get to see him later tonight, I simply do not even know what to say. Like, I am saying, ‘Sorry.'”
“Sorry” is precisely what Larson’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron stated to Hamlin after they have been on the rostrum collectively within the post-race media middle. It was Byron, a member of that Champ 4, desperately making an attempt to remain inside putting distance with Hamlin late, who hit the wall and introduced out the yellow flag that hit the reset button that prompted the extra time that despatched all of the leaders onto pit street. It was throughout that remaining pit cease that Hamlin — taking 4 tires when others took two or much less — misplaced the lead, the race and the championship.
It was on that very same pit lane the place numerous rivals lined as much as attempt to console Hamlin following the checkered flag, after he had finally dropped to sixth within the race and second in standings, three factors behind Larson, who completed three spots forward in third place.
It was definitely not the primary time {that a} racer had misplaced a championship that appeared so inevitable. It was additionally not the primary time that many different racers had come to the facet of a rival’s automobile to hug their crestfallen neck. However this second was additionally singular as a result of it was such a novel mixture of the 2.
In 1998, when Dale Earnhardt lastly gained the Daytona 500, the crew members of each different workforce famously lined as much as excessive 5 the person who had lastly snapped a two-decade shedding streak within the sport’s largest race. In 1984, when Richard Petty earned his 2 hundredth profession victory, his opponents additionally joined in on the celebration, even Cale Yarborough — the person who had misplaced to Petty by fractions of a second — caught round for the postrace picnic with The King and the President, Ronald Reagan. The Petty and Earnhardt households have been as soon as once more surrounded by their fellow racers after the deaths of Adam Petty in 2000 and Earnhardt the next yr. In July 2001, the game celebrated with Dale Earnhardt Jr. when he gained the primary race again at Daytona following his father’s dying within the 500 5 months earlier.
Over practically eight many years, there have been loads of cases the place triumphs and tragedies each have united the cliquey Cup Collection storage, however by no means had all of them been swept up in the identical wave of emotion due to what a racer had failed to perform like we noticed occur on Sunday evening in Phoenix. Even when it was a driver like Hamlin, who has made a profession out of being divisive, be it wanting towards the grandstand and saying to the group “I simply beat your favourite driver” or utilizing his podcast to name out rivals or taking the whole sport to court docket with antitrust claims, which he’ll do in December.
“That is as a result of we’ve got all seen how laborious Denny has labored in seeing all that he has completed, so he deserves to be a champion,” Larson continued. “I hope sometime, earlier than he hangs it up, he can expertise what it is like. And I believe it’s going to be a particularly rewarding feeling for him. Particularly now.”
It’s a reminder of what Hamlin has executed to deserve that title that nobody desires: Biggest To By no means Win It All. Within the annals of NASCAR historical past, that is a three-driver race.
Junior Johnson, aka the Final American Hero, gained 50 races as a driver with no championship — although, as he usually appreciated to remind us, he by no means ran a full season looking for a title. Mark Martin gained 40 races and completed within the prime 5 within the Cup standings 13 instances, together with a surprising 5 runner-up efforts. Hamlin earned his sixtieth profession win in October, the victory that gave him his title shot at Phoenix, tied for tenth on the all-time victories listing and that features three Daytona 500 wins. This was his tenth time ending within the prime 5 within the remaining standings and his second runner-up.
All of Hamlin’s near-Cups have come throughout NASCAR’s Chase/Playoff postseason period. This season has been punctuated with conferences of a postseason exploratory committee, of which Hamlin has been a member. Getting into Phoenix, there was nonetheless some debate in regards to the scrapping of the present one-race, four-driver, highest-finisher-takes-the-Cup format that has been in place since 2014. When Hamlin battled his approach to the entrance for the ultimate time, there appeared to be the faintest little bit of “This nonetheless works, we’ll present you” battle within the format.
Now, anybody left who dared take into account even the tiniest little bit of help, is wanting over the smoldering stays of Denny Hamlin’s 2025 season and saying, “Yeah, to hell with that.” And sure, that features the person who has now gained two Cups through that very one-night bracket.
“I believe all of us would really feel like we’ve got a greater alternative to win a championship if it was extra races that factored into it,” stated Larson. “So, if that is 36 races or ten races or 4, regardless of the quantity is, I believe I’d really feel like I’ve a greater alternative than simply coming down to 1 race.”
And why is that, champ?
“As a result of, as yesterday confirmed, you can have the most effective automobile and be doing the most effective job like Denny was and never go away the champion. That does not really feel proper. And we’re all definitely feeling that in the present day.”