This past Sunday, Ryan Blaney triumphed at the Martinsville Speedway, ahead of Aric Almirola and Denny Hamlin. This sealed his berth in the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Championship 4. He now joins the likes of Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell in the season finale, but what about the fourth spot? One would imagine that with his third-place finish, Denny Hamlin did enough to qualify, but the spot went to William Byron. The #24 driver finished in 13th place, and it was apparently enough to see him through to the final 4.

But where does that leave Denny Hamlin? The veteran driver is now 5th in the championship, having missed out on a title chance yet again.

He has been in the Cup Series arena since Kansas in 2005 and amassed an impressive 51 race wins in an 18-year career. Unfortunately, he has yet to clinch his first NASCAR Cup Series championship. This year, he came ever so close yet again, but still no cigar for the #11 Joe Gibbs Racing driver.

What was the closest that Denny Hamlin came to winning the title?

His best career finish came during the 2010 season when he was runner-up to Jimmie Johnson. Aside from that, he has been a consistent Top 10 finisher since 2008. As a matter of fact, he finished third in the championship in his maiden full-time season in 2006. The 2013 season was the only outlier in his career when he finished in a disappointing 23rd place. This was actually the first time he failed to make the Playoffs, otherwise, the lowest he ever finished was 12th in 2007.

Now, all those years of being the bridesmaid and never the bride has a familiar ring to it. Of course, in its long history, NASCAR has not only witnessed several champions, but just as many drivers who were also-rans. Some of those runners-up either eventually won that elusive title or never quite managed to win at all. There are so many drivers who have been considered the best drivers to never win a title.

READ MORE: Mark Martin Is the Greatest Driver to Never Win a Title, and There’s a Good Reason for It

Where does Mark Martin fit into the equation?

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Among the many unfortunate racers are Jeff Burton, Fred Lorenzen, Ricky Rudd, Davey Allison, Carl Edwards and Junior Johnson. However, the most famous name on the list has to be none other than Mark Martin.

The Roush Fenway Racing legend has also never won a Cup Series title, but he does boast of 40 career wins in the Cup Series. Furthermore, his championship track record is better than Hamlin’s, having been runner-up on five occasions.

Furthermore, Martin has enjoyed a longer NASCAR Cup Series career, as he was in the sport for 31 years. It is worth mentioning that Hamlin and Martin have a small connection in the NASCAR Cup Series. Back in 2013, Hamlin got injured and missed a few races, and Mark Martin substituted for him in one race. During that particular race at Martinsville, the veteran driver managed to score an impressive 10th place in his sole appearance for Joe Gibbs Racing.

How long will Denny Hamlin keep the crown of “so close yet so far”?

The good news for Hamlin is that he is still competitive and is driving for a top team. It just so happens that he got unlucky this time around to miss out on the opportunity. However, it still means that for the 18th year in a row, Denny Hamlin missed out on a much-anticipated milestone. This is also the 11th time that Hamlin failed to reach the Championship 4, so he must be bitterly disappointed. Unfortunately, there is nothing more that he can do than to try again in 2024 for that elusive title. It comes after a bit of a hot streak of consistently reaching the final 4 for three consecutive years from 2019–21.

Again, it would have been his fourth appearance in the last five years if he had either won the race or had William Byron finished lower than 13th. Unfortunately for him, life does not work like that, so he has to sit and rue what could have been ahead of the season finale. On the bright side for Joe Gibbs Racing, they still have Christopher Bell to back. So Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr, and Ty Gibbs will try to provide some backup at Phoenix. After all, Bell is up against Ryan Blaney of Team Penske and two Hendrick Motorsports drivers. On the positive side of things, Hamlin won the Cup race at the Phoenix Raceway in 2019 for JGR. His win was the last of a Joe Gibbs Racing hat-trick from 2017 until 2019. So Christopher Bell could either win, or depend on his teammates to try and spoil the HMS and Penske party.

Is Denny Hamlin the next Mark Martin or can he finally win a title?

Back in 2021, Hamlin spoke about coming close to winning his first Cup Series title. He told NASCAR, “If you had asked me three years ago, I‘d have been like, ‘Ugh, how much longer do I want to do this?’ And now I have no horizon, I don‘t know. As long as I stay competitive like I‘ve been doing, I don‘t know. I‘ll race until I‘m Mark Martin, I guess.“

Is it really a bad thing to be like Mark Martin? After all, the man is a legend in the sport, despite not having any Cup titles to his name. At least Hamlin has a leg up on the Roush Fenway Racing legend, with three Daytona 500 wins, compared to none for Martin. However, the #11 driver will still be hungry for that elusive title. It isn’t exactly uncommon for some veteran drivers to wait a long time before their day in the sun.

After all, Bobby Allison waited for more than 20 years before finally triumphing in 1983. Furthermore, Allison is the oldest first-time NASCAR champion at the age of 45. However, it is noteworthy that Hamlin may not want to wait that long to finally clinch a championship. It’s actually quite fortunate for him that the retirement threshold for a NASCAR driver is a lot higher than other forms of motorsport. In a sport like Formula One, Hamlin would have probably called time on his career a decade ago. So in a sport that is less taxing on the body, Denny Hamlin is still going strong at the age of 42.

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