Denny Hamlin has been on the hunt for Cup Series glory for over two decades now. Yet, the championship, as well as the regular-season title, have both evaded him. 2026 would have been the year the Joe Gibbs Racing star finally got his hands on the latter. But thanks to the changes made by the sanctioning body, he will not be able to fulfill his lifelong dream.
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So, Hamlin’s devoted fans stepped up at Daytona International Speedway with a makeshift trophy to recognize his regular-season achievement ahead of the Coke Zero Sugar 400 on Saturday. It was a fitting moment for a driver whose relationship with his fanbase has grown into something far bigger than simply cheering from the grandstands.
“I appreciate that. My fans are awesome. I’m going to display it. NASCAR won’t give me one. At least the fans did. I really appreciate that,” Hamlin said to NASCAR journalist Steven Taranto after the curtains drew on the regular season on Saturday, 29th August.
Hamlin had already secured the No. 1 seed for the Chase after last week’s Dollar Tree 301. But there was no trophy waiting for him in Daytona. So his fans, the “DennyBros”, as Hamlin refers to them, changed that. The veteran driver appeared genuinely appreciative and later shared a video of the moment on Instagram. Hamlin even joked that he wasn’t sure whether the trophy had been pre-printed or made of wood.
“I appreciate my fans [for] kind of making one. I don’t know if it’s pre-printed or out of wood. Whatever. They did a great job,” the JGR star said.
The sport brought back the Chase for the postseason, replacing the terminology and structure of the playoff era. NASCAR also eliminated the controversial “win-and-you’re-in” concept, which had given regular-season victories an automatic path into the postseason. Under the revised system, every point carried greater weight, making consistency throughout the regular season more valuable.
Hamlin benefited from that approach, finishing the regular season atop the standings. However, NASCAR had decided the accomplishment would no longer come with a separate trophy. They announced that the regular-season leader would instead be designated the “No. 1 seed” entering the Chase.
According to NASCAR official Mike Forde on the Hauler Talk podcast, this will continue moving forward. NASCAR will refer to the top driver in the regular-season standings as the No. 1 seed, while only one championship trophy will be awarded each season in November. Hamlin even jested about this in his Actions Detrimental podcast last month, saying that they simply didn’t want him to be a champion.
“It’s incredible. The one time you win the regular season, they get rid of it,” he said in the podcast.
The change is not unusual compared with other major American sports. The NFL, for example, does not award a championship trophy to the team with the best regular-season record. Instead, the top teams earn the No. 1 seed in their respective conferences. The NBA follows a similar system, with the best regular-season record earning the No. 1 seed rather than a separate championship trophy.
NASCAR’s change therefore brings its postseason structure somewhat closer to those established sporting models. But Hamlin’s reaction shows that the physical recognition meant something to him.
“I have one as an owner, from Tyler Reddick a couple years ago, but it’s not the same. It’s not the same as having your own,” he continued in his Daytona interview.
The trophy Hamlin referenced came from Tyler Reddick’s 2024 season. Reddick won the NASCAR Cup Series Regular Season Championship in 2024 while driving the No. 45 Toyota for 23XI Racing, the organization Hamlin co-owns with NBA legend Michael Jordan.
That said, this isn’t the trophy Hamlin wanted most. It’s the Cup Series championship that he and every other driver in the Chase will be dreaming of. He will enter next weekend’s Chase opener at Darlington as the No. 1 seed, carrying a 25-point advantage over Ryan Blaney and a 35-point lead over Tyler Reddick, who sit second and third, respectively, in the standings.
Hamlin has 10 races to maintain the form he’s shown throughout the season. The trophy he lifts at the end of that run is the one that will truly count.