Kevin Harvick gives surprising take on Denny Hamlin, 'bandwagon' narrative after championship heartbreaker

Kevin Harvick offered a thoughtful and sympathetic take on Denny Hamlin’s latest championship disappointment during this week’s Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour. He spent some time reflecting on the weight Hamlin carried into Phoenix, and the hype that surrounded his title bid.

“When you look at the Hamlin championship story and everything that went with that, I felt bad for him this time,” Harvick said, examining the top stories of the season. “The way that they dominated the race and the way that their cars ran, the story with his dad and just, you know — I think we saw it with William Byron at Martinsville, with the pressure that is on these guys.

“I think, in Denny’s situation, knowing that the clock is ticking, announcing when his last year will be, his dad’s health, the performance of the cars — I mean, that was a tough, tough moment for Denny Hamlin to lose that championship. You saw it on his face after the race.”

Alas, Hamlin entered the Championship 4 with arguably the best car in the field and a chance to finally erase years of heartbreak. Instead, the veteran watched another opportunity slip away, continuing a storyline that’s become one of NASCAR’s most talked-about droughts.

Harvick, who himself captured his lone title in 2014 after several near misses, empathized with the emotional and mental grind Hamlin faces each season. Beyond the performance on track, Harvick said the pre-race narrative might have added unnecessary weight.

“What was interesting to me before that race is all the, all the get on the bandwagon train talk and just all the hype that they promoted before the race,” he continued. “I would have had to nix that. I’m a firm believer in karma. I’m so cautious about stuff like that because I just — I don’t ever like to beat that drum before. I don’t know. It was kind of strange. He put a lot of pressure on himself.”

Regardless, it’s a moment of empathy from one of Hamlin’s long-time rivals, one that underscores just how much the emotional toll of chasing a first championship can take. Even for a driver as confident as Hamlin, Harvick’s comments suggest that the external noise may have played just as big a role in his latest heartbreak as anything that happened on the track.