Denny Hamlin is one of the greatest drivers in the history of the NASCAR Cup Series. He's ninth on the series' all-time wins list. He's won three Daytona 500s. He's undoubtedly a future first-ballot Hall of Famer.
But he's never won a Cup Series championship. And there are several reasons for that.
Some of it has been just rotten luck. In 2010, he was spun during the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway after entering the race with the points lead. Last year, he was less than three laps away from victory when William Byron blew a tire, setting up an overtime finish in which Kyle Larson's team outsmart Hamlin's on pit strategy.
But Hamlin has made his share of self-inflicted errors over the years as well. And during Sunday's South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, he offered the ultimate reminder of why he's never been able to climb all the way to the top of the mountain.
Denny Hamlin just dug himself a 40-point hole on the day he needed to take advantage of
Hamlin won the pole at Las Vegas and had the fastest car early. Meanwhile, Larson, who entered the race as the points leader, was so bad in the opening stage that he made an extended green-flag pit stop that trapped him a lap down.
The caution came out when Zane Smith blew a tire, and that's when Hamlin and his team made their first mistake, electing to return to pit road for fresh rubber. Not only did this drop the No. 11 car deep in the field, but it allowed Larson to wave around and get his lap back.
Hamlin still had winning pace and looked well on his way to earning himself a massive points day. But then, while running fourth with only two laps to go in stage one, he spun on his own and damaged his splitter.
He scored zero stage points and finished 16th. Larson fought back to finish second.
The deficit still isn't too much to overcome, by any means. But if Hamlin doesn't bounce back, it's going to be this race that has him losing sleep all winter. He had the field covered, and he has only himself to blame for how it all went wrong.
Hamlin had everything in his favor entering the Chase. He won the regular season title, giving him a 25-point advantage to begin the final 10 races. He's had the fastest car all year. And he had an extremely favorable schedule lined up, with no road courses and only one superspeedway.
But he hasn't executed. And whether fair or not, this is why Hamlin has never escaped the "choker" allegations.
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