This is one of four feature stories on the finalists — Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson, William Byron and Chase Briscoe — competing for the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Championship on Sunday at Phoenix.

Denny Hamlin, once again attempting to win an elusive Cup title, will still have a rental place for his friends and a place for his family in Phoenix for the season finale.

He won’t dwell on the past, both from recent weeks (parts failures) and years ago (missed championship opportunities), as he prepares for what could be the biggest weekend of his career.

The 44-year-old Joe Gibbs Racing driver, whose 60 wins makes him the most successful Cup driver without a championship, has heard the talk about the potential biggest weekend of his career many times only to come up empty.

So he will roll in typical Hamlin fashion. He’ll be as prepared as he can be, while hoping for another victory and what would likely be an epic celebration, while also being surrounded by several friends and family.

“I’m going to have fun with it just like I would any week,” Hamlin told FOX Sports on Tuesday. “I probably would have had this [multiple home rentals] had we not even made the Championship 4. But it just makes it more gratifying to me when you know my friends are around and more family.

“Obviously, I want them to experience the whole week like I am.”

His friends and family haven’t asked him about whether this will be the year. Hamlin has to finish better than Kyle Larson, Chase Briscoe and William Byron in the finale Sunday at Phoenix Raceway in order to win the title. Hamlin has a season-best six victories this year.

“They really don’t talk to me about it,” Hamlin said. “I think we’ve more just been positive. … Positive vibes only. We’re staying positive.

“I certainly am in a really good head space to feel like I’m going in there with a lot of confidence. I’m preparing to win, not lose.”

How can Hamlin be positive? 

He has had throttle cable, starter, engine and power steering issues in the last five events. Every time he has gotten close in his career (this is his fifth Champ 4 and he nearly won the title in 2010 before this current format) he either didn’t perform, had a bad pit decision (who can forget that big piece of tape on his grille in 2019) or another issue.

“When I’m in a better mental space, it puts me in a better space when I get in that car and I go into practice to not worry about being 15th in practice or 15th in qualifying,” Hamlin said. “I’m very confident that as long as things do stay together, we’re going to be contending for a win.

“It’d be just like every other weekend that we hit a short, flat track. We’re in the mix. And this weekend will be no different, and any of the variables that I can’t change or the team can’t change, that’s part of the sport. And we’re going to have to live with the result because we can’t change it.”

His boss feels they will be prepared.

“He works extremely hard in the sim, his preparation and everything,” said team owner Joe Gibbs. “A veteran guy like him, that kind of experience really means a lot. So hopefully, our sport is so hard, it shows [younger drivers] how hard our sport is. 

“You’ve got to be able to get to the final four, which we’ve done with Denny. Now you have one race, and you’ve got to make it happen.”

Hamlin feels he has done everything he could to make it happen in recent trips. He has been to the Champ 4 in 2014, 2019, 2020 and 2021. He hasn’t finished better than third among the four finalists in any of those years.

“I’ve been very content over the last probably two to three times that we were in the Champ 4 that there was nothing else I could do,” Hamlin said. “Certainly early on in my career, say 2010, there were some things that I could have done different to change the outcome of those championship results.

“But there’s not really much that I learned from past failures of Championship 4s that I’m going to carry into this one. It’s been a long time since we’ve made the Champ 4. A lot of race wins have happened since then. That assures me that we’re very capable.”

This will be Hamlin’s third attempt to win the title at the flat, 1-mile Phoenix oval but the first in the Next Gen car. Teams had more of an ability in the previous version of car to tailor it toward a driver’s needs.

Because he won the opening race of the semifinal round at Las Vegas, Hamlin has had more time to focus on Phoenix the last few weeks.

“Pre-Next Gen, you just were really relying on your team just to build you an absolute rocket ship,” Hamlin said. “There were so many things that could be tweaked that just kind of went by tech in the final week and was just huge.

“And this time around, what you’ve got, you’re not going to be vastly different than what you are week in, week out, but it’s just all those other little details that make the difference. And hopefully with the extra time that we’ve had to look at the details.”

With the extra time, that hasn’t increased any conversations about finally winning the title. Hamlin crew chief Chris Gayle, entering his first Champ 4 in this role, has talked with Hamlin about how he wants to approach the week.

Other than that, it’s just trying to be as prepared as possible.

“We didn’t talk about winning it,” Gayle said. “Obviously, we know we’re in it now, so let’s go do everything we can to win it. But it hasn’t been said, ‘I would love to win it by this amount’ or ‘This is really a big thing to me.’

“I think that’s kind of the unsaid elephant in the room. We all know that we all want to win it, whether it’s your first time, like me or Denny’s [fifth].”

If he does win the title, it would be one of the most ironic. Hamlin’s 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports are embroiled in a bitter lawsuit against NASCAR. Two days of settlement negotiations last week didn’t result in a deal, and the sides are headed to a Dec. 1 trial.

Hamlin said he wouldn’t feel awkward having NASCAR brass hand him the trophy.

“I’ve seen those guys as much as I’ve ever seen them over the last few weeks, it’s just been I’ve had a different suit on, and they’ve been in their normal suits,” Hamlin said about the negotiations in federal court.

“And so I don’t think [it will be awkward]. I’ve got respect for all those guys. And obviously, it’s a total different issue than what we’re fighting on the racetrack this weekend.”

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.