"It'll be difficult": Denny Hamlin asseses his chances of winning NASCAR regular season title in 2025

Denny Hamlin has opened up on whether he can win the regular season championship this year. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver finished the Brickyard 400 in third place, and finds himself fourth on the points standings.

Currently, Chase Elliott is the points leader in the regular season championship, followed by William Byron and Kyle Larson. And after the Hendrick trio, there is Denny Hamlin with a -20 points deficit to the top.

On the latest episode of the Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin candidly addressed his chances of winning the regular season championship title.

"It's going to be close. I mean, it is what it is. I spotted these boys a race. I think it'll be difficult. Iowa, Daytona, Watkins Glen ... I need to hold serve at Watkins Glen. It's still I mean I'm behind, not ahead. So, I'm probably going to need a little bit of help, but yeah, we'll see," Hamlin said. [2:10]

It's worth mentioning that so far this season, Denny Hamlin has had the most wins of all drivers (four). In addition to that, he has also had seven finishes inside the top five.

Denny Hamlin a championship contender in 2025, as per Kevin Harvick

Speaking on the Happy Hour podcast, Kevin Harvick opened up on Denny Hamlin's chances of winning the Cup title in 2025. Hamlin, 44, has won loads of accolades and races throughout his long and illustrious Cup career.

However, despite being in the top drivers of all time in NASCAR with a staggering 58 wins to his name, he hasn't won a single Cup championship. But as per his former rival and a Cup champion himself, Kevin Harvick, that could change at the end of the current season if the #11 driver's recent form is taken into account.

"We're on a roll of positives here for Denny, and we've got you know, Iowa, Glen Richmond, Daytona left, you know, headed into the playoffs. If we can just keep the wheels on it for four weeks without any crazy news that he has to deal with outside of what he's already dealing with. He's already pretty good at dealing with it. He's going to have a chance when we get to the end of the year," Harvick said.

Interestingly, Hamlin had recently mentioned that under the current championship format, his chances of winning a title are much slimmer. Under the present format, the title goes to the driver who comes on top in one race among the final four drivers after various rounds of playoffs.

The JGR veteran suggested that the chances of him winning would be higher in a 36-race long season format.

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Edited by Tushar Bahl