denny hamlin lines up Sunday at Phoenix Raceway for the Straight Talk Wireless 500 NASCAR Cup Series race, returning to the same track where he suffered championship heartbreak last season. The moment lands just four months after that loss, putting the focus back on what happened in the NASCAR Championship Race and what it left behind. He arrives with his 23XI Racing organization in strong form to start 2026, even as the memory of Phoenix remains raw.
What brings denny hamlin back to Phoenix right now
When denny hamlin begins his race Sunday at Phoenix Raceway, it will be at the site of last year’s gutting finish, when he came close to winning what would have been his first NASCAR championship title. The return comes with 23XI Racing, the team he co-owns with Michael Jordan, opening the 2026 season “on fire” through three straight wins by Tyler Reddick. The contrast is sharp: a team surging early in the year, while its co-owner and driver returns to a track tied to a painful ending.
The defining sequence from last season’s Championship Race still hangs over the weekend. Hamlin led for 208 laps, putting him within reach of the title, before a caution with three laps to go changed the outcome and allowed Kyle Larson to leave Phoenix as the winner. The result left Hamlin devastated.
Immediate reactions: Hamlin’s words from the heartbreak
In the aftermath of the 2025 Championship Race at Phoenix, Hamlin described the emotional impact in blunt terms.
“It’s hard, I’m trying. I’m trying my best, ” Hamlin said. “I really don’t have much for emotion right now… Just numb about it because just in shock. ”
He framed the loss as something that would linger. “It’s just something [that] will be one of those life lessons years down the road, ” Hamlin said.
Hamlin emphasized how close it was. “We were 40 seconds from a championship. It’s just unfortunate, ” he said, pointing to how timing can swing outcomes late. He also spoke to the toll the sport can take when results turn on late-race circumstances: “You work so hard. It’s just this sport can drive you absolutely crazy because it’s just that sometimes speed, talent, all that stuff just does not matter. ”
Family loss behind the return
That Phoenix disappointment carried added weight for Hamlin because he wanted to win the championship in honor of his father, Dennis, who was seriously ill at the time. After the heartbreak, tragedy followed: just under two months after that Phoenix race, Dennis Hamlin died following an accidental house fire in North Carolina.
Hamlin said the championship itself was not about proving something internally, but about delivering for the people around him. “While the championship … It wouldn’t have changed anything I felt truly about myself, ” he said. “I just wanted it so bad for everyone else, all of my supporters, all my friends and family, and whatnot. They want it so bad. Just not going to happen. ”
Quick context on 23XI and the noise around the team
Hamlin’s 23XI Racing is co-owned with Michael Jordan, and the team has opened 2026 with three straight wins from Tyler Reddick. Separately, Kevin Harvick has issued what was described as a “dangerous” warning involving Hamlin and Jordan, while the team is also drawing up potential replacements in case Bubba Wallace has to miss a race.
What’s next at Phoenix Raceway
All eyes now turn to what denny hamlin does with the first on-track answers that matter: a Sunday start at Phoenix Raceway in the Straight Talk Wireless 500, on the same pavement where the championship slipped away late. The next developments will come in real time once the race begins, with Hamlin facing the pressure of revisiting the site of heartbreak while his organization continues its hot start to 2026.
