Denny Hamlin stood in the media center at Talladega Superspeedway. Three races remained in the season. And at that point, he already needed solid runs plus help to win the championship.
He had won the regular-season title and seemed to be in the best position to win his first title in his 21st Cup season. He has earned 64 wins in a Hall of Fame career and already has said that he anticipates 2027 will be his final Cup season.
Asked if he still looked at the final three races as an opportunity to win a title or if he just wanted the season to be over, he answered the question quickly.
“It’s pretty miserable for sure,” Hamlin told me and other reporters. “We can only do what we do. I certainly wish I could go back as a driver and change some things.”
Denny Hamlin wishes he could turn back time on this year’s Chase. (Getty Images)
Hamlin enters the season finale Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway sitting third in points and with a very, very remote possibility of winning the title.
He is 70 points behind leader Kyle Larson. Hamlin would need to win the race and earn 17 of the 20 possible stage points (16 if he can also earn the point for having the fastest lap), while Larson finishes 29th or worse with no stage points.
“We just didn’t gain enough to make it realistic,” Hamlin said on USA Sports after his sixth-place finish at Martinsville that put him in the need-a-miracle position for Homestead.
If Hamlin appears worn out, it’s because he probably is.
The 46-year-old Hamlin, who turns 47 in a couple of weeks, had a tumultuous 2025-26 offseason.
He was engaged in a tense trial where his 23XI Racing team sued NASCAR and then his terminally ill father died in a house fire.
In going through the rubble of his parents’ home, Hamlin injured his right shoulder rotator cuff again, which he had surgery on after the 2023 season.
He might try to avoid surgery until after the 2027 season.
Denny Hamlin is hopeful he can delay having surgery until he’s finished racing. (Getty Images)
“I don’t have [surgery] scheduled right now,” Hamlin said at a news conference Saturday at Martinsville. “The plan was to scan right after the season to kind of see where it stood.
“Pain tolerance has been OK. Obviously, it’s late in the season — everything just gets a little worse. But generally, I’ve been able to manage it inside the race car. I will see if it hasn’t progressed. Maybe if I can nurse it, just for one more year and then do it after that.”
That insinuation is that he hasn’t considered racing beyond 2027.
“I’m content because, obviously, I want to be able to win the last start whenever that is,” Hamlin said. “Right now, I know when it is and I feel like I still would be capable of doing that.
“I’m going to enjoy the last 39 races or whatever it is and just play it by ear. But I really feel as though it is a good timeline. There have been many weeks certainly over the last five or six where I’ve just been done, done with it — done with all of this.”
Hamlin was speaking after winning the pole Saturday at Martinsville before his frustrating Sunday where he finished sixth with what he believed was a race-winning car.
He was prescient in his comments while also showing his attitude toward the 2026 season.
“You have weeks like this that kind of bring you back up just for a day,” Hamlin said. “Then tomorrow [in the Martinsville race], go ahead and crush it back again. … The grind is a really tough one.”
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