Hamlin refuses to watch footage of father during – Sports News
Denny Hamlin has skilled heartbreakers earlier than, however the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series finale at Phoenix was notably personal after watching one other championship slip away as his father, Dennis, was too sick to attend. The Joe Gibbs Racing star is avoiding a video that captured his dad’s response in actual time.
Hamlin led 208 laps, dominated from the pole, and nonetheless watched the Cup Series title slip away in additional time to Kyle Larson. Both nonetheless took the time out of their day to message Connor Zilisch after his related heartbreak within the Xfinity Series.
His father has been battling a critical terminal sickness and has not been ready to journey, making each race really feel like a countdown that Hamlin has overtly admitted he feels stress to beat.
Even with all of that emotion surrounding Phoenix, Hamlin refuses to watch the footage of his father reacting to the ultimate laps. He stated that whereas his father was proud and supportive, seeing the response would simply be too emotional.
“Yeah, he was fine, very supportive,” Hamlin stated on his podcast. “He didn’t like the outcome, but I think he was still okay with the result. You know, he said to me, just like a lot of people say, he’s like, ‘I don’t know what to say. What am I supposed to say?’ He’s like, ‘You had it. You did it. You just don’t have the trophy.”
Hamlin stated there’s a video of his father watching the race, however he has refused to see it. “I’ve asked not to see it. There is a video of him and Scotty watching the race. Jordan saw it, but I’ve told them I’d prefer not to.”
The total NASCAR neighborhood felt the weight of the loss. Joe Gibbs was seen comforting Hamlin after the checkered flag, whereas William Byron sat beside Hamlin within the press convention, patted him on the shoulder, and admitted he was rooting for the No. 11 car to lastly secure the title that had eluded them for practically twenty years.
Hamlin’s dominance at Phoenix made the heartbreak worse. He had the quickest lap of the race at 27.57 seconds and managed the tempo from the beginning. The solely factor Hamlin didn’t control was the additional time restart, the place Larson made the race-winning transfer.
When requested about 2026, Hamlin bounced between saying he’s contractually scheduled to return, admitting he doesn’t need to take into consideration subsequent season but, and questioning out loud what else he may do to win below the present playoff format. He repeated a number of occasions that his dream is for his dad to see him win a Cup championship in individual. Phoenix was the closest he had ever come.
His 2025 marketing campaign noticed wins at Las Vegas, Gateway, Michigan, Darlington, Dover, New Hampshire, WWT Raceway and Kansas. He recorded top-three finishes at Indy, Martinsville, Miami and Phoenix.
His Phoenix heartbreak ended a run that noticed him end sixth within the finale after main more than 2 hundred laps, a whole that made him probably the most dominant driver within the area by far.
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