NASCAR Cup Series: The harsh reality for Denny Hamlin

Denny Hamlin again fell short of the ultimate goal: a NASCAR Cup Series championship, leading to the harsh reality that he could very well end his career without one.

“Dream season” was the term most commonly associated with the bounce-back 2019 NASCAR Cup Series season experienced by Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin after he had just endured the first winless season of his 13-year career as a full-time driver in the 2018 season, a season that was his worst in many years in more than just a few ways.

Hamlin opened up the season by winning the Daytona 500 for the second time and becoming the only driver to win it more than once in the 2010s decade.

While it was teammate Kyle Busch who was in the spotlight for much of the early stages of the 2019 season, winning three of the first eight and four of the first 14 races, Hamlin was in a position to build toward winning the championship.

The most accomplished driver of this era who hadn’t won a title added another victory at Texas Motor Speedway.

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Nearly four months later at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, despite the fact that he was still seeking his first victory since he won a Texas, he made a sacrifice to Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick that he discussed in an exclusive interview with FanSided’s Mark Carman, something that he may not have done in the past — even two years ago.

After his second place finish at New Hampshire, he reeled off four more top three finishes, including victories at Pocono Raceway and Bristol Motor Speedway, and he entered the playoffs tied with teammates Busch and Martin Truex Jr. with four victories each.

In the round of 8 finale at ISM Raceway, Hamlin was not in a position to advance to the Championship 4 on points. Needing to win, he won, securing his first berth in the final round of the postseason since its inaugural year in 2014.

He seemed destined to finally break through with the one thing that had eluded him throughout his 13 seasons competing at NASCAR’s highest level.

He couldn’t do it.

After struggling early in the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, he took the lead away from Busch on lap 168 of the 267-lap race around the four-turn, 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) oval in Homestead, Florida. Two laps later, Busch passed him back for the lead, a lead he never relinquished via an on-track pass.

A few dozen laps later, Hamlin’s car was experiencing overheating issues. His pit crew put a huge piece of tape on the front of his car, but that only made the issue worse, causing his #11 Toyota to spray water all over the track from the hood. He needed to make another pit stop, causing him to fall to 19th place, one lap off the lead lap.

Hamlin was able to get his lap back, but the race did not feature any more caution flag periods. He finished in 10th place, the lowest among the four Championship 4 drivers, and it was Busch who won secured his second title.

After Hamlin won the Daytona 500 back in mid-February, Busch, who finished in second place, made a remark that Hamlin had now won it twice while he was still seeking his first victory.

Now Hamlin can say the same about Busch, and what makes it even worse is the fact that he can say it after the “dream season” he had, the season that gave him what many had considered for much of the year was his best opportunity to become a champion.

Whether or not he can replicate that success in the future remains to be seen; he is now 39 years old, although we have seen drivers have success well into their 40s, with the oldest champion in series history being a nearly 46-year-old Bobby Allison back in 1983.

But the harsh reality remains this. Denny Hamlin has won 37 races throughout his NASCAR Cup Series career. He will likely stick around for at least a few more years searching for that first title. But it he can’t find it, he will be remembered as one of the greatest drivers if not the greatest driver in the history of the sport who was never crowned champion.

Only Junior Johnson and Mark Martin won more races than he has won without winning a title, Johnson with 50 victories and Martin with 40. But Johnson never actually ran a full season; Martin ran 23 and Hamlin has run 14. So four more victories for Hamlin, and he would pass Martin for the unwanted title of winningest “non-champion” in the history of the sport.

He could still change that. But the reality is, he might not, and after his dream 2019 season came to an end the way it did, that reality has never been more harshly vivid.