{"id":252733,"date":"2025-10-31T17:12:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T17:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/252733\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T17:12:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T17:12:13","slug":"denny-hamlin-vies-for-first-nascar-cup-series-championship-following-eventful-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/252733\/","title":{"rendered":"Denny Hamlin vies for first NASCAR Cup Series Championship following eventful year"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin will compete in this weekend\u2019s NASCAR Cup Series Championship race aiming to shed the label of \u201cthe best driver to never win a championship\u201d in what would be \u201cone of the unlikeliest times for him to win it,\u201d according to Jeff Gluck of THE ATHLETIC. Hamlin began this year with a \u201cmostly bare team transporter, an indicator of sponsorship woes after longtime primary sponsor FedEx departed<\/a>.\u201d That was a \u201creal worry\u201d heading into contract negotiations between Hamlin and Joe Gibbs Racing, since sponsorship woes \u201cpreviously forced the team\u202fto part ways\u201d with driver Kyle Busch. Then there is the matter of Hamlin and Basketball HOFer Michael Jordan, who co-own the 23XI Racing team, suing NASCAR over antitrust violations<\/a> — a case which had Hamlin \u201cspend three days in federal court just last week<\/a>\u201d (THE ATHLETIC, 10\/28<\/a>). RACER\u2019s Kelly Crandall writes of the four title contenders — Hendrick Motorsports\u2019 Kyle Larson, Hendrick\u2019s William Byron, Joe Gibbs Racing\u2019s Chase Briscoe and Hamlin — would be the \u201cunanimous pick as the driver with the most pressure to win the title\u201d no matter \u201cwhich narrative is chosen to preview Sunday\u2019s race (RACER, 10\/30<\/a>).<\/p>\n

WEIRD FEELING: FOXSPORTS.com\u2019s Bob Pockrass wrote if Hamlin does win, it would be \u201cone of the most ironic.\u201d 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports are \u201cembroiled in a bitter lawsuit\u201d against NASCAR. Two days of settlement negotiations last week did not \u201cresult in a deal, and the sides are headed to a Dec. 1 trial.\u201d Hamlin said that he \u201cwouldn\u2019t feel awkward having NASCAR brass hand him the trophy.\u201d He said, \u201cI\u2019ve seen those guys as much as I\u2019ve ever seen them over the last few weeks, it\u2019s just been I\u2019ve had a different suit on, and they\u2019ve been in their normal suits.\u201d Hamlin: \u201cAnd so I don\u2019t think [it will be awkward]. I\u2019ve got respect for all those guys. And obviously, it\u2019s a total different issue than what we\u2019re fighting on the racetrack this weekend\u201d (FOXSPORTS.com, 10\/29<\/a>). Hamlin said he \u201calways\u201d receives updates about the lawsuits, but said recent talks of a settlement was \u201call through the media and not actual dialogue.\u201d Asked if anything was close<\/a>, Hamlin said, \u201cNo\u201d (X, 10\/30<\/a>). <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin will compete in this weekend\u2019s NASCAR Cup Series Championship race aiming to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252734,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,12716,634,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-252733","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-motorsports","11":"tag-nascar","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}