AVONDALE, Ariz. — Denny Hamlin had it won.
The race; the championship; everything. He had it all won until he didn’t.
On a Sunday afternoon (Nov. 2) at Phoenix Raceway where he led 208 laps, boasted a three-second lead and was seconds away from taking the white flag, it was a flat tire and wall hit by third-place driver and fellow Championship 4 contender William Byron that brought out the caution.
Three-second lead, gone. Guaranteed race win, gone. Guaranteed championship, gone. Now it was up to pit strategy, pit stops and restarts.
Hamlin’s crew chief Chris Gayle elected to give the No. 11 car four fresh tires. It was a move that put Hamlin on offense, but it left him in 10th place and five spots behind Kyle Larson, the new championship leader who took two.
For a driver that’s been as snakebitten in winning a title as Hamlin, the final restart went about as one would expect: the cars that stayed out or took two tires kept their track position, and Hamlin ran out of time to catch the No. 5.
Ryan Blaney won the race, Larson won the championship in third and Hamlin crossed the finish line in a soul-crushing sixth with the dominant car to record his second runner-up points finish.
When Hamlin pulled his car onto pit road and took the window net down, he just sat there in stunned silence, almost unable to process what had just happened.
He shared a tearful hug with his fiancée Jordan Fish and embraced his crew before handling his post-race media obligations as well as anyone in his position could do.
“I really don’t have much for emotion right now,” Hamlin said. “Just numb about it because [I’m] just in shock. That’s about it.”
Hamlin did everything right. He had the fastest car. Of the four Championship 4 drivers, he did the best job managing his tires. He made all the right moves to control the end of the race.
The only thing he couldn’t control was a caution flipping the entire race upside down.
“Did the best I could,” Hamlin said. “Everything I really prepared for happened today. I felt like we responded. Even losing track position at one point, just battling back. [We] did really well on restarts. [I] hadn’t been good on restarts for the bulk of the year.
“Yeah, the team brought a great championship car. I felt like I drove it just right up until two laps to go. Yeah, this is the part that stinks.”
In terms of NASCAR history, Sunday might’ve been one of the most shocking and brutal defeats one driver has ever had to endure. It was such a tough pill to swallow that William Byron, whose Hendrick Motorsports teammate won the championship, apologized to Hamlin for bringing out the caution.
“It just doesn’t seem right, you know?” Byron said. “He had beat us, and we’re running second and it’s four laps to go and you go into the wall and cause a caution. I don’t want to be that guy. That sucks.”
This Championship 4 defeat was different from Hamlin’s prior three from 2019 to 2021. In those three, he had a good car but never a great car, and he only combined to lead two laps across three season finales.
“The last couple times I’ve been doing this, [I] either wasn’t fast enough or circumstances,” Hamlin said. “There were some untimely yellows in the last time I did this.”
This time, he had the car and the drive of his life. But racing is a cruel, cruel sport, especially when everything is decided by one final race. You can do everything right, only for the Racing Gods to say “no” anyway.
Sunday was one of those times.
“In this moment I never want to race a car ever again,” Hamlin said with a smile. “I mean, my fun meter is pegged. …
“I’m not really sure [where to go from here]. … Everything we did preparing was right, where we guessed was right and [it] just didn’t work out, which is crazy.”
Hamlin has at least two years left in his driving career. Maybe he hoists the trophy in 2026 or 2027; maybe he doesn’t. But Nov. 2, 2025, marked the closest he had ever come to tasting victory.
The closest he had ever come … until the lights started flashing yellow.
Stephen Stumpf is the NASCAR Content Director for Frontstretch and is a three-year veteran of the site. His weekly column is “Stat Sheet,” and he formerly wrote "4 Burning Questions" for three years. He also writes commentaries, contributes to podcasts, edits articles and is frequently at the track for on-site coverage.
Find Stephen on Twitter @stephen_stumpf
Not a Hamlin fan, but at least he didn’t choke this season. He had a championship-caliber season and a championship-caliber race. Luck is a fickle bitch when she’s riding shotgun in a race car.
Karma
Maybe it is get even time for some of the wins he got he didn’t “deserve”?
Hamlin did nothing wrong, but why wasn’t the spotter watching to see what Larson and Briscoe were doing on their stops? They should have had time to call an audible if either took less than 4 tires (obviously there wouldn’t have been anything they could have done if either stayed out altogether).
i thought it interesting that byron brought out that last caution. earlier in the race byron was on the outside and hamlin started beating and banging on byron a bit to push him out of the way when they were racing side by side. there’s always next year.
oh well, last one out of the garage, turn the lights and and lock the door.
I noticed a time when Hamlin was on the outside and Byron popped him a few times with his right front. If there was damage to cause a tire problem there was time for the pit crew to notice it.
Hamlin should sue NASCAR. LOL. Time to focus on the NHL.
GO CANES !!!