NASCAR fans were furious on Sunday after Denny Hamlin lost the Cup Series championship to Kyle Larson on what they felt was an unfair circumstance.
Hamlin led the Cup Series finale at Phoenix Raceway in Arizona for 208 laps and looked like a lock to win the championship. He was leading by three seconds over William Byron with three laps to go until Byron had a tire issue and hit a wall, which brought out a race-changing caution.
Hamlin took four tires during the caution, while Larson only took two. Larson came out of the restart fifth, while Hamlin was 10th. He was unable to make up the difference during the overtime, as Larson finished third in the race and Hamlin finished sixth, giving Larson the championship.
Fans were ticked off that a caution with three laps left kept Hamlin from winning his first Cup Series championship.
NASCAR is the biggest joke of a sport I’ve ever seen. Denny Hamlin was leading the championship race by over 3 full seconds with only 3 laps to go. The race was legitimately over.
— CJ Kilgarriff (@CKilgarriff11) November 2, 2025
Another car malfunctions. A caution comes out. All cars group back together for 2 laps and he loses
Denny Hamlin has been trying to win a NASCAR championship for 20 years. Comes in with the story, the best car, dominant all day, loses because of a random caution and his team calling for 4 tires. Heartbreaking.
— A Different Conversation (@ADiffConvo) November 2, 2025
Sports man.
Gutted for Denny Hamlin. Driver who hasn’t won since Kansas and got into the final four on points gets the championship. Wild. A caution ruins it for Hamlin. Awful format.
— Buck McSpeed (@theycallmebart) November 3, 2025
So sad for Hamlin. Dominate the season, dominate the race, lose the championship that was 20 years in the making off a 3 to go caution with half the field staying out or taking 2.
— Michael Guest (@MGuest33) November 2, 2025
Denny Hamlin is my 2025 champion!
Hamlin was more heartbroken than upset. The driver of the No. 11 Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing said after the race that it wasn’t meant to be.
“Nothing I can do different. Prepared as good as I could coming into the weekend. My team gave me a fantastic car. Just didn’t work out. I was just praying that no caution. Had one there. What can you do? Just not meant to be,” Hamlin said.
“We took four tires. I thought that definitely was the right call. Just so many cars took two there. Obviously put us back. Team did a fantastic job. They prepared a championship car. Just didn’t happen.”
Denny Hamlin is gracious in defeat after leading a record 208 laps in the Championship 4 race. pic.twitter.com/DvNOkUfoNW
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) November 3, 2025
Hamlin is going to keep driving, but he sure was bummed out about the result.
“Man, if you can’t win that one, I don’t know which one you can win.”
Hamlin had six wins during the regular season. He led the most laps during Sunday’s race and won a stage. And he still couldn’t win it all. It’s hard to do all that and still fall short.
