Denny Hamlin’s offseason has started differently this time as the veteran driver is still trying to move on from his painful loss at Phoenix Raceway and has been spending his days finding some calm away from the chaos.

After coming so close to his first NASCAR Cup Series championship title, Hamlin admitted that it will take time for him to recover, and the 44-year-old is learning to reset while keeping things in perspective as he prepares for what will be his 21st season in the Cup Series.

Denny Hamlin Trying To Find Peace After Phoenix

Last week, Hamlin made an appearance at Joe Gibbs Racing’s 13th annual ‘Progressive Keys to Progress’ event, where he and Coach Joe Gibbs handed over two brand-new Toyotas to U.S. Army veterans, and for Hamlin, it was a reminder that life doesn’t begin and end at the racetrack.

“Yeah, it is (keeping it in perspective),” Hamlin told Racing America on SI. “You know, back to work. You’ve got to just do the best you can to reset. I’ll certainly need some time to do that. But generally speaking, this is the race hangover time. You’ve got to just take a little break, get a reset, get recharged, it’s just this year will probably take a little bit longer than years past.”

Hamlin spent weeks fine-tuning every detail before the NASCAR finale race in Phoenix, and after locking himself into the Championship 4 with a win at Las Vegas, he worked tirelessly on the simulator and even changed his driving style to gain an edge.

He led 208 laps that afternoon, but then came the caution, where William Byron’s cut tire brought the field back together, and what looked like a certain win quickly turned into heartbreak for Hamlin.

“Everything was right, but it didn’t work out in the end,” Hamlin admitted. “It’s one of those things, sometimes you go into overtime but the score wasn’t even. You were up 30 to nothing, and you lose. And so, it’s just, I don’t know. It took so much out of me, it drained so much out of me, time-wise.”

Hamlin Learning To Move On Again

For most drivers, losing a title that close might have been the final straw, but Hamlin has been in NASCAR long enough to know how to keep going as he’s won 60 races, built a legacy, and proved he can race with the best.

“To borrow from Carl Edwards, I mean, with five laps to go, I knew what it was like to be a champion,” Hamlin said. “I did everything I was supposed to and, 40 seconds or 50 seconds at the end deciding whether I win that championship or not has no bearing on my ability or what I’m capable of. I just don’t have the trophy sitting at home but I know we were the best.”

Hamlin was reminded of Edwards, who famously walked away from NASCAR after his own heartbreaking title loss in 2016, and while Hamlin made it clear he’s not retiring anytime soon, the talk helped him gain perspective.

Off the track, Hamlin still found reasons to smile as at the NASCAR Awards Banquet, he received a $60,000 donation from Xfinity for the Denny Hamlin Foundation, which funds cystic fibrosis research and is a cause close to his heart, as one of his cousins has battled the disease since childhood.

During this offseason, Hamlin plans to slow things down as he wants to spend more time at home, attend his daughters’ events, and maybe take a much-needed vacation. “I don’t have any plans…. But I’m going to take some time and go on a vacation at some point. I certainly need it very, very badly. Other than that, just spending more time at home,” he admitted.

While the loss at Phoenix will stay with him for a while, Hamlin isn’t giving up as he knows what it takes to get back to the top, and he’s not ready to stop chasing that one goal yet.