Denny Hamlin Admits Kyle Larson is in Control of the 2026 Championship Chase

Joe Gibbs Racing veteran Denny Hamlin has found himself in a tough spot since losing the championship led to Kyle Larson at Bristol, who is peaking when it matters the most. The veteran, following the Kansas win last Sunday, is currently 26 points behind the No:5 Hendrick Motorsports driver, who is the defending champion.

In the words of the three times Daytona 500 winner, Larson is in control of the race at the moment and though he has consistently been finishing inside the top-5, his best isn’t good enough to be the championship leader at the moment. They have the speed to win races, but the execution hasn’t been on the same level as it been mid-way to 2026.

Yeah, I mean, he’s got the point lead. He’s definitely in control when he got it. I mean, I think that we’re right there. We have finished right where we’ve run every race. You know, there’s a few where maybe we finished a little better than what we were. I mean, Darlington’s the exception, but this is where we’re at right now on speed.

Denny Hamlin told Matt Weaver post-race.

Denny Hamlin on finishing about where they ran, the gap to the Hendrick 5, and urgency and if they could have undercut their way to track position during the green flag cycle pic.twitter.com/urzXT5GpIg

— Matt Weaver (@MattWeaverRA) September 27, 2026

The No:11 Toyota Camry team needs to work on improving their short run pace and as long as they don’t do it, they have to settle with the current set of results. Denny Hamlin also highlighted that the JGR cars have a balance issue that needs to be sorted immediately to get the control back of the 2026 chase.

And until we get a little bit faster in the short run, you know, we’re going to kind of finish right where we’re at. Yeah, we can work on the balance to get it better in the short run. I don’t think the car lacks overall speed, and it really hasn’t for the first few races of the Chase. It’s just been a balance problem. And so, I think that we definitely can hedge towards trying to get better in the short run next week.

Denny Hamlin added.

Kyle Larson was much better than Denny Hamlin at Kansas

Earlier in the same conversation, Hamlin talked about how they came into the weekend optimized ready to fight for the race win, only for the things to go south at the end. The No:5 team getting their car package right and dominating the race was the reason for it.

I mean, we optimized our day. It’s just kind of what we had. And, you know, we were second, third, third, third. Like, just that’s kind of where we were. The 5 was just a lot better than us in the short run.

Denny Hamlin said post-race.

Later in the conversation, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver highlighted how towards the end the has some hopes of winning. But just like it happened to Chase Briscoe, there were too many laps left for them to defend the last years’ champions’ dominant run.

And by the time we broke even and then started gaining, it was just, it was too late and we were pitting at that point. We’ve just got to get a little better for the first 45 laps per run…Well, the 5 was the best car today, so I mean, I would say that they’ve been passed.

Denny Hamlin added.

The comments from the three times Daytona 500 champion are on point and shows how he needs to step up his as well as the whole No:11 teams’ game to beat Kyle Larson in the coming weeks. It would be interesting to see how everything is going to playout for the veteran in the remaining races of the season.

Also Read: Bubba Wallace Refuses to Blame Carson Hocevar for Kansas Wreck