Denny Hamlin reacts to devastating late caution, lost championship: 'It's just not meant to be'

It was an absolute heartbreaker for Denny Hamlin in the championship race at Phoenix on Sunday. He was on the absolute cusp of clinching his first NASCAR Cup Series championship, only to have a late caution spoil things.

Hamlin had taken charge with about 20 laps remaining in the race, having beat out the other playoff contenders. He was slowly extending his lead and had it out to over 2.5 seconds when the caution came out.

William Byron blew a tire and hit the wall hard. All the sudden it was a mad rush to pit road for the restart.

Denny Hamlin opted to take four tires, but it cost him six spots worth of track positioning. He came out behind the pack on the restart and couldn’t manage to cut under the group to the inside. Kyle Larson finished ahead of him, claiming his second Cup Series championship.

Dismayed, Hamlin spent several minutes inside his car. Collecting himself.

“Nothing I can do different,” Hamlin said in a post-race interview. “I mean, prepared as good as I could coming into the weekend. My team gave me a fantastic car. Just didn’t work out. I was just praying no caution and had one there. What can you do? It’s just not meant to be.”

No other playoff driver had ever led as many laps in a championship race as Denny Hamlin did on Sunday. He was dominant from start to almost finish. It was just that final caution and restart that got him.

Even then, after the caution came out, Hamlin thought he had a chance. He defended his team’s decision to take four tires.

“I thought still OK,” Hamlin said. “But we took four tires and I thought that was definitely the right call. Just so many cars took two there, and obviously put us back. But the team did a fantastic job. They prepared a championship car. It just didn’t happen.”

With 60 career wins to his name after this season, Denny Hamlin has accomplished one of his major stated career goals. But that Cup Series championship remains elusive.

In a question presumably prompting Hamlin about retirement, Hamlin didn’t seem ready to turn in the racing gloves. He was asked if he can win a championship in the future.

“We’ll try,” Hamlin said. “I’ve got a couple more shots at it, but man, if you can’t win that one I don’t know which one you can win.”