After an overtime thriller in Phoenix, Kyle Larson is a two-time NASCAR champion, and Denny Hamlin will have to wait another year for another chance to finally break through for a title to cap off his legendary career.
As the NASCAR Cup Series championship pushed towards its final laps on Sunday, it looked as though Hamlin was ready to claim his crown and finally rid himself of the unsavory title of “most wins by a driver without a championship.”
Of the championship four—Hamlin, Larson, William Byron and Chase Briscoe—it was Hamlin and Byron battling in the first two spots after a caution came out with 33 laps left to race, prompting what could have been the final pit cycle of the night.
On the restart, Hamlin got away, and in clean air, put distance between himself and the rest of the field. Hamlin was three seconds clear of second place with just three laps to go, and simply needed a clean end to the race to take home the title. He didn’t get it.
Byron blew a tire and hit the wall, bringing out another caution that brought the field back together and prompted one more decision in the pits before the start of overtime. Larson decided to play for track position and just take two tires, while Hamlin’s crew went for four tires hoping to make up ground on the track in the final two laps.
Coming out of that pit, Larson was in fifth place and Hamlin was running 10th. Given it was the championship race, the two drivers were only racing against each other. But on the restart, despite the extra grip, Hamlin was not able to make up the space that he had lost through no fault of his own.
Instead, Larson was able to cruise to a third-place finish, tops among the Championship Four, and enough to make him a two-time champion. Ryan Blaney took the checkered flag.
THE TIRE STRATEGY PAYS OFF!
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) November 3, 2025
KYLE LARSON IS THE 2025 NASCAR CUP SERIES CHAMPION! pic.twitter.com/O3eNtB7IrL
After the race, cameras caught Hamlin’s heartbroken reaction behind the wheel, clearly in disbelief that the title he had coveted for so long had slipped away.
Nothing but absolute pain for Denny Hamlin. pic.twitter.com/fcc25oGE2v
— Jeff Gluck (@jeff_gluck) November 2, 2025
His post-race interview was positively painful.
“Nothing I can do different,” Hamlin said. “What can you do? It’s just not meant to be.”
Asked simply, “Can you do this again?” the 44-year-old driver didn’t mince words. “I’ll try. I’ve got a couple more shots at it. But man, if you can’t win that one, I don’t know which one you can win.”
Denny Hamlin’s interview with Dave Burns after a heartbreaking championship loss at Phoenix.@AlwaysRaceDay pic.twitter.com/7UJOv1BIdz
— Mr Matthew CFB (@MrMatthew_CFB) November 3, 2025
Byron, whose own championship aspirations were popped along with his blown tire, clearly felt for Hamlin, as it was the caution that he brought out that ultimately cost the veteran driver the race.
“I mean, Denny was on his way to it. I hate that,” Byron said. “There’s a lot of respect there. I obviously do not want to cause a caution. If I had known what tire it was, known that a tire was going down before I got to the corner, I would have done something different.”
The result will undoubtedly lead to more questioning of NASCAR’s current playoff and overtime formats, but for the drivers on the track, they can only race by the rules they are given. By those rules, Larson is this year’s champion, and Hamlin is left to start from scratch once again in 2026.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Kyle Larson Wins NASCAR Title After Denny Hamlin’s Day Ruined in Heartbreaking Way.
