For nearly three months, everyone chasing Denny Hamlin in the NASCAR Cup Series standings had been looking up at the same driver.
That changed Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Hamlin’s eighth-place finish in the Bass Pro Shops Night Race, combined with another runner-up finish from Kyle Larson, was enough to finally knock the Joe Gibbs Racing driver from the top of the standings.
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Barely.
Larson leaves Bristol with 2,206 points. Hamlin has 2,205.
One point now separates the two drivers after three races of NASCAR’s 10-race Chase, bringing an end to Hamlin’s extended stay atop the championship standings and setting up what could become a fascinating fight over the final seven races.
For Hamlin, though, Bristol wasn’t necessarily a disaster. It was another night when a car he believed had more speed never quite translated that potential into the finish he wanted.
And lately, those nights have started adding up.
Denny Hamlin’s NASCAR points lead disappears at Bristol
Hamlin took over the Cup Series points lead at Sonoma on June 28 and held it through the remainder of the regular season.
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At one point, his advantage reached triple digits.
The Chase reset largely wiped that cushion away, but Hamlin still opened the postseason with a 25-point advantage. That margin fell to 12 after Darlington and nine following Gateway.
Now it’s gone.
Hamlin ran inside the top 10 for much of Saturday night’s 500-lap race and finished eighth, but he never seriously controlled the race the way several other contenders did. Larson, meanwhile, finished second for the second consecutive week and has now opened the Chase with three straight top-five finishes.
That consistency has flipped the championship.
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Hamlin has gone in the opposite direction. His 18th-place finish at Darlington was followed by ninth at Gateway and eighth at Bristol, marking his longest stretch of the season without a top-five finish.
Still, Hamlin didn’t leave Bristol sounding particularly alarmed.
“We just have to get to running a little bit better,” Hamlin said after the race.
His frustration seemed to stem more from how Saturday unfolded than from the single point separating him from Larson.
“Today, I thought early on – in the first stage – I really liked my National Debt Relief Toyota,” Hamlin said. “I thought we had a car that would contend for the win, and then second stage, when we took the stage points in stage one that put us to the back, and once we lost track position, it just wasn’t quite as good. I think the track changed on us as well. Then we got caught by that caution, so that was unfortunate. It is the way it is, but we move on.”
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Hamlin has reason to like what comes next
Losing a championship lead after holding it for months makes for an eye-catching change atop the standings.
The calendar makes the situation considerably more interesting.
NASCAR heads next to Kansas, Las Vegas and Charlotte, three intermediate tracks where Hamlin has already produced strong results this season. He finished inside the top five at all three earlier this year and won at Las Vegas.
In other words, Larson may have taken the lead at exactly the point on the schedule where Hamlin has an opportunity to take it right back.
And Larson knows how quickly the picture can change.
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“I mean, it’s good (for us to take the points), but there’s still so much racing left,” Larson said after Bristol. “Just got to keep having good consistent days. It’s three top 5s to open the Chase and looks like leading the points now by just a point. But we’re going to some good tracks for us but also good tracks for the Toyotas are Vegas and Kansas, Charlotte. It could easily change a lot here in the next upcoming weeks. But we’ve just got to be ready for anything and keep plugging away.”
That’s ultimately the more important takeaway from Bristol.
Hamlin’s run atop the standings is over. His championship bid isn’t remotely in trouble.
After three races, one point separates Hamlin and Larson. Joey Logano sits only 16 points behind Larson in third, with Christopher Bell another point back.
Seven races remain.
For the first time since June, Hamlin isn’t the driver everyone else is chasing.
Now he gets to do some chasing of his own.
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