Denny Hamlin Claims 61st Career Win at Las Vegas

• Denny Hamlin led a race-high 134 laps and held off Chase Elliott by 0.502 seconds to win the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, his 61st career NASCAR Cup Series victory and third overall at the 1.5-mile track.
• Hamlin overcame a pit-road speeding penalty at the Stage 1 break that dropped him to 21st for the restart, working his way back to the front before taking the lead for good on Lap 219.
• Tyler Reddick finished 13th but maintained his series lead by 61 points over Bubba Wallace after four races of the 2026 season.

Hamlin Bounces Back Five Races After Championship Heartbreak

Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway was a redemption story for Denny Hamlin, who dominated the field, overcame a mid-race speeding penalty, and held off Chase Elliott to claim his 61st NASCAR Cup Series victory, breaking a tie with Kevin Harvick to move to 10th on the all-time wins list.

The victory was Hamlin’s first of the 2026 season and his second straight at Las Vegas. It also arrived five races after one of the most painful moments of his career, when an ill-timed caution with three laps remaining at Phoenix Raceway last November ended his bid for a first NASCAR Cup Series championship. The months that followed tested his desire to continue.

“I knew it took a few weeks to feel like driving,” Hamlin said. “Over the last couple weeks, I definitely regained my love of it, got refocused. These are great opportunities for us.”

The 45-year-old was candid about reaching the top ten on the all-time wins list.

“My name stands out amongst … there’s the legends of the sport,” he said. “I feel very fortunate to be on the list. Those guys were far more talented than I have ever thought about being.

“I just work really hard. I still, to this day, work really hard at my craft to try to continue to get better. Days like today certainly make me feel happy about where I’m at in the sport still and what I can still do.”

From 21st Back to the Front: The Race That Gave Hamlin His Win

The path to victory was not clean. A pit-road speeding penalty at the Stage 1 break on Lap 84 dropped Hamlin to 21st for the Lap 89 restart. Christopher Bell won Stage 1, and Stage 2 was shaped by Kyle Larson, who led 62 laps before William Byron passed him three-wide in the tri-oval on Lap 159 to take the stage win. Chase Briscoe and Ty Gibbs also received speeding penalties during the race.

Hamlin was fifth when Stage 2 ended, moved to second behind Byron on the final-stage restart at Lap 174, and grabbed the lead to the inside of the Hendrick Motorsports driver on Lap 185. Byron reclaimed the position in Turn 3 on Lap 211, moments before Connor Zilisch spun off Turn 4 to bring out the race’s only on-track caution.

Bell came off pit