“In this moment, I never want to race a car again.” These heartbreaking words emanated from Denny Hamlin on Sunday night, a few hours after his 2025 efforts turned meaningless as Kyle Larson won the race. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver won 6 trophies this season, cracking the Championship 4 for the first time since 2021. What’s more, his achievements came under massive stress, stemming from the NASCAR lawsuit, his father’s ailing health, and so much more.

After losing the NASCAR Cup Series championship finale by a hair’s breadth, Denny Hamlin’s loved ones came to support him. His wife, Jordan Fish, and his crew chief, Chris Gayle, were the first to hug him after the race. However, the empathetic people extend beyond just his family and team, to include even the 2025 champion himself, Kyle Larson.

The final nail in the coffin?

Immediately after getting out of his car in Victory Lane, Kyle Larson was shocked beyond belief. The now two-time Cup Series champion could not help but say, “I would be lying if I said I wasn’t sad for him.” So it was definitely not surprising to see Larson shoot down NASCAR’s championship format. “I think we all would feel like we have a better opportunity to win a championship if it was more races that factored into it,” Larson told ESPN. “So, if that’s 36 races or ten races or four, whatever the number is, I think I would feel like I have a better opportunity than just coming down to one race.”

The debate about NASCAR’s controversial playoff format has been raging for quite some time. After Joey Logano clinched the 2024 championship with the worst average finish of 17.1, questions of merit seeped into the NASCAR community. Calls for changing the format so as to recognize drivers’ year-long efforts were made by veterans like Dale Jr. and Kevin Harvick. And even Kyle Larson joined the fray, as he continued, “As yesterday showed, you could have the best car and be doing the best job like Denny was and not leave the champion. That doesn’t feel right. And we are all certainly feeling that today.”

Denny Hamlin was not alone in experiencing heartbreak this championship weekend. On Saturday, Connor Zilisch was the favorite for the Xfinity Series championship, having hoisted 10 trophies across the season. However, during the final laps, he could never catch up to Jesse Love’s faster No. 2 Chevrolet and saw his title dream melt away just like that. The only outlier was Corey Heim, who won the Craftsman Truck Series championship. Heim hoisted 12 trophies across the season and finished the job.

Kevin Harvick had predicted a “nuclear meltdown” in case even one of the deserving champions failed to advance in Phoenix. And he was resoundingly right, as the meltdown has affected even the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series champion. Alongside Kyle Larson, even his teammate, William Byron, felt sorry for Denny Hamlin – after he spurred the last caution that shuffled the narrative. “I hate that. Hate it for Denny. I hate it for the 11 team,” he said. So, we might be looking at the final nail in the coffin for this playoff format.

While NASCAR has a lot on its plate for the off-season, the drivers celebrated anyway.

A feeling of unity beyond the racetrack

When the driver introductions were ongoing before the Phoenix finale, we observed a fuzzy encounter. Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin shared a laugh, proving their friendship beyond the racetrack. So even though Larson ended up defeating Hamlin in a heartbreaking race, the duo maintained their warm bond anyway. And that was even more evident in the after-party of the Cup Series championship celebrations.

Once the press conferences and interviews were over and the lights went out at Phoenix Raceway, Kyle Larson’s wife kick-started the festivities. She shotgunned a beer on the podium, but her husband chose to opt out. “No, I can’t even sip a beer, dude. I struggle. I don’t like beer at all,” he said. But soon after leaving the venue, he and his team “headed straight for Oldtown Scottsdale.” He continued, “So, it was good. It was more than just the five team that was out there. All the champions actually ended up being out.” 

And along with the champions from the other series, even Denny Hamlin was present. Kyle Larson recalled, “So (Xfinity Series champion) Jesse Love was out there. (Craftsman Truck Series champion) Corey Heim, even Connor Zilisch, even Denny, Denny came out too. So that was really cool. And yeah, some people from NASCAR. So it was a good group and everybody had a good time.”

Evidently, the racers laughed over their struggles in a fun celebration after the race. Nevertheless, all eyes are on Denny Hamlin to get it done next season.