Is it finally Denny Hamlin’s year?
That single question has been asked hundreds, maybe even thousands of times, since Denny Hamlin broke onto the scene in the NASCAR Cup Series, as the driver of the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 has come within a whisker of collecting a title several times.
Now, in 2025, his 20th season competing full-time at NASCAR’s top level, Hamlin has yet another chance to hoist the Bill France Cup, provided he can defeat his three championship rivals — Chase Briscoe, Kyle Larson, and William Byron — in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway.
There is just something about this season, though, that feels different for Hamlin.
The Chesterfield, Virginia-native was able to lock himself into the Championship 4 with an incredibly gutsy drive in the final laps of the South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, leaving Chris Gayle and his entire crew an extra two weeks to prep for the winner-takes-all finale at Phoenix Raceway.
As Hamlin explained Thursday, that victory has made a huge difference: “It feels different. Less rushed, I guess you could say, simply because we did so much of our work for Phoenix before this actual week. So just kind of less rushed is the biggest feel of difference that I have this time over previous.”
A lot is going on in the world of Denny Hamlin right now, and for the 44-year-old driver to be balancing all of that with a title fight, is just downright impressive. Hamlin’s father, Dennis Hamlin, who spearheaded his rise into motorsports, and eventually the NASCAR Cup Series, is currently in failing health. The 60-time NASCAR Cup Series race-winner truly believes this will be the final chance his father has to watch him win a championship.
Amidst all of the added stress from that, and an ongoing antitrust lawsuit filed by 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports against NASCAR, there’s almost been a change in demeanor that has allowed Hamlin to become an even better, and potentially more focused, racer.
“I would say overall [I’m] just a lot looser. Certainly, just living this week to week. I’ve said it quite a bit, but just trying to count wins. If you try to start the year and say, We’re going to win the championship, you’ve got to work this thing backwards. It’s very hard to work this sport backwards from the result to the execution of the result,” Hamlin said. “I just have been very week to week on how do I win the weekend. Obviously, winning the most races confirms that’s the right approach. It’s allowed me to be looser with it, not chase points as much or anything like that. Just capitalize on the week that we can win. Had some good results.”
In previous years, Hamlin has been candid about the idea that he’s had to change his goals and expectations, with the fact that winning a NASCAR Cup Series title may not be something that ever happens for him. So, instead, Hamlin embarked on a journey to reach 60 victories, something that, with his win at Las Vegas, he accomplished swiftly.
“One big mark obviously was getting to win 60. I didn’t think I would get to it this year. Yeah, now you just got to move the bar to a little different spot, and feel like generally in a great headspace,” Hamlin added.
Has missing out on winning a championship and coming up short time after time conditioned Hamlin to be an even better racecar driver? Absolutely. You learn more from a failure than you do from a success.
“You just learn from failures. There are different things you can learn from failures, whether it be professionally or personally,” Hamlin said. “Professionally, I would just say I thought that I was just too tight during that time, trying to be too perfect. I certainly think that my way of thinking and approaching race weekends this year, this is the loosest I went into a season, like not caring about points or playoffs or championships or anything. I just wanted to get as many wins as I could. We accomplished that goal.”
STARTING LINEUP: NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Phoenix
“That mental mindset has been working for me. I go into this weekend the same way. Like, I’m not thinking about the net goal and result of winning a championship or the net goal of beating the other three guys. It’s how I can win this weekend, and if I do, everything else will work itself out.”
Hamlin has been a… polarizing driver to say the least, but should the No. 11 Toyota Camry XSE cross the start-finish line at the end of 312 laps and win the Bill France Cup this weekend at Phoenix Raceway, it may actually be a popular win — considering, somehow, Hamlin ranks top-five in the Most Popular Driver Voting.
Coverage of the NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway will take place on Sunday, November 2, at 3:00 PM ET on NBC, Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90).
