Denny Hamlin can be easily called the biggest victim of overtime in NASCAR. There’s a brush with destiny, a brush with death, but Hamlin has more often had a brush with winning. More often than not, he’s returned empty-handed.

Sometimes, even twice a year, for the same reason. That’s gotta get frustrating for Hamlin to endure and the fans to watch at some point. Another race, same ending for Hamlin In his most recent incident, Denny Hamlin led 131 laps at Kansas Speedway.

With two laps to go, Cody Ware, running multiple laps down, spun on his own and brought out a caution. On the restart, Kyle Larson and Tyler Reddick took the lead from him as he finished fourth in a race that was clearly his until the overtime due to Ware’s caution. All in all, Hamlin lost to the rulebook, which now seems to be in question.

Along those lines, Dirty Mo Media’s analysts Jordan Bianchi and Jeff Gluck addressed the situation head-on on The Teardown, indicating that the overtime debate will take center stage. “I think this is going to set up an interesting debate,” Bianchi said. “The topic du jour this week is going to be — shouldn’t NASCAR get rid of overtime?

Is it necessary? Or do you want races to finish organically?” However, he was clear to put forth his own stance alongside that. “I’m not saying I want to get rid of overtime.

I just want to make sure I clarify that. I’m okay with it.” But he did admit where the frustration is coming from. “There’s going to be a segment of fans who look at this and say, this would have robbed a driver who was deserving of a win, who was ahead of the field, who was going to win — and then we had overtime, and then chaos, and cars spinning and wrecking.

And in an era where we’re going back to our roots and want things to be more like they used to be, there is going to be talk about, man, do we need this?” In an era of racing where we’re going “Back to Our Roots,” should NASCAR get rid of Overtime? pic.twitter.com/JUGKz7zyRC — Dirty Mo Media (@DirtyMoMedia) April 20, 2026 Now that NASCAR has made many changes for the 2026 season, it marks a return to its roots. The elimination-style playoffs are gone, and the Chase format is now in practice. Accordingly, it’ll be a 10-race stretch where the total points will determine the challenge and not just a one-race shootout.

In addition, some historic venues are back. North Wilkesboro has returned after nearly 30 years, Rockingham is coming back to the lower series, and Homestead is hosting the championship finale again. Plus, NASCAR has bumped engine power to 750 horsepower and reduced downforce to force drivers to manage the car.

So with NASCAR placing greater emphasis on consistency in 2026, overtime finishes are likely to come under increased scrutiny. Overtime itself has been in NASCAR since 2004, introduced after Jeff Gordon won at Talladega under caution, which sent fans throwing debris onto the track. The idea was simple: races should end under green.

Initially, it was a one-attempt rule, but later, by 2017 entered the unlimited territory. Right now, overtime sits at a borderline of fairness and entertainment. This is because while it guarantees a green-flag finish, it can also take away a driver’s hard-earned advantage throughout the race the way Hamlin drove at Kansas (or at Phoenix last year, for that matter).

Denny Hamlin knows both sides of overtime better than anyone Hamlin’s Kansas result is not an isolated incident. At Phoenix in 2025, he led with two laps to go before a late caution reset the field. He took four tires, restarted third, got boxed in, and fell to sixth.

Kyle Larson, who just swapped two tires, drove away with the win and the championship. That became the fifth time Hamlin entered a finale and came up empty. His feelings about overtime are complicated because it has also saved him.

At Talladega in 2020, the race went to three separate overtime attempts. On the final lap, another driver forced Hamlin below the double-yellow line to avoid a block. NASCAR penalized the drivers who caused the contact and declared Hamlin the winner by 0.023 seconds.

He has also spoken candidly about the rule itself from multiple angles. After Nashville saw a record five overtime attempts in 2024, he said, “I could have lived with three attempts.” But he has also defended NASCAR’s instinct to throw the caution when it is warranted. “I understand all the millions of people that say, let that thing run green.

But you can’t do it. Somebody will get really, really hurt.” After Phoenix in 2025, he was done with nuance entirely. “In this moment, I never want to race a car ever again,” he said. “Sometimes speed, talent — just does not matter.” Kansas just proved that point again.