Kyle Larson shares one condition he’s fine with Denny Hamlin winning NASCAR championship

Kyle Larson opened up about Denny Hamlin winning the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Championship and revealed that he would be fine if the Joe Gibbs Racing driver wins the title, but under one condition. Speaking to the media, Larson stated that he would be fine with Hamlin winning the title only if he does not wreck him in the race.

Hamlin will lock horns with Larson, and his fellow HMS driver William Byron, as well as JGR teammate, Chase Briscoe. Given his age, this could be the #11 driver's last shot at the Championship.

As a result, Hamlin, who has given the sport over two decades, and picked up 60 wins in 718 races, will give everything to claim the title. As Larson is all set to compete against Hamlin in the championship, here's what the Hendrick Motorsports driver told Bob Pockrass ahead of the race:

"Yeah, everybody likes a story like that where somebody near the end of their career. All that you know is great. So I can see why people would cheer for him. I mean, I'm a competitor, I obviously wanna win, but it would be really cool to see somebody has put in so much time into this sport, and been so close so many times with 60 wins." "So there's like, I agree you know. So I'm gonna kick his a** tomorrow, but it's not gonna kill me if he wins unless he runs me in the fence again," Larson further added, laughing.

Thanks to his win at Las Vegas, Denny Hamlin qualified for the Championship 4 at Phoenix, following which his teammate, Chase Briscoe won the ticket to the final round.

In the third race of the playoffs round of 8, William Byron won it, while Kyle Larson qualified on the virtue of better points above the cutline. The final race of the season will take place on Sunday, November 2, at 3:00 PM ET.

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Denny Hamlin confident about Phoenix, yet concerned about Phoenix race

Denny Hamlin shared his thoughts after the Martinsville race last week and stated that a mechanical issue like the Xfinity 500 race at the Martinsville Speedway was definitely going to be a cause of concern. Despite that, Hamlin showed confidence in his team.

Denny Hamlin (11) poses for photos after winning the pole position during qualifying for the NASCAR Championship race at Phoenix Raceway - Source: Imagn

"I’m obviously concerned (about the mechanical problems), but there obviously nothing I can do about it," Hamlin told the media. "We’ll live with it, and hopefully we’ll get back next week, and we are just going to have to see how it goes. I’m confident in the speed that we’ll have next week."

At Martinsville, Hamlin faced a mechanical issue, following which he suffered a DNF and ended the race in 35th place. The result was the same for his teammate, Chase Briscoe, who faced a similar problem and finished in 37th place.

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Edited by Sabyasachi Biswas