Denny Hamlin was three laps away from a NASCAR Cup Series championship; however, it all went up in smoke. With three laps to go at Phoenix Raceway, the second-place runner, William Byron, blew a tire and hit the wall, forcing NASCAR to throw a caution. Hamlin pitted for four fresh tires while Kyle Larson's No. 5 team put two fresh tires on the car.

Hamlin was unable to catch Larson in NASCAR Overtime, giving the Hendrick Motorsports driver his second Cup series title. Following the event, Hamlin sat in his No. 11 car in disbelief before climbing out. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver was left in shock and discussed the race at Phoenix.

"Yeah, nothing I can do different," Hamlin said. "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 that no caution. Had one there. What can you do? Just not meant to be...I thought still okay. We took four tires. I thought that definitely was the right call. Just so many cars took two there. Obviously put us back. Team did a fantastic job. They prepared a championship car. Just didn’t happen...I’ll try. I got a couple more shots at it. Man, if you can’t win that one, I don’t know which one you can win."

Hamlin has been close to winning a Cup Series championship multiple times in his career, but never three laps away. This is undoubtedly one of the most shocking and gut-wrenching ways to lose a NASCAR championship, and Hamlin will have to process what happened on Sunday afternoon at Phoenix.

This article originally appeared on Motorsports Wire: Denny Hamlin left in shock after losing 2025 NASCAR Cup Series championship

Reporting by Austin Konenski, Motorsports Wire / Motorsports Wire

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect