LAS VEGAS (AP) — Emotions were heavy after a decision to take four tires in NASCAR's championship-deciding finale in the Arizona desert backfired and cost Denny Hamlin the Cup Series title that has eluded him his entire career.
Hamlin had dominated the season finale in November until a late caution forced him to pit road and crew chief Chris Gayle had to make a choice. Gayle called for four tires, Kyle Larson took two tires to beat Hamlin out of the pits.
Hamlin didn't have enough time to catch Larson over two laps and Larson won his second Cup Series title as Hamlin was left empty-handed once again.
It was a gutting defeat that might have broken others.
Not the No. 11 team.
Hamlin and Gayle spent most of the offseason apart with little communication between the two, Hamlin said, because Hamlin found no need to speak to Gayle about the call.
In the fifth race of the new season, the duo showed it has recovered from the Phoenix defeat with a Sunday victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. To this day, Hamlin said he's never spoken to Gayle about the four-tire call at Phoenix.
“If I would have thought that it was the absolute wrong call, I would have questioned it. I would have said, ‘Are you sure?’ I would have said, ‘I think track position means the most,’" Hamlin said. “There are ifs and butts. You just can’t live in that world. That’s why I didn’t want to talk about it because you can’t change it.”
Hamlin's offseason heartbreak has been documented. After losing the title that he wanted to win because his father was terminally ill at the time, Hamlin returned home heartbroken.
He didn't get much time to recover before he was in court as co-owner of 23XI Racing as part of the winning team in a federal lawsuit against NASCAR last December. Weeks later, his father was killed in a fire that destroyed the home Hamlin purchased to thank his parents for getting him into NASCAR.
Gayle, who as crew chief doesn't have the level of public-facing responsibilities as Hamlin, said he needed three days after Phoenix “of kicking yourself hard” and “rethinking everything I could have ever done” before he was able to put it away.
“That was probably the most dejected I’ve been in my life. What are you going to do about it?” said Gayle. “You get over it. I could let it bother me forever. That’s not going to happen. I can move on, learn from it.”
His rapid recovery drew praise from team owner Joe Gibbs, who coached Washington's football team to three Super Bowl victories. Like Hamlin, Gibbs said he didn't need to speak to Gayle about the defeat in the desert.
“He’s mentally and physically tough. Stays after it. I think he’s really talented,” Gibbs said. "When I did talk to him, I said, ‘Look, I’ve been in that situation. I’ve made calls. Sometimes they’re really tough.'
“I think that is why we love what we do, though, 'cause it’s really hard. It’s the best people in the world doing it. I think that’s why people like to watch it. You can have some very tough days and tough decisions, for sure.”
Gayle said he knew how much Hamlin was going through last offseason and it weighed on his own emotions.
“I felt horrible because Denny is going through all the things he’s going through,” Gayle said. “I could have delivered that championship to him. I wasn’t able to do it. Now he has to go through all this. In hindsight seeing the bigger picture, putting it all on myself. I could have made some decisions different.”
Despite all of it, Gayle didn't worry about the driver who show up to go to the Daytona 500 in February. Hamlin wasn't sure if he still found enough joy in racing after Phoenix to get back in the car, but honored his commitment to Joe Gibbs Racing.
“He said he would get there. I could tell he wasn’t locked in,” said Gayle, who said he has focused with Hamlin on “'OK, it didn’t got way we wanted. How do we rewrite what’s coming in the future?' There’s a lot of things that happened in the past, you don’t want to drag them forward, create more problems for yourself.”
It took five races into his 21st season in the Cup Series for Hamlin to show he's recovered. The Las Vegas victory was the 61st of his career — 10th in NASCAR history — and has Hamlin ready to roll next weekend into Darlington Raceway, the South Carolina track where he won last year.
He's going with Gayle, who Hamlin believes can get him another chance at a championship this year.
“We’re going to win and lose together. It has been an absolute pleasure to work with Chris Gayle for these seven wins over the course of these 40 races or so,” Hamlin said. “He’s just a great guy. So underrated in what he does. I’m glad he’s getting the wins now that he deserves.”
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Denny Hamlin waves during driver introductions before a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Sunday, March 15, 2026, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Steve Marcus)
Denny Hamlin (11) drives ahead of Christopher Bell (20) during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race Sunday, March 15, 2026, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Steve Marcus)
Denny Hamlin, left, holds up the trophy with a teammate after winning a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Sunday, March 15, 2026, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Steve Marcus)
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) — Explosions echoed across Beirut early Monday as Israel struck the Lebanese capital. It also launched a new wave of attacks on Tehran, while Dubai was forced to temporarily close its airport after an Iranian drone hit a fuel tank.
Since being attacked by the United States and Israel more than two weeks ago, Iran has been regularly hitting Israel, American bases and its Gulf Arab neighbors' energy infrastructure with drones and missiles.
It has also effectively stopped shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil is transported, giving rise to growing fears of a global energy crisis and putting pressure on Washington as consumers are already feeling the pain at the pump.
Brent crude, the international standard, remained stubbornly over $100 a barrel on Monday. It was at $104 in early trading, up nearly 45% since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28. It has spiked as high as about $120 during the conflict.
