Denny Hamlin suffered one of the most heartbreaking championship defeats in recent sports history during the 2025 NASCAR Championship Race at Phoenix. The NASCAR star, who has done it all in the sport—with 3 Daytona 500 victories and 60 wins overall—is the winningest driver in the history of the Cup Series without a championship to his name.
Just as it seemed Hamlin would finally get over the line, a late caution flag sent the race into overtime. After taking four tires during his pit stop, he was passed by Kyle Larson, who had only taken two. Unfortunately for Hamlin, he couldn’t catch back up to Larson, who went on to win his second championship.
The sudden change at the finish intensified calls from racing fans frustrated with the current one-race championship format, which many feel rewards drivers who have not consistently been at the top of the standings throughout the season.
In 2024, NASCAR champion Joey Logano wouldn’t have even finished in the Top 10 under a traditional full-season points system. Similarly, in 2025, Xfinity Series phenom Connor Zillisch failed to clinch the title at Phoenix despite an incredible 10-win season.
This ongoing playoff debate has created a deep divide within the NASCAR community—perhaps as divisive as any in the sports world today. The series is facing an existential crisis not only around its playoff format but also due to new television deals. With many races moving to cable and streaming platforms, NASCAR has seen falling ratings and reduced exposure.
Despite being on the wrong end of the championship outcome, Denny Hamlin spoke bluntly on his Actions Detrimental podcast this week, addressing fans hoping for drastic changes or a return to the “good old days.”
“It doesn’t make me want to race right now in this moment anymore,” Hamlin said. “They could say 36 races, which they’re not, everyone just get over it. You’re going to get playoffs. But the offseason is still so fresh I want nothing to do with racing still, right now.”
In his typically outspoken fashion, Hamlin also called out himself and other top drivers, saying they support a larger pool of races to decide the champion—rather than a smaller sample size that has produced more random winners.
“For people like myself, William Byron, Kyle Larson, Ryan Blaney, Tyler Reddick, I think we’re all for a bigger sample size. I think if I didn’t list your name, of course you love the one-race playoff because it rewards mediocrity for the bulk of the season and it allows you to just… you’ve never had one ripped out of your hands. You’ve taken it out of people’s hands, but you’ve never had it ripped out. So you don’t know what that feels like, you don’t know what it feels like to dominate a season and then all of a sudden a format or whatever keeps resetting the score on you and then finally you end up losing in overtime.”
When NASCAR released their 2026 schedule, it included 10 races marked as playoff races. Whether this signals a continuation of the current tiered elimination rounds, a shift to a multi-race championship round, or a return to the original 10-race “Chase for the Championship” format remains to be seen.
https://awfulannouncing.com/racing/denny-hamlin-crushes-dreams-nascar-fans-playoffs.html
