It has been almost two weeks since Denny Hamlin suffered perhaps the biggest heartbreak of his 2025 Cup Series campaign. He dominated the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Championship race at Phoenix Raceway from the pole, leading a race-high 208 laps. However, it was another title-less year for the Joe Gibbs Racing standout.Kyle Larson, who finished higher than Hamlin, ended up winning the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series title. In the latest episode of his Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin reflected on the exact moment he realized that he was going to lose to his Hendrick Motorsports rival.“I thought he was the third car on the outside of me. So when I go into Turn 3, and I clear whoever those cars are, I thought that was it. I thought I was past him at that point.”“It's not till we crossed the white and we went to the dogleg and the cars fanned out where you could see them all,” he continued. “And I saw the #5 with three-quarters of a mile to go, and I knew at that point, 'Oh my God. It's over.' At that point I knew that he had won (and) we had lost."Kyle Larson bagged a P3 finish, the highest of all four championship contenders. Hamlin, on the other hand, ended up sixth. Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney won the race, marking his fourth victory of the season.Despite the heartbreak in the end, Denny Hamlin’s 2025 Cup Series campaign was anything but lackluster. He finished inside the top-10 in almost every race this season and bagged a total of six wins.The last one marked Hamlin’s 60th Cup career win and tied him with Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick for 10th on the all-time win list. If Hamlin wins three more, he will tie with two-time Cup Series champion Kyle Busch for ninth.Denny Hamlin reveals what his father said after championship loss at PhoenixDenny Hamlin wanted to win the title this year more for his terminally ill father than himself. The old man has been battling a serious, undisclosed health condition for several months now.In an earlier interview (via Speed Cafe), Hamlin said,“I know for a fact this is my last chance for my dad to see it. I don’t want him going and never getting to see the moment.”However, in a recent episode of Actions Detrimental, Hamlin revealed that his father, although not happy, was “okay” with how the race turned out.“He didn't like the outcome, but I think he was still okay with the result,” Denny Hamlin said of his father. “You know, he said to me, just like a lot of people say...he's like, 'I don't know what to say. You had it. You did it. You just don't have the trophy, that's it.'"Denny Hamlin will be back behind the No. 11 on February 1 for the Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium. The race will be televised on FOX, with live radio updates on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.