{"id":372709,"date":"2025-12-28T08:56:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T08:56:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/372709\/"},"modified":"2025-12-28T08:56:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-28T08:56:06","slug":"why-hamlin-will-make-a-serious-run-at-nascar-title-after-heartbreak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/372709\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Hamlin will make a serious run at NASCAR title after heartbreak"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nearly two months removed from Denny Hamlin’s heartbreaking loss in the 2025 NASCAR\u00a0<\/a>Cup Series championship race at Phoenix Raceway, the 60-time Cup Series winner must prepare for his 21st season behind the wheel of the No. 11 car at Joe Gibbs Racing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The expectations will be the same as they always are for Hamlin: multiple wins and a run at the championship, which he’s been chasing for two decades.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But after coming so incredibly close to finally snagging the prize a season ago, will Hamlin be able to replicate his high level of performance from 2025?<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWhy Denny Hamlin will rebound<\/p>\n

For starters, Hamlin is no longer immersed in a court battle between the team he co-owns, 23XI Racing, and NASCAR. Crew chief Chris Gayle, who first worked with Hamlin in 2025, proved to be a fantastic pairing for the veteran driver. And then there’s the motivation that comes with losing a championship that he was less than three laps from winning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 45-year-old is driving at arguably the highest level of his career, having won six races in 2025. He’s won at least two in every season since 2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hamlin’s finishes weren’t always consistent, but that wasn’t for a lack of speed. Hamlin led 1,024 laps in 2025, the first time he eclipsed the 1,000 laps led mark since 2021.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The aforementioned Gayle is also a big piece of the puzzle. Gayle won the 2022 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series championship with Ty Gibbs before leading Gibbs through his first two Cup Series seasons.\u00a0<\/p>\n

2025 was Gayle’s breakout season atop a Cup Series pit box, and with his skills now a known quantity throughout the Cup Series garage, there’s even more of a reason to believe that Hamlin will be once more one of the favorites to win a race on any given weekend.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nearly two months removed from Denny Hamlin’s heartbreaking loss in the 2025 NASCAR\u00a0Cup Series championship race at Phoenix…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372710,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":["post-372709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372709","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=372709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}