AVONDALE, Ariz. — Denny Hamlin‘s 2026 postseason has been defined by missed opportunities, and Sunday at Phoenix Raceway offered another frustrating chapter in that trend.
“Opportunities lost in various ways by all of us,” Chris Gayle, crew chief of Hamlin‘s No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team, said to a group of media members Sunday evening, summing up the group‘s disappointing Chase presented by Mobil 1.
MORE: Race results | Phoenix weekend schedule
With Kyle Larson searching for answers throughout the Freeway Insurance 500, Phoenix offered a prime opportunity for his championship rivals to capitalize. Hamlin looked poised to do just that, banking 12 stage points through the first two stages before settling into fourth with the best-handling car he’d had all afternoon.
Hamlin‘s afternoon took a hit on Lap 221 of 312 when the No. 11 Toyota suffered a right-rear tire failure while navigating Turns 3 and 4. He limped to pit road for service and lost a lap seconds before Cody Ware had a similar issue and backed his car into the Turn 1 wall. The ensuing caution left Hamlin trapped a lap down.
Hamlin was penalized for speeding on pit road and deemed ineligible for the wave-around. As a result, he was relegated to restarting outside the top 30.
“I‘m thinking that this is not ideal, but thinking we‘re going to be early on this green-flag sequence and probably come out with the lead for a portion of the time,” Hamlin said of what was racing through his mind while experiencing the flat tire, “and when the caution comes out, we‘ll pit for that last set of tires and be up front. Blowing a rear tire when the best the car had been all day. We had battled back and were able to pass a bunch of really good cars. Just frustrated.”
Gayle said the No. 11 team‘s tire pressures shouldn’t have been a concern, as they stayed above his predetermined minimum threshold. Race winner Tyler Reddick ran the same tire pressures, he said, leading him to suspect Hamlin had run over a piece of debris around the 1-mile oval.
“I wish I could change it, you just can‘t,” a dejected Hamlin said after finishing 28th, snapping his record streak of 31 consecutive lead-lap finishes.
MORE: Cup Series standings | Cup Series schedule
Larson was the first to pit during another round of green-flag pit stops at Lap 262. Hamlin pitted five laps later on the same circuit as race leader Bubba Wallace. Gayle wanted to keep his driver on offense, knowing the No. 11 Toyota was unlikely to earn the free pass if a caution fell during the cycle because of its lack of track position.
From there, the strategy hinged on a late-race caution that would give Hamlin an opportunity to take the wave-around and regain a lap. That caution came on Lap 283 when Larson experienced his own right-front failure, pancaking the Turn 1 wall. Chase Briscoe, Chase Elliott and Ty Gibbs all stayed on track, preventing the No. 11 team from regaining its lap.
“Some things are meant to be, some things are not meant to be,” Hamlin added. “There have been so many cards that have been dealt in my career in these playoffs, Chase, that I‘ve seen it all. Nothing surprises me. It‘s not like I‘m not shell-shocked because I‘ve been here.
“We just cannot finish races to the best of our capability. Until we can start doing that in a really big hurry, you never know what can happen.”
Hamlin slipped to fourth in the Chase standings, surrendering positions to Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Christopher Bell and Briscoe. However, he gained 18 points on Larson and now sits 31 points behind the championship leader with three races remaining.
Despite the setback at Phoenix, Hamlin and the No. 11 team remain firmly in contention for the title.
“Just one win — it‘s doable,” Hamlin stated. “One win, we‘re right there, and we need to do that.”
Gayle concurs with his driver, knowing that the No. 11 team remains in the title hunt. With Reddick snapping a 23-race winless skid, the top seven drivers are separated by 56 points entering Talladega Superspeedway.
“It‘s unfortunate that we didn‘t close the gap more because there was opportunity to do it,” Gayle indicated. “We were sitting in the spot to do that before the flat tire. It is what it is — there‘s three more. All you can do is the best you can every week. As long as you don‘t leave anything on the table that you knew you should have done, lay your head down at night and however it all plays out in the next three, it will play out.”
Hamlin has recorded three top-10 finishes in nine Next Gen starts at Talladega. From there, the series heads to his bread-and-butter track, Martinsville Speedway, for the penultimate race of the season before the championship is decided at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The 64-time Cup winner has multiple victories at all three venues throughout his Hall of Fame-worthy career.
“It‘s not over,” Gayle stressed.