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Denny Hamlin came up short of a NASCAR Cup Series championship again in 2026, but he said this one was much easier to take than last year’s.
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver won the regular-season championship with four wins, then went winless in the 10-race Chase. He lost the points lead to Kyle Larson after Bristol, the third race of the Chase, and never got it back.
Hamlin finished third in the final standings, 56 points behind Larson and seven behind teammate Christopher Bell.
‘Not That 10-Minute Shock’
A year ago, Hamlin was leading the championship race at Phoenix Raceway with three laps to go when a caution came out. The pit strategy that followed put him behind, and Larson survived the final restart to win the 2025 title.
This year, Hamlin needed close to a miracle at Homestead-Miami Speedway, and he said knowing that ahead of time changed everything.
“I feel OK. Knowing the outcome coming in made it way, way easier. It’s not that 10-minute shock that was at the end of Phoenix [last year]. I was definitely at peace with this well before this weekend,” Hamlin said.
‘All She Wrote’
Larson clinched by finishing fourth in Stage 1 on Sunday. Hamlin finished sixth in that stage, and he said he knew right away what it meant.
“I went to a Virginia school but I could do simple math and could realize pretty quickly. … If he finished in front of me in one stage, that was going to be all she wrote,” Hamlin said.
Hamlin went on to win Stage 2, led a race-high 87 laps and finished sixth.
One of Hamlin’s Best Seasons
The title slipped away, but 2026 still ranks among the best years of Hamlin’s Cup career.
He won at Las Vegas in March, then won three straight races in the summer at Nashville, Michigan and Pocono. The Michigan win tied him for ninth on the all-time Cup wins list with the late Kyle Busch, who died two weeks before that race. Hamlin’s 64th career win, at Pocono, moved him into ninth on his own.
He also clinched the regular-season title, and the top seed for the Chase, with a race to spare.
The 45-year-old from Chesterfield, Virginia, has now gone 21 full seasons without a Cup championship.
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