{"id":113159,"date":"2026-03-12T14:08:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T18:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/sin-categoria\/nascar-empathy-in-a-selfish-sport-the-duality-of-drivers-after-victory\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T14:08:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T18:08:13","slug":"nascar-empathy-in-a-selfish-sport-the-duality-of-drivers-after-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/nascar\/nascar-empathy-in-a-selfish-sport-the-duality-of-drivers-after-victory\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR: Empathy in a selfish sport? The duality of drivers after victory."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/a2.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=%2Fphoto%2F2026%2F0312%2Fr1627299_1296x729_16%2D9.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5385\" title=\"\"><\/figure>\n\n\nIn the Phoenix circuit, on November 2, 2025, Kyle Larson celebrated his second NASCAR Cup Series championship with his Hendrick Motorsports team. However, joy was mixed with a deep empathy for his rival, Denny Hamlin.\n\nLarson, after the celebration, shared how Hamlin&#8217;s situation gave him mixed feelings. He understood Hamlin&#8217;s pain, who had dominated the race but saw the championship vanish in the final laps due to a tire strategy that favored Larson.\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>I felt really bad for Denny Hamlin. It&#8217;s a very competitive business, but also very tough.<\/p><cite>Zane Smith<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\nHamlin&#8217;s experience, in his twentieth season and with his father&#8217;s health at stake, resonated with other drivers. Ross Chastain, although he generally doesn&#8217;t feel sorry for his competitors, made an exception for Hamlin.\n\nBrad Keselowski, with years of experience in the Cup Series, acknowledged that empathy towards other drivers increases with time and one&#8217;s own experiences. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. also admitted to feeling sorry for Hamlin, despite his general stance of not feeling sorry for anyone.\n\nNASCAR, despite being a competitive sport, is based on a community where participants share every weekend and coexist in the paddock. Although the rivalry is intense, the drivers and teams develop close relationships.\n\nZane Smith pointed out that, although it&#8217;s difficult to have close friends in this environment, Hamlin&#8217;s situation provoked a reaction of astonishment and empathy.\n\nIn short, although NASCAR is a business where individual success is paramount, there are times when drivers show compassion and empathy for their rivals, recognizing the effort and dedication that this sport entails.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the Phoenix circuit, on November 2, 2025, Kyle Larson celebrated his second NASCAR Cup Series championship with his Hendrick Motorsports team. However, joy was mixed with a deep empathy for his rival, Denny Hamlin. Larson, after the celebration, shared how Hamlin&#8217;s situation gave him mixed feelings. He understood Hamlin&#8217;s pain, who had dominated the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":113160,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[514,180,447,182],"class_list":{"0":"post-113159","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-championship","9":"tag-denny-hamlin","10":"tag-kyle-larson","11":"tag-nascar"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}