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Denny Hamlin has looked back at the races that cost him the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series championship, and he’s taking the blame for one of them.
On the latest episode of his podcast, “Actions Detrimental,” the Joe Gibbs Racing driver said his title hopes came down to three races where his No. 11 team had winning speed.
“We all know, right, that my Chase boiled down to two pivotal moments,” Hamlin said. “Probably, I think in my mind, it was Las Vegas. Well, Darlington. Okay, okay, it’s three. It’s Darlington, it’s Vegas, it’s Phoenix, though. Those are the three tracks where we actually had winning speed. We were fast enough to win those, and those were where we got our worst results. And that is just a non-winning formula, right?”
Darlington: ‘I Didn’t Think I Did Anything Wrong’
Hamlin entered the Chase as the top seed after four regular-season wins. At Darlington, the Chase opener, a costly pit stop put him in traffic, then contact with Michael McDowell damaged his car. He finished 18th.
Las Vegas: ‘That’s Still Me’
Las Vegas is the one that bothers him. Hamlin said the team missed a chance to keep Kyle Larson a lap down, and Larson got back on the lead lap while Hamlin gave up track position. The team then pushed him to make it back up, and he spun.
“I didn’t think I did anything wrong when I got hit by McDowell. I do think I did something wrong when I spun at Vegas,” Hamlin said. “But again, I was put in a tough spot, and then they were whipping the horse, saying, ‘Go, go, go, get him.’ And I’m like, ‘All right, I’m gonna go.’ And so, but that’s still me.”
Larson finished second at Las Vegas.
Phoenix: ‘Who Knows?’
At Phoenix, Hamlin was running well when a tire failure sent him to pit road. He finished 28th, and he still doesn’t know what caused it.
“And then the Phoenix tire, I mean, I don’t know. Who knows? Is it us? Was it bad luck? I don’t know,” he said.
Martinsville added to the damage. Hamlin lost track position on strategy, then spun after contact involving teammate Christopher Bell and Joey Logano.
Third in the Final Standings
By Homestead, Larson needed only nine points and clinched in Stage 1. Hamlin won Stage 2, led a race-high 87 laps and finished sixth. He ended the season third, 56 points behind Larson.
Hamlin said after the finale that he was “definitely at peace” with how the title fight ended.
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