{"id":262003,"date":"2025-11-04T22:26:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T22:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/262003\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T22:26:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T22:26:10","slug":"deep-cut-has-denny-hamlin-not-able-to-think-about-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/262003\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Deep cut’ has Denny Hamlin not able to think about 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Denny Hamlin<\/a> has two years left on a NASCAR Cup Series contract extension he signed with Joe Gibbs Racing<\/a> over the summer but the ‘deep cut’ of how he was denied his first championship on Sunday makes it hard for him to envision coming back.<\/p>\n

This isn’t to say that he is mulling early retirement, but he can’t bring himself to think about next season after dominating the championship race, leading it with three laps to go, and being denied it by a late caution and resulting pit decisions.<\/p>\n

Hamlin talks about his future in the sport
\n \"Denny <\/p>\n

Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota<\/p>\n

Photo by: James Gilbert \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

On Sunday, the 44-year-old opened the door for the questions about his future by saying \u2018Right now, I don\u2019t want to race a car again; my fun meter is pegged,\u2019 so it was a natural follow when he was made available on Tuesday morning in advance of the NASCAR Awards.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, I plan to,\u201d Hamlin said at the JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge. \u201cI have a contract to, but there\u2019s, at this point, there\u2019s just absolutely no way that I would even \u2026 I don\u2019t even think about the race car right now. Just yeah, I\u2019m gonna need some time on this one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamlin said he just can’t imagine ever putting the time, effort and energy into a single race like he has this month, ever again.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On the decisive restart, caused by fellow Championship contender William Byron<\/a> blowing a tire running second, Kyle Larson<\/a> took two scuffed tires from qualifying because that is the only set they had after blowing a tire earlier in the race.<\/p>\n

Hamlin and crew chief Chris Gayle had a full set of sticker tires left and took them, but restarted 10th behind those who took two and even a pair of drivers that stayed out. He couldn\u2019t catch Larson in time as one of his better friends in the sport claimed his second championship.<\/p>\n

How does he even begin to debrief that with Gayle?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe takeaways from JGR need to be that they did a really good job preparing me a really fast car, and gave me all the tools I needed to succeed,\u201d Hamlin said. \u201cSo you know, I\u2019ve been there in other years past where (I\u2019ve) just not been fast enough or good enough, and this is just a little different.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamlin has now lost championships in some of the most heart-wrenching ways imaginable.<\/p>\n

2010
2014
2019
2021
2022
2025<\/p>\n

Those are all years that Hamlin either had a chance to win the championship at the final race or was denied reaching that final race under some gut punch scenario.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo you\u2019ve seen me lose this in so many different ways, right, from the mechanical failures to just crazy things, but I don\u2019t know,\u201d Hamlin said. \u201cThis one just adds to the list. \u2026 Like nothing changed the way I felt about myself at the end of that race, and to use Carl Edwards<\/a>\u2019 quote, like \u2018I knew what it was like to be a champion.\u2019 I felt it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith five (laps) to go, I knew it was over. I don\u2019t have the trophy, but I knew that that was probably the first time that I was forced to perform a certain way under this format, and I did it, and there\u2019s nothing else I possibly could have done to change the outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Denny <\/p>\n

Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota<\/p>\n

Photo by: James Gilbert \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

Hamlin said he briefly jumped on his X account to see what people were saying and recognized that he garnered a lot of support and sympathy from the fan base at large.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, I\u2019ve looked at it, and obviously it\u2019s more pain,\u201d Hamlin says. \u201cI try to look at it for a little bit and then I just stop, because it just, it does get into my feelings a little bit. But I love our fan base. I mean, I think that they certainly have been very, very supportive of me over the last really few weeks, and my fans for quite some time.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut yeah, I\u2019m a bit torn as well because also my friend won the championship, and it\u2019s not being talked about that much. But I think that sometimes people have a tipping point, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

Congratulating Larson
\n \"Kyle <\/p>\n

Kyle Larson, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet<\/p>\n

Photo by: Jared C. Tilton \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

Hamlin even briefly attended the Larson victory party.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust to pay my respects,\u201d Hamlin said. \u201cI would hope that he would have done that for me. I think he would\u2019ve. He\u2019s been a great friend of mine. I hate for him that kind of the attention is shifted a little bit away from him and his championship, because he\u2019s definitely \u2026 there\u2019s a difference in deserving and should have been, right?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that there\u2019s not one person that should ever question his deservingness of being a champion. That\u2019s what I don\u2019t like to see. But I mean, he\u2019s a great friend of mine, and if it wasn\u2019t me, I was definitely happy for him. I was just trying to do the right thing as a friend, and regardless of my feelings and emotions that evening, it was important for me to go show him support.\u201d<\/p>\n

Larson was touched by the gesture.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt truly meant a lot. It really did,\u201d Larson said. \u201cI remember the last time I won a championship, you know, he didn\u2019t come out, but he sent me a really nice video message, and it meant a lot to me, and I understood how tough and challenging even that moment probably was for him. So, you know, fast forward to this weekend, a much tougher defeat, and I didn\u2019t expect him to go out. He didn\u2019t need to, but I\u2019m glad he showed up. I think it showed how big of a person he is, and how strong of a person he is to come out, suck it up and be out there.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo yeah, we got to talk for a minute, and it was awkward, right? Like really, I was just speechless. I didn\u2019t know what to say. I don\u2019t think there was anything I could say to try to make him feel any better, and I could see the pain \u2014 all that. But it definitely meant a lot, and I think it meant a lot to everybody in there.\u201d<\/p>\n

“This will hurt”
\n \"Denny <\/p>\n

Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota<\/p>\n

Photo by: Sean Gardner \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

Hamlin says he typically \u2018gets the itch\u2019 to race again \u2018come Christmastime,\u2019 but this winter will be a different process.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would think this would probably be the same,\u201d Hamlin said. \u201cWhen I need to go do something, I will.\u201d<\/p>\n

What helps is that the NASCAR Awards is just two days after Championship Weekend this year and not in early December so he can move on quicker but Tuesday night is going to be tough.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the only sport that makes the losers celebrate the winner,\u201d Hamlin said. \u201cThis will hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

We want your opinion!<\/p>\n

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?<\/p>\n

Take our 5 minute survey.<\/a><\/p>\n

– The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Denny Hamlin has two years left on a NASCAR Cup Series contract extension he signed with Joe Gibbs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262004,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[121322,49,48,3932,115604,12101,634,3628,115603,82],"class_list":["post-262003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-deep-cut-has-denny-hamlin-not-able-to-think-about-2026","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-denny-hamlin","tag-ism-raceway","tag-joe-gibbs-racing","tag-nascar","tag-nascar-cup","tag-phoenix-ii","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262003","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=262003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}