Denny Hamlin has admitted that he cannot wait for 2025 to be behind him.
The year has been a taxing one for the 44-year-old, with the 23XI Racing team he co-owns in a legal battle with NASCAR, the birth of his third child, and the ailing health of his father, not to mention his agonizing defeat in this month's championship race.
Speaking on his first Actions Detrimental podcast since his heartbreak at Phoenix, Hamlin wondered aloud if 2025 has damaged him in ways he doesn't yet know about, admitting he expects the stress of the year to take its toll on him.
“This has been quite the year,” he said. “I mean, I’m so looking forward to January 1st. Just because, I mean, obviously this year, I’m on track, off track, ownership, new baby, dad, race for championship, lawsuit. It just was, it was taxing for sure. I don’t think I could redo 2025 again. No way.
“That all, I don’t know, I just feel like I’m doing damage to my internals that I don’t know about. Does that make any sense? You can’t just have all the stress and it not eventually take a toll.”
Hamlin: Larson deserved championship win
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver also took a moment to pay tribute to his fans and eventual champion Kyle Larson for the way they handled the aftermath of Phoenix.
“I think that the fans made it a lot easier,” he said. “I mean, the competitors made it easier. You know, I got to give so much appreciation to Kyle Larson and how gracious he was during all this.
"Very humble during all this and certainly during the banquet, giving myself and my team the props that we did deserve in that final race. He did nothing wrong. His team knew that they had to do something to try to win.
‘You know, they played the game as it was meant to be played. So, we definitely have a deserving champion in the No. 5 team, they scored more points than anyone else the entire year. There’s, you know, I don’t think anyone should ever question the deservingness of Kyle Larson’s championship because he definitely did.”
