The caution flag with just over two laps remaining in the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series championship finale at Phoenix Raceway was only the latest item to be added to the long list of ways Denny Hamlin has been denied a championship throughout his two-decade career at Joe Gibbs Racing, which has seen him become by far the sport's all-time winningest driver without a title.
When NASCAR ditched the "win and in", knockout-style playoff format after 12 seasons and went back to an iteration of the "Chase", which was used from 2004 to 2013, Hamlin was one of the drivers thought to benefit most, simply because of the removal of some of the randomness involved in crowning a champion.
Hamlin indeed won this year's regular season championship to secure himself the 100-point postseason bonus, 25 more than Team Penske's Ryan Blaney in second place, although his lead technically decreased over all 15 of the other playoff drivers following the post-regular seasons points reset.
And at Darlington Raceway, Hamlin's postseason got off to a rough start.
Early in the final stage of Sunday's 367-lap Cook Out Southern 500 around the four-turn, 1.366-mile (2.198-kilometer) egg-shaped Darlington, South Carolina oval, Hamlin's No. 11 Toyota got loose off of turn four, leading to contact with Spire Motorsports' Michael McDowell which ultimately turned Hamlin's car into the wall.
Hamlin, who had collected 16 stage points with back-to-back third place finishes in stage one and two, dropped down the order and ended up being lapped before his team was able to make repairs during a caution flag period a little bit later on. He returned to action in 30th, one lap off the lead lap, but was able to battle back for a lead-lap finish in 18th.
Fortunately for Hamlin, his stage points meant he still ended the race with the eighth-most points among all drivers. But his championship lead was cut by more than half, with teammate Christopher Bell earning his first win of the year to jump from 50 points back in sixth to 12 points back in second.
Three drivers are now within 24 points of Hamlin, after he started the playoffs with a 25-point lead.
It did pretty much go without saying that, over a 10-race postseason, every one of the 16 playoff drivers was going to experience some kind of adversity from which they needed to bounce back.
But the fact that it took only one race for Hamlin, the clear championship favorite, to experience a major issue is a harsh reminder of just how often things have seemed to go against him when it actually matters.
Could it really all unravel for him yet again?
As good as it is that he still scored 16 out of 20 possible stage points, no amount of stage points will allow incident-ridden playoff races to be sustainable when it comes to the battle for a championship.
He even joked about it after winning the All-Star Race at Dover Motor Speedway in mid-May, noting that winning a race that ultimately means nothing just about sums up his career and his ongoing pursuit of a championship.
Fortunately for him, he is still the points leader, Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota are clearly still the class of the field, and there are still nine races remaining on the schedule, eight of which at tracks where he and Joe Gibbs Racing are expected to be strong.
But all of a sudden, he can no longer afford any more issues if he wants to keep that points lead, because there are more than a dozen other drivers who are eager and waiting to pounce. Sunday's race was yet another reminder that he needs to overcome a long history of coming up short to finally win that elusive title.
World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, where Hamlin won a year ago, is scheduled to host the second race of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs this Sunday, September 13, with live coverage of the Enjoy Illinois 300 set to be provided by USA Network starting at 3:00 p.m. ET.
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