It wasn’t the story anyone wanted, but it’s the one NASCAR handed us anyway. Denny Hamlin came within three laps—roughly 40 seconds—of finally winning the biggest prize in stock car racing. After three hours of surgical precision, leading the most laps, and looking every bit like a man who had made peace with destiny, fate showed up with a lug wrench and took it all away.
With two and a half seconds in hand and the finish line practically in sight, William Byron became the latest victim in a race cursed by rubber. His right-front tire gave up, his Chevy careened into the wall, and suddenly the race’s ninth caution yanked Hamlin’s title hopes into overtime—literally.
When the dust settled, Ryan Blaney was the race winner, Kyle Larson was a two-time champion, and Denny Hamlin remained NASCAR’s winningest driver without a Cup title. You could almost hear the universe laughing.
“I really don’t have much emotion right now,” Hamlin said afterward, his voice flat and eyes glazed. “Just numb about it. In shock. That’s about it.”
Hamlin had been through the wringer all day. He wasn’t immune to the tire madness that plagued everyone, but he survived his own flat thanks to a well-timed caution. He even rebounded from a slow pit stop that would’ve broken most teams. He did everything right. Everything.
Byron had been hounding him all race long, occasionally grabbing the lead and throwing down an “Oh hell yeah” on the radio like a man auditioning for the victory lane mic check. Hamlin, calm and calculated, took it back every time. The 11 team brought a rocket, and Hamlin drove it like a surgeon. By lap 275, he was checking out, the championship his to lose.
Then, with three laps to go, it all went sideways.
Byron, who had been spotless all afternoon, blew a tire and smashed the wall. “Yeah, I’m just super bummed that it was a caution,” Byron said afterward. “I hate that. Hate it for Denny. Hate it for the 11 team.”
Overtime was triggered. Chaos reigned. And in that one extra lap, everything changed.
Hamlin pitted for fresh tires—because what rational man wouldn’t?—but a slow stop buried him in tenth. The four title contenders fanned out across the front row like a pack of wolves fighting over one last steak. Hamlin clawed, Larson surged, Blaney blasted by, and in the space of 60 furious seconds, Hamlin’s dream evaporated.
When it was over, Blaney stood in victory lane, Larson held the championship trophy, and Hamlin walked away sixth—his daughters crying on pit road.
“What did I tell them?” he said quietly afterward. “Something we can’t control. It’s one of those life lessons years down the road.”
That’s the cruel paradox of Denny Hamlin: a driver who did everything right, yet somehow, NASCAR’s gods found one last way to crush him.
“We dominated,” he said. “We did our job. We did the best we could. Kyle Larson has the trophy, but it was evident who was the best today.”
He paused, the numbness still in his tone but now with an edge of disbelief. “We were 40 seconds from a championship. You work so hard. This sport can drive you absolutely crazy because sometimes speed, talent—all that stuff—just doesn’t matter.”
Byron, for his part, looked as sick as anyone could without a fever. “If I’d known the tire was going down before I got to the corner, I would’ve done something different,” he said. “You just feel like a passenger. It sucks.”
Hamlin stood by his crew, hugged them one by one, and somehow managed a wry half-smile when asked if he could do it again. “I’ll try,” he said. “I got a couple more shots at it. Man, if you can’t win that one, I don’t know which one you can win.”
And with that, Denny Hamlin walked away—not beaten, just betrayed by the cruelest twist in racing: when perfection meets physics and the universe decides, not today.
Greg was a writer for DriveTribe supporting Amazon's The Grand Tour and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, and a Masters degree in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek and a regular contributor to Forbes.
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