Kevin Harvick has chosen Denny Hamlin as his pick for the Cup Series Driver of the Year. Harvick acknowledged Hamlin's title loss but noted that he was still 'better than everybody else'.Hamlin couldn't have had a more tumultuous season. Beginning with a crew chief change and the loss of longtime sponsor, FedEx, the No.11 team had a rocky start to the season. The 44-year-old, however, adapted quickly and racked up wins along the way.Furthermore, he had to balance baby duty and 23XL Racing's legal standoff with NASCAR. He even missed a race to attend his son's birth. Despite the hurdles, Hamlin emerged as a title favorite with six wins to his name.The championship race further cemeted his dominance, as he began on pole and led a race-high 208 laps, before succumbing to a strategy mixup during overtime. Reflecting upon Hamlin's year-long effort, Harvick said (via X/HarvickHappyHour),"Cup Driver of the Year winner is Denny Hamlin......I think that from an overall standpoint, you know, I think Denny, with all the things that he had going on, I just think he dealt with more than the rest of them, so he didn't win the championship, but the rest of it was better than everybody else's, I believe."Denny Hamlin recently compared his season to Carl Edwards' final year in the Cup Series. He shared that the title loss 'has no bearing' on his calibre as a driver. According to him, all that matters was he put his best foot forward and deployed everything in his arsenal."It took so much out of me": Denny Hamlin on his title lossDenny Hamlin recently opened up about his title loss at Phoenix Raceway. The Joe Gibbs Racing ace noted that having multiple weeks to prepare made the defeat all the more painful.Hamlin was the first to qualify for the finale after winning the Las Vegas playoff race, and as such, he had three weeks to fine tune his setup."It took so much out of me, it drained so much out of me, time-wise. And a lot of it, too, is because we had multiple weeks to prepare. If I had gotten in after Martinsville, I wouldn't have had all that time to spend on Phoenix, but yeah, it was tiring and gruelling, which is why I feel the way I feel today," he said in an exclusive interview with Racing America.Despite the loss, Denny Hamlin reached out to Kyle Larson and congragulated him in person. When asked about the same, Hamlin responded that he didn't like that his loss overshadowed Larson's feat as a two-time Cup champion. He maintained that Larson deserved the title and that no one can dispute its legitimacy.