Denny Hamlin started the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series Chase with a 55-point lead over Kyle Larson. Five races later, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver is 40 points behind his Hendrick Motorsports rival, with five races left to close the gap. The position he finds himself in is far from ideal, but Hamlin knows there is little to gain from looking back. For now, his attention is on Charlotte and finding a way to get his championship campaign back on track.

The pressure is hardly new for a driver who has spent two decades competing at the highest level. But when results do not go his way, Hamlin has his own way of dealing with the disappointment. Ahead of the Charlotte race, he opened up about what happens when he needs to put racing aside for a while.

“I unplug. I just go silent,” Hamlin told the media, including Frontstretch. “I don’t kind of talk with anyone. I don’t like being told, so I just like to unplug. And I spent most of Monday just hanging out with the kids. That was good for me.”

Larson, meanwhile, has given Hamlin very little room to recover. The No. 5 driver has finished fifth, first, second, first and second in the opening five Chase races, giving him an astounding average finish of 2.2. Hamlin, on the other hand, began the Chase with bad luck. At Darlington, Hamlin got loose in the final stage and was hit by Michael McDowell, forcing him into an unscheduled pit stop that left him with an 18th-place finish.

The problem for Hamlin is that some of his biggest missed opportunities have come at intermediate tracks, where Toyota was expected to have the pace to challenge. Kansas was frustrating. Hamlin finished third, but he never had the speed to challenge Larson, with Chase Briscoe emerging as the No. 5 driver’s main competition. Even Team Penske’s Austin Cindric finished ahead of Hamlin.

Larson made the most of the opportunity. He led 235 of 267 laps, won both stages and claimed the fastest-lap bonus, bagging all 76 available points. Briscoe briefly threatened to spoil the afternoon, but Larson reclaimed the lead with seven laps remaining. Toyota was expected to be strong at Kansas, yet Larson was the one who left with a maximum-points haul.

Las Vegas offered Hamlin another chance to respond. Starting from the pole, he looked capable of putting together a strong afternoon, but a costly mistake late in Stage 1 changed the course of his race. Running fourth, Hamlin went high in Turn 4 with three laps remaining in the stage, lost control, and spun across the apron. The No. 11 Toyota suffered splitter damage, and Hamlin lost the chance to collect valuable stage points.

He recovered to 14th by the end of Stage 2, but a fuel-pressure problem in Stage 3 cost him more positions. Hamlin finished 16th, while Larson recovered from going a lap down early in the race to finish second. Once again, the No. 5 driver found a way to salvage a strong result while Hamlin was left to deal with the consequences of a difficult afternoon.

That is what makes the last two races particularly frustrating for Hamlin. Kansas was a race where he lacked the pace to challenge, while Las Vegas was one where a mistake cost him the chance to do more. Larson, on the other hand, has continued to extract results even when things have not gone entirely to plan. Hamlin cannot change that now. His focus has to be on what the No. 11 team can do over the remaining five races.

“We can’t control what the five team does. We have put together a great 30 races or so,” Hamlin said, “But we’re going to need to form a little bit better. And we’re going to overtake those guys, and certainly with the performance that they’ve had. So all we can do is control our own outcome. And that’s something that I don’t think we did a really good job of last year. So that has to be our goal.”

Hamlin also knows that there were opportunities he failed to take, with Darlington still weighing on him. But he has no interest in spending another week going over what might have been. Charlotte is the next race, and winning is the priority.

“I just don’t feel like those other four races, that’s kind of what we had for speed,” Hamlin said. “I mean, certainly Darlington was one that we left a lot out there. But, again, I cannot go back and undo those races. I can only focus on winning Charlotte and doing whatever it takes to get that done.”

For Hamlin, the immediate task is straightforward, even if the challenge is not. Larson has built a significant advantage, and the No. 11 team needs a stronger weekend. The reset has happened away from the track. At Charlotte, Hamlin needs to turn it into a result.