There are 88 days before the NASCAR Cup Series resumes competition in the Feb. 1 Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium. Denny Hamlin may need all that time to recover from the heart-wrenching defeat he suffered Sunday night at Phoenix Raceway.

Denny Hamlin said Tuesday that he needed time to process his defeat in Sunday's Cup Series championship race before getting back in a car.

The sting of defeat cuts deep in motorsports, and right now, nobody feels that pain more acutely than Denny Hamlin. Standing in the JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge on Tuesday, where the NASCAR community gathered for its annual awards celebration.

When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it,” Paulo Coelho famously once wrote in The Alchemist. And for Denny Hamlin, the 2025 NASCAR season felt like living proof of that idea.

Nate Ryan picks Denny Hamlin's most memorable championship heartbreaks as the No. 11 driver fell short yet again to claim Cup's top prize.

Kyle Larson stood tall at the end of the Championship 4 in Phoenix last Sunday, clinching his second title, which came at the cost of heartbreak for Denny Hamlin.

Kyle Larson had a moment while celebrating his second NASCAR Cup Series championship when his mind drifted elsewhere. “Iit kind of hit me like, ‘Oh, man, I can't imagine what he's feeling right now,’” Larson said of fellow championship contender Denny Hamlin.