Denny Hamlin lost Chicagoland because he was 'too nonchalant'

NASCAR Cup Series driver Denny Hamlin. Mike Dinovo-Imagn Images

Denny Hamlin lost Chicagoland because he was 'too nonchalant'

By Samuel Stubbs | Last updated Jul 6, 2026 8:25 PM ET

As good as Denny Hamlin has been this summer, it's understandable that he took things relatively easy Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway. But the 64-time NASCAR Cup Series winner may have been a little too relaxed.

Hamlin finished third, with his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Chase Briscoe, taking the race win after Hamlin scrubbed the wall in the closing laps.

"I just think that I had a role in us not winning," Hamlin said Monday on Actions Detrimental. "It wasn't lack of focus or anything like that. Just too nonchalant. If you let someone just stay close in the game, then you end up getting beat."

Hamlin led 30 laps and earned 11 stage points on the night. He came from nine seconds back of the lead after the final round of green flag pit stops to under three seconds behind the leader before hitting the wall and finishing 3.359 seconds back of Briscoe.

Denny wasn't afraid to be honest with himself after Chicagoland... pic.twitter.com/Kw5Ytni0xC
— Dirty Mo Media (@DirtyMoMedia) July 6, 2026

Why Denny Hamlin didn't win at Chicagoland

"We had some not great restarts where I was like, okay, don't worry about me going three-wide," Hamlin said. "I'm just going to go ahead and and push here. It seemed like the 24 and the 19 had really good short run speed."

While Briscoe and William Byron were fast on the short run, Hamlin and Christopher Bell were quick on the long run, leading to a battle between the two JGR drivers to see which one of them could be first among those with long-run speed.

"We almost got there," Hamlin said. "I pushed it. I tried to say, I need another tenth per lap. So let me go up to the wall in turns 1 and 2. Little did I know, nobody was up there, so there was nothing but dust. As soon as I got there, off into the wall I went."

Hamlin extended his points lead over Tyler Reddick to 44 points after Reddick had an object puncture his radiator, leading to a 36th-place finish.

Samuel Stubbs

Hailing from the same neck of the woods as NASCAR Hall of Famer Mark Martin, Samuel has been covering NASCAR for Yardbarker since February 2024. He has been a member of the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) since October of 2024. When he’s not writing about racing, Samuel covers Arkansas Razorback basketball for Yardbarker

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