“He Feels Defeated!” Kevin Harvick Reveals the Bitter Truth About Denny Hamlin’s 2026 Title Chances

The NASCAR Cup Series race last Sunday at Las Vegas saw Denny Hamlin starting the race on pole and then eventually going onto finish P16, owing to a blunder pit-stop on stage one, that got him spun. Five races into the chase, he is 40 points behind leader Kyle Larson and his championship chances are dropping after every race.

Kevin Harvick talked about his former rivals struggles in the chase, which the community has seen multiple times in the past, on the latest episode of his Happy Hour podcast. He highlighted how the No:11 driver is one of the best leaders in the garage, while also explaining how he might not have the right attitude coming to Vegas, as his pre-race comments felt like something coming from a defeated driver.

Look, I think Denny’s a good leader. And I think Denny’s a good leader in what needs to be in the car and helping the engineers and the guidance of what needs to happen from setup and preparation. I don’t think there’s anybody that prepares better than Denny Hamlin…I think that there is a sense to me that feels like when you listen to Denny speak, he feels defeated to me before you even get started with the weekend.

Kevin Harvick said on his podcast.

Furthermore, Kevin Harvick pin-pointed how there was no real confidence in Denny Hamlin words about winning the pole, or about their chances, despite the fact that all four JGR cars were upfront. It seems that the veteran has once again found himself in a ‘Oh, here we go again’ situation regarding his championship potential.

Even after he qualified on the pole this week, you listened to his interview. It’s like, ‘Well, now we got to put all the pieces together.’ It’s like, there’s always that little bit of, ‘Well. Yeah, I don’t know. Well, yeah, but.’ It’s tough when you get into this time of the season, and especially when you’ve been through as many of them as Denny has been through that haven’t gone your way for it not to just instantly be like, ‘Oh, here we go again.’

Kevin Harvick added via Happy Hour podcast.

Kevin Harvick seems bad moments piling up for Denny Hamlin in the chase

Later in the same conversation, the 2014 champion talked more about the TRD drivers’ title aspiration and his failed chase of the Cup over the last two decades with JGR. He is doing everything is right, but not at the right moments.

I think that one thing that makes you believe that it gets to him a little bit is when you see these moments, like you see with Denny now, very easy to do in the Gen-7 car, and just have it get out from underneath you.  But not something that we ever see from Denny Hamlin.

Kevin Harvick said.

The bad moments are starting to pile up on his in the 2026 playoffs and with just five more races left in the season, they can’t afford to have one more bad day for the No:11. He doesn’t have car advantage with him as well as the driver confidence advantage with him at the moment.

And it’s just these moments; just now they’re starting to pile up. We’re five weeks in and they’re piling up with those mistakes and the pit crew and the situations that we’ve gone through and with the 11 car. So yeah, I mean, it’s not the same. It’s not the same type of confidence that we saw 10 weeks ago.

Kevin Harvick added.

The comments from the veteran and many others in the community shows, it is not just the driver, but his supporters have also lost some confidence fearing history is going to repeat itself. It would be interesting to see how everything is going to playout for the star driver in the coming days.

Also Read: “I Don’t See Any Top-Notch Rides!” Kevin Harvick Reveals the Brutal Reality of Brad Keselowski’s NASCAR Future