Denny Hamlin says this year’s Chase has worn him down mentally. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver also thinks NASCAR would benefit from a shorter season.
Hamlin made the comments Thursday on Rubbin’ Is Racing.
His latest setback came Sunday at Phoenix Raceway. Hamlin pitted with a shredded tire and was caught speeding on pit road, which left him a lap down. A blown tire later dropped him to 28th.
He still gained 18 points on leader Kyle Larson, who also had a tire failure. Hamlin is fourth in the standings, 31 points back with three races left.
“Man, this Chase in particular has like mentally worn me the f*** down,” Hamlin said. “It really has.”
“And I think it’s because I raised the level of intensity that I have on myself, my work ethic. It’s even more intense. And I just get tired,” Hamlin said.
He called the No. 11 team’s struggles a shared responsibility.
“I think I’ve had my things that I could have changed our outcome, and the team has had things that they could have changed our outcome,” Hamlin said.
“But man, it’s just how much more f***ing disappointment or s*** can I take mentally? I just feel like I’m at that place where I’m like, man, how much longer can I continue to go through this?” Hamlin said.
Earlier this week, Hamlin said all he wants is one smooth race before the season ends.
The conversation then turned to the length of the schedule. Hamlin pointed to the Truck Series, which he guessed runs “20 or 25” races, as a better model.
“And I just think there’s something to the oversaturation of the sport. I really believe it,” Hamlin said.
He admitted that a shorter schedule would be a tough sell for whoever owns and runs the sport.
“If I ran it and I owned it, it would be a tough thing to swallow, to be willing to reduce my overall revenue and shrink it. But I truly believe that you’ve got to make the people miss it,” Hamlin said.
“And they don’t miss it because it’s there from February to November. It’s always on,” Hamlin said. “I think you have to create a scarcity to the sport to get people really excited about the moment that it happens.”
Sunday’s race at Phoenix drew 1.294 million viewers on USA, down from the comparable 2025 race at Las Vegas. Hamlin said he knows longtime fans would push back on fewer races.
“The purists will not love that, by the way. Just because they want the races 12 hours long and they want us to race every weekend,” Hamlin said.
“But I’m telling you to get these young eyeballs, which is the future of our fanbase. You must get them watching first. And it’s really tough to get them to do it right now,” Hamlin said.
Hamlin and the rest of the Chase field race Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway, the first of three races left in the Cup Series’ motorsports season.