Is he thinking about hanging it up?
Honestly, it would be hard to blame Denny Hamlin for walking away after a heartbreaking loss in the NASCAR Cup Series championship race on Sunday after dominating much of the race and appearing to be on his way to winning his elusive first championship after 20 years of trying and 20 years of frustration. (Does that sound familiar, NASCAR fans?)
The #11 car had checked out to a 3-second lead with just three laps to go in the race. But the #24 car of William Byron blew a tire and hit the wall, taking him out of contention for the championship and setting up a green-white-checkered overtime finish to decide the 2025 Cup Season championship.
The other three championship contenders, Hamlin, Kyle Larson and Chase Briscoe, all came to pit road for new tires. But Larson only took two tires, and got out ahead of Hamlin, who took four new tires.
On the final restart, Larson lined up 5th while Hamlin was stuck back in 10th. And the two laps just wasn’t enough to work his way back in front of the #5 car, with Larson finishing 3rd to win his second NASCAR Cup Series championship despite not leading a lap all day and even going a lap down following a blown tire earlier in the race.
It was obviously heartbreaking for Denny, who has tried for 20 years to win a championship after winning 60 races in the Cup Series. He also revealed earlier this week that his father is terminally ill, and that he was hoping to win this year because it would be the last chance his dad had to see him win a championship.
But it just wasn’t meant to be.
And look, Kyle Larson was deserving of a championship this year. He won three races this season, and was tied for the most second place finishes, top fives and top 10s. There were five races where he led the most laps, and he scored the most points of any driver this season, so even if we didn’t have the stupid elimination playoff format, Larson was a worthy champion and had a championship-caliber season.
The reason so many are disappointed in the result isn’t because he isn’t deserving based on the entire season. But under the format, it all ended up coming down to an overtime finish as a result of a blown tire, and the car that dominated all day didn’t win because of something not in his control.
This tweet sums it up:
After the race, Denny sat in his car looking defeated before finally climbing out. And as you can imagine, he was heartbroken over being so close to a championship and having it ripped out of his hands by another car blowing a tire.
Denny even said that in the moment, he didn’t have any desire to get into a race car again:
Now, it would be easy to brush his comments off as just disappointment and frustration in the heat of the moment. But fans were immediately reminded of another driver who walked away from the sport after suffering a similar heartbreak.
Back in 2016, Carl Edwards had the championship all but locked up until a late-race caution and a wreck on the ensuing restart ended his championship hopes. (Sound familiar?)
And that offseason, Carl shocked the NASCAR world by announcing that he was retiring from the sport, a decision that left many fans scratching their heads but which Edwards later admitted was ultimately driven by the realization that it might not be worth it to fight all year for a championship when you can do everything right and have it taken from you by something outside of your control:
“I’m going to get to Homestead at the end of 2017, I’m going to do everything just right, and they’re going to throw a caution with five to go? And we’re going to put all this on a restart?
And I thought, ‘Damn, I don’t know if spending a whole year of my life and all the things you give up and possibly give up for one restart?’”
So could Denny pull a Carl Edwards and decide that it’s not worth it anymore? Well a lot of fans seem to think that he might do just that:
Denny has said in the past that he plans to retire at the end of his current contract, which runs through the 2027 season. But in comments made this morning ahead of the 2025 NASCAR Awards Ceremony, Hamlin didn’t seem so sure about whether he would be back next year.
When asked whether he would come back next year or “pull a Carl” and walk away, Denny seemed to leave the door open to retiring before the Daytona 500 in February:
“I mean I plan to. I have a contract to. But at this point there’s just absolutely no way that I would even – I don’t even think about the race car right now. I’m gonna need some time on this one.”
Hamlin also says he’s thankful that the offseason is a little longer this year, giving him a few more weeks to move on from the pain. And he says that he’ll “get over it.” But as far as whether he’ll be back in the car next year? It sounds more likely than not, but that also wasn’t a definite “yes” either.
