Analysis: Does Denny Hamlin still need to win a championship?

The question dogging Denny Hamlin for virtually the entirety of his NASCAR career -- When will he finally win the Cup Series championship? -- has been surprisingly supplanted by another. Why does it even matter if he does? Considering the notion now might seem odd. Hamlin will enter the 2026 Chase presented by Mobil 1 as the top seed and the unquestioned title favorite. With the demise of the elimination playoffs that denied him the grand prize several times (most cruelly last year, when he was less than 40 seconds from being crowned), he is in the best position of his career to break through for the championship that would cement him as the face of NASCAR’s top series. But the Joe Gibbs Racing superstar has already occupied that role for most of the three years since he launched the “Actions Detrimental” podcast. MORE: Analysis: The Chase is built for Hamlin, but can he finally finish the job? That came three years after he formed a Cup team with NBA legend Michael Jordan. Last December, 23XI and Front Row Motorsports settled with NASCAR on the most consequential lawsuit in the sport’s history. After dominating the headlines of the offseason, 23XI Racing started the season with a Daytona 500 victory and wins by Tyler Reddick in five of the first nine races. As Reddick’s hot start faded, Hamlin took command of the points lead with four victories and the most consistently excellent results of 21 seasons in Cup. He has become the most ubiquitous presence in NASCAR. When Hamlin isn’t doing news conferences as a race winner, he is behind the mic and on camera as the winning team owner for Reddick, Bubba Wallace and Corey Heim. After more than a third of the races this season, Hamlin has been in the media center providing incisive analysis and candid opinions that tend to shape the narrative heading into the next race. His influential and popular podcast fills in the gaps between the Victory Lane absences. He is NASCAR’s main character, and a championship seems less necessary than ever to burnish his reputation. After 64 career wins (and only the Brickyard 400 missing from a list of majors that includes three victories apiece in the Daytona 500 and Southern 500), the 2026 title wouldn’t materially change anything for Hamlin aside from adding a line to the plaque commemorating his 2031 induction to the NASCAR Hall of Fame. So what does a championship mean to him at this point? “It would mean a lot personally, but also if I quit today, I'm still really happy with the stats we were able to put on the stat sheet and the wins that we've been able to get,” Hamlin said. “It certainly would be very gratifying. But what matters to me is my dad saw me when I was at my absolute best, and that was at Phoenix last year.” Dennis Hamlin died in a house fire the month after a yellow flag in the closing moments at Phoenix Raceway ripped away the title from his son, who had dominated the season finale. Hamlin, 45, rebounded from two months of personal tragedy and professional disappointment that would have left many too crushed to drive a race car (particularly with the bum right shoulder that Hamlin has been nursing since he took a spill in the charred ruins of the house he bought for his parents). Adversity is something he knows all too well from the many misses at the championship. [caption id="attachment_524523" align="aligncenter" width="1300"]Getty Images[/caption] Without the pit crew blunders, strategic mishaps and driver errors, never mind the inopportune caution flags and mechanical failures, it’s plausible that Hamlin might be racing for his ninth title this year if the breaks had fallen his way instead of so much heartache. “We’ve found every way possible to fail,” he said recently on his podcast. And in every possible format. The Chase will reset the championship to the version most tailored to his strengths, particularly as a late-career veteran who is more calculating than ever. “Being a favorite in years past, you always know this thing is going to come down to a freaking green-white-checkered in the final race, and that's how they're going to decide a championship,” he said. “Now it's like the bigger body of work typically bodes well for Denny Hamlin. It just always has. You give me more of a sample size, and we're going to prove that we're the best over a long period of time.” The return to a title determined over 10 races does raise expectations. Coming up short could raise questions about why his teams have repeatedly wilted in the clutch -- especially when he concedes this is his best chance at a championship. “Probably,” he said. “I've got enough races to prove that we're the best.” And if he falters yet again? He’s already at peace with that outcome. The rest of the world should be, too.