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Denny Hamlin finished eighth in Sunday’s YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway and moved up to second in the Chase standings, but he said the day stung after he lost his chance at the win on the final lap and fell 73 points behind Kyle Larson.
Denny Hamlin said he would have taken an eighth-place finish before the race but called the result disappointing after his final-lap push for the win fell apart.
Hamlin on finishing eighth
“If you asked me to start the day would I take an eighth, I mean, probably,” Hamlin said.
He called the result “disappointing” but said, using a profanity, that his day could have been much worse. “We didn’t get stage points. We tried, but it’s just lots of games going on. It’s really, really tough to do it,” Hamlin said.
How the last lap went wrong
On the final lap, Hamlin was pushing Ricky Stenhouse Jr. toward the front and believed the two had a chance to fight for the win. Hamlin said he stayed behind Stenhouse because he trusted Stenhouse to race for himself rather than follow Chevrolet’s plan.
Contact from Todd Gilliland knocked Hamlin into Austin Hill and cost him his momentum. Larson came through the field to win, Stenhouse finished third and Hamlin dropped to eighth.
Earlier trouble with Briscoe
Hamlin also had a rough end to Stage 1. He vented about Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Chase Briscoe on the radio after Briscoe left their drafting line, and Hamlin fell back to 17th at the end of the stage. He later picked up front-end damage in the 12-car crash on Lap 132.
A 73-point gap with two races left
Hamlin came into Talladega fourth in points, 31 behind Larson. He leaves second, one point ahead of Christopher Bell and six ahead of Briscoe, but 73 behind Larson, who won the race.
Hamlin, 45, is still looking for his first Cup Series championship. He won the spring race at Martinsville Speedway in 2025, and the series races there next on Sunday, November 1, at 2 p.m. ET on NBC. The season ends November 8 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
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