President Donald Trump said he has made demands to about seven countries to send warships to keep the Strait of Hormuz open, but his appeals have brought no commitments. His party is growingly concerned that rising prices for American consumers will hurt the Republicans in elections this fall.
“I’m demanding that these countrie s come in and protect their own territory, because it is their own territory,” Trump told reporters as he flew back to Washington from Florida aboard Air Force One. He did not identify the countries, but has previously appealed to China, France, Japan, South Korea and Britain.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called claims that his country may be seeking a negotiated end to the war “delusional,” saying in a social media post early Monday that his country was seeking neither “truce nor talks.”
“Our Powerful Armed Forces will keep firing until POTUS realizes that illegal war he's imposing on both Americans and Iranians is wrong and must never be repeated,” he wrote on X.
As morning broke Monday, a drone hit a fuel tank near Dubai International Airport, the world's busiest for international passenger traffic, causing a large fire.
Firefighters were able to contain the blaze and there were no injuries reported but the airport temporarily suspended all flights. Emirates, which uses the airport as its main hub, said all of its flights were “suspended until further notice.”
Later, the UAE's Defense Ministry said its forces were working to intercept another round of Iranian missiles and drones.
Iran has fired hundreds of missiles and drones toward Gulf countries hosting U.S. military assets since the war began. Emirati authorities say most have been intercepted by air defenses, though debris and some drones have fallen inside the country.
Iranian officials have recently accused the UAE of allowing its territory to be used for attacks against Iran. Emirati officials have rejected the allegations as misleading and said the country’s actions have been defensive.
Saudi Arabia, meantime, said it had intercepted a wave of 35 Iranian drones sent at its eastern region, home to major oil installations.
Israel’s military said early Monday that Iran launched missiles toward Israel as well.
Israel’s military says Iran is firing cluster bombs that can evade some air defenses and scatter submunitions across multiple locations.
Massive explosions were heard in Beirut as Israel launched new attacks on the Lebanese capital before dawn, saying it was striking infrastructure related to the Iran-linked Hezbollah militia group.
The Israeli army has issued evacuation orders for many neighborhoods in Beirut as well as southern Lebanon. To date, over 800,000 people have been displaced by Israel's campaign in Lebanon.
At least 850 people have been killed by Israeli strikes so far, including 107 children and 66 women.
Not long after Israel's military announced it had launched new strikes on Tehran targeting infrastructure, explosions were heard in the Iranian capital and outlying areas.
More than 1,300 people have been killed in Iran so far, according to the Red Cross.
In Israel, 12 people have been killed by Iranian missile fire and more have been injured, including three on Sunday. At least 13 U.S. military members have been killed, six in a plane crash in Iraq last week.
On Air Force One, Trump wouldn’t say which countries could be part of the coalition he wants to police the Strait of Hormuz to provide security for oil tankers and other commercial ships passing through.
But he said he won’t forget the countries that decline to help. He namedBritish Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who he said initially declined to put British aircraft carriers “into harm’s way.”
“Whether we get support or not, but I can say this, and I said to them: We will remember,” Trump said.
On Monday Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told parliament that her government “has not heard anything” from Washington about Trump’s call for ships to help protect the Strait of Hormuz.
Japan imports more than 90% of its crude oil from the Middle East, however, and she said there had been discussions about what could be done to protect Japanese ships “regardless of a U.S. request.”
Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said he has no plans to send warships to the Strait of Hormuz under the current safety conditions.
Japan on Monday began releasing its oil reserves to address concerns about supply shortages and rising prices.
Trump has speculated that prices would fall, but wouldn't directly answer whether his administration is talking about selling oil futures as a way to cap surging oil prices, something his interior secretary had mentioned as a possibility.
“The prices are going to come tumbling down as soon as it’s over. And it’s going to be over pretty quickly,” he told reporters.
Rising reported from Bangkok and Weissert from aboard Air Force One. Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo and Adam Schreck in Bangkok contributed to this report.
A protester holds a sign against Donald Trump's demands to multiple countries to send warships to keep the Strait of Hormuz open, near the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, March 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Debris litters a street from buildings damaged in an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Monday, March 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
A bulldozer clears debris from the rubble of buildings destroyed in an Israeli airstrike, in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs,, Lebanon, Monday, March 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Fire and plumes of smoke rises after s drone struck a fuel tank forcing the temporary suspension of flights. near Dubai International Airport, in United Arab Emirates, early Monday, March 16, 2026. (AP Photo)
People gather outside an apartment building damaged by an Iranian missile strike in Bnei Brak, Israel, Sunday, March 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
People shout slogans during an anti U.S. and Israeli rally outside the U.S. consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, March 15, 2026. The sign reads in Turkish: "Leave NATO, close the bases." (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
Israeli air defense system fires to intercept missiles during an Iranian attack over Tel Aviv, Israel, early Sunday, March 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Volunteers clean debris from a residential building damaged when a nearby police station was hit Friday in a U.S.-Israeli strike in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, March 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
People walk past tents sheltering people displaced by Israeli airstrikes at a public space along the Beirut waterfront at sunset in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, March 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
