Denny Hamlin will have to start Sunday's Cup Series race in Chicago from the rear of the field after a stunning engine failure in practice.
The incident occurred immediately after Group A practice started. Hamlin spun with smoke pouring from the exhaust pipes after only completing half of a lap.
He immediately climbed out of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry and began looking for the cause of the failure. At one point, he even got down on one knee and peered under the car as part of his examination.
There's trouble right away for @dennyhamlin! pic.twitter.com/KpYIQFCpYE
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) July 5, 2025
"I hadn't even hit the gas yet," Hamlin told truTV after a debrief with JGR. "Came off Turn 4, just started accelerating, and blew the whole bottom out."
Hamlin added that drivers want to be in control of their results. They don't want processes or mechanical issues to cause disruptions. That's exactly what happened Saturday afternoon in Chicago.
The engine failure means that Hamlin will have to start from the rear of the field on Sunday. He will also enter the event cold without any opportunity to revisit the course since last season's July race when he finished 30th.
Hamlin finished 11th in the inaugural Cup race in Chicago in 2023 after winning the pole.
Hamlin will also enter the Chicago street race without any left and right turns since the month of March. His last road course start was at Circuit of the Americas on March 2. He missed the race in Mexico City for the birth of his first son.
Prior to the engine failure, Hamlin had discussed the importance of qualifying in Chicago.
"You have to push it," Hamlin said during a press conference. "You certainly have to be on edge of, where your apex is, the wall. You have to use it up all the way if you want to compete. It's nerve wracking. We've qualified well each of the races that we've run here.
"The rain has put a damper on some of those finishes but overall, it's just it's pretty straightforward, other than the back half of the racetrack where then you're running right up against the wall. Tight confines. You're sliding it into the apexes that you can't miss by a foot, here-and-there. It's pretty interesting."