A humble Denny Hamlin seized an emotional win and secured a major career milestone Sunday, taking the checkered flag in the NASCAR Cup Series South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
The victory, Hamlin’s series-best sixth of the season and the 60th of his career, locks him into the Nov. 2 Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway, giving him his first shot at the Cup title since 2021.
Hamlin, 44, of Chesterfield, drove his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota past two cars in the final 10 laps, taking the lead from teammate Chase Briscoe with four laps remaining. He then held off the day’s dominant driver, Kyle Larson, by 1.533 seconds.
The veteran driver was notably moved after climbing out of his car, speaking solemnly about his father, Dennis, who has been ill.
“This win means a lot, this is the point where I kind of give the fans some grief, but not today, I appreciate you all so much,” Hamlin said, his eyes filled with tears as he looked toward the grandstands.
“Obviously just want to say ‘hi’ to my dad and family back at home,” he added, his voice cracking. “We were hoping to get 60 [wins] today, but didn’t think we were. Just put the pedal down those last 10 laps and made it happen.”
Hamlin credited his team’s performance. “[Crew chief] Chris [Gayle] did an amazing job on that final stop getting the car just right, and I just held it down. That’s all I could do, just go for it. I felt like I had nothing to lose, just go for it and try to punch a ticket now, and it feels great. Just super proud of the team for making all the adjustments they did and the pit crew for doing a great job all day.”
Larson’s No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was the class of the field for most of the day, leading a race-high 129 of 267 laps. However, he couldn’t hold off Hamlin’s pole-winning Toyota at the finish. This marks the eighth time this season Hamlin and Larson have finished first and second in some combination.
“I thought we did everything that we could do,” said Larson, who now holds a 35-point advantage above the Playoff cutoff line. “The Toyotas were really fast for the short-run there. I saw the No. 11 (Hamlin) line up behind me and I knew he’d be difficult to hold off.”
Larson, like Hamlin, took four tires on the final pit stop, lining up on the second row for the final restart with 14 laps left. Briscoe was out front, having taken two tires for better track position.
Hamlin restarted fifth, passing Larson with five laps to go before getting around his teammate Briscoe a lap later. Larson and fellow JGR driver Christopher Bell also passed Briscoe in the closing laps. Briscoe finished fourth.
“I was hanging on, but I thought I was in a really good spot there for that last three or four laps on that restart,” said Briscoe, who was running “absolutely sideways” at the finish. “Thought there for a while when they [Larson and Hamlin] were racing hard I’d be able to sneak one off, but just really, really loose there at the end. At least a JGR car won, but that’s going to sting for a while.
The top four of the eight remaining Playoff drivers finished in the top six: Hamlin (first), Larson (second), Bell (third), and Briscoe (fourth).
The strong showing for Joe Gibbs Racing helped Bell climb to a 20-point advantage on the cutoff line in third, and Briscoe to a 15-point edge.
Reigning series champion and Playoff driver Joey Logano finished sixth after also gambling on a two-tire stop during the final caution.
Other Playoff contenders faced trouble during Sunday’s race. William Byron, the regular-season champion, finished 36th after a bizarre late-race collision with the No. 10 Chevrolet of Ty Dillon, who was pulling down to pit. The incident cost Byron dearly, dropping him to 15 points below the cutoff line.
Ryan Blaney, the 2023 series champion, had a disastrous outing, finishing last in the 38-car field after a tire problem caused his No. 12 Team Penske Ford to hit the wall only 70 laps in. He dropped from second to eighth in the standings, 31 points out of the top four.
Chase Elliott finished 18th after rallying from an early pit-road penalty. He sits 23 points below the cutoff, followed by Logano (−24).
Blaney, who has struggled in the last three Las Vegas races, remains optimistic about the upcoming events. “We’ve had good success at the next two events, so hopefully we can come and bring the speed and try to overcome the hole we put ourselves in today,” he said.
Tyler Reddick (23XI Racing) was the lone non-Playoff driver in the top five, finishing fifth. Alex Bowman, Kyle Busch, Ryan Preece, and Brad Keselowski rounded out the top 10.
The NASCAR Cup Series continues next Sunday with the Yellawood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway (2 p.m. EDT on NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is the defending race winner.
NASCAR Cup Series Race – South Point 400
Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Las Vegas, Nevada
Sunday, October 12, 2025
- (1) Denny Hamlin (P), Toyota, 267.
- (6) Kyle Larson (P), Chevrolet, 267.
- (3) Christopher Bell (P), Toyota, 267.
- (2) Chase Briscoe (P), Toyota, 267.
- (8) Tyler Reddick, Toyota, 267.
- (9) Joey Logano (P), Ford, 267.
- (12) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 267.
- (32) Kyle Busch, Chevrolet, 267.
- (16) Ryan Preece, Ford, 267.
- (34) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 267.
- (31) Austin Cindric, Ford, 267.
- (11) Chris Buescher, Ford, 267.
- (28) Noah Gragson, Ford, 267.
- (24) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, 267.
- (19) Erik Jones, Toyota, 267.
- (18) Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 267.
- (33) Riley Herbst #, Toyota, 267.
- (4) Chase Elliott (P), Chevrolet, 267.
- (20) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 267.
- (17) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 267.
- (30) Todd Gilliland, Ford, 267.
- (7) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 267.
- (15) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 267.
- (23) Zane Smith, Ford, 267.
- (25) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 267.
- (29) Josh Berry, Ford, 266.
- (27) Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 266.
- (21) Cole Custer, Ford, 266.
- (26) John Hunter Nemechek, Toyota, 265.
- (37) JJ Yeley(i), Chevrolet, 263.
- (38) Katherine Legge, Chevrolet, 261.
- (22) Carson Hocevar, Chevrolet, Accident, 252.
- (13) Shane Van Gisbergen #, Chevrolet, Accident, 245.
- (10) Ty Gibbs, Toyota, Accident, 244.
- (36) Cody Ware, Ford, Accident, 243.
- (5) William Byron (P), Chevrolet, Accident, 235.
- (35) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, Accident, 233.
- (14) Ryan Blaney (P), Ford, Accident, 70.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 137.131 mph.
Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 55 Mins, 14 Secs.
Margin of Victory: 1.533 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 5 for 32 laps.
Lead Changes: 21 among 11 drivers.
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