Denny Hamlin fees to emotional sixtieth NASCAR Cup win

LAS VEGAS — With tears in his eyes and needing a second to compose himself, Denny Hamlin collected his sixth checkered flag and mirrored on the whole lot it meant.

The victory Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway was the sixtieth of his profession — a lifetime objective he devoted to his ailing father — and it gave him the primary of the 4 spots in NASCAR’s winner-take-all championship finale.

Hamlin, 44, a three-time Daytona 500 winner thought of the best driver to by no means win a Cup Series title, is again within the championship race for the primary time since 2021. He’s Joe Gibbs Racing’s winningest driver and now Toyota’s as effectively.

The Virginia driver is tied for tenth on NASCAR’s profession victories checklist with Kevin Harvick.

Hamlin could not maintain again the tears after a frantic remaining 10-lap drive to run down Kyle Larson after which JGR teammate Chase Briscoe. Two weeks in the past, he thought he had his sixtieth win locked up at Kansas Speedway and was bitterly disillusioned to come back up brief and talked about letting down his ailing father.

He made good on it two weeks later at Las Vegas in what is perhaps a very powerful win of his profession. He mentioned the win was for his 75-year-old father, who additionally was rooting for his son to hit the 60-win mark.

“You know, he’s just not doing well, you know, he’s the one that got me into racing and took me to a racetrack when I was 5,” Hamlin mentioned. “Then made all the sacrifices financially to keep me going, sold everything we had, we almost lost our house a couple times to just try to keep it going.

“I’m glad he was capable of see 60. That was so vital to me.”

Hamlin took four tires on the final restart and restarted in fifth before slicing his way through traffic. He first got past Joey Logano, who had only two new tires, needed a few laps to run down Larson on the inside, and then finally took the lead from Briscoe, who was also on only two tires.

This is the deepest in the playoffs new crew chief Chris Gayle has ever advanced, and Hamlin credited adjustments on the final pit stop for getting him his seventh win of the season — his most since 2020.

“Just placing down all of the elements, I simply cannot think about there is a win greater for me than this one,” Hamlin said.

Joe Gibbs, who lost both his sons before they turned 50, was touched by Hamlin’s dedication.

“I do know one of many issues he shared there was his dad. That was emotional for everyone,” Gibbs said.

Larson, seeking to end a 20-race losing streak, was second in a Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. JGR drivers Christopher Bell and Briscoe were third and fourth, Tyler Reddick who drives for Hamlin at 23XI Racing was fifth, and reigning Cup Series champion Logano was sixth.

Five of the top six — only Reddick — are still in the playoff field. The others are Chase Elliott, who finished 18th; Daytona 500 winner William Byron was 36th and Ryan Blaney was last in 38th.

Byron was out front and then wiggled out of the groove with 35 laps remaining, saved his Chevrolet from crashing, but teammate Larson sailed past him for the lead. Minutes later he was involved in a race-ending crash when he drilled into the back of Ty Dillon, unaware that Dillon was slowing to head to pit road.

“I by no means noticed him wave, I had no indication he was pitting,” Byron said. “I had zero thought. I’m simply devastated. Obviously, I would not have pushed full pace into him.”

The bottom four drivers in the playoff standings with two races remaining in this round are Byron, Elliott, Logano and Blaney.

Bad day for Blaney

Blaney, second in points at the start of the race, saw his title hopes take a severe hit when a tire issue caused him to crash into the wall with nine laps remaining in the first stage.

His race immediately ended, he finished 38th and dropped to the bottom of the eight-driver playoff round. Blaney is the 2023 Cup Series champion, with teammate Joey Logano winning titles in 2022 and 2024 to give Team Penske three straight.

The upside is Blaney races next at Talladega Superspeedway, where he’s a three-time winner and considers himself to be in a must-win situation.

“You’ve bought to be optimistic. I’m not very blissful proper now, however tomorrow morning I’ll be optimistic to go to the following race,” Blaney said. “We’ve had good success on the subsequent two occasions, so hopefully we are able to come and produce the pace and attempt to overcome the outlet we put ourselves in.”

Reddick’s son

Reddick, who was eliminated from the playoffs last weekend, is still racing despite serious health complications facing his infant son.

Rookie Reddick, the second son born to Tyler and Alexa Reddick in May, has a “tumor that is ‘choking’ the renal vein & renal artery. Telling the guts ‘Hey I’m not getting sufficient blood… pump tougher,'” Alexa Reddick wrote in an update last week. She said it had caused an enlarged heart and the 4-month-old will need a kidney removed because doctors determined it is no longer functioning.

Alexa Reddick posted on social media ahead of Sunday’s race at Las Vegas that Rookie will have surgery Tuesday and will be moved to a unit to “monitor his coronary heart and BP whereas his renin slowly drops.”

Edwards makes his NASCAR debut

Rob Edwards, the longtime staff principal of the Andretti Global IndyCar program, made his NASCAR debut this weekend in his new position with the general possession group.

Edwards will transition into the position of chief efficiency officer for TWG Motorsports, the Dan Towriss-led group that owns groups in NASCAR, IndyCar, IMSA, Formula E and can launch the brand new Cadillac F1 staff subsequent season.

Edwards as a part of his new position will likely be a part of all of TWG’s properties — a transfer he advised The Associated Press on Sunday he was excited for as it is a new problem after almost three a long time in IndyCar. He anticipates attending a couple of half-dozen NASCAR races subsequent 12 months with Spire Motorsports, the place Towriss is now the bulk proprietor.

Andretti Global final month named Ron Ruzewski, considered one of three fired Team Penske executives from an Indianapolis 500 scandal in May, as its new IndyCar staff principal.

Up subsequent

NASCAR races subsequent Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway, the place Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is the defending race winner. Stenhouse will not be a part of the playoff area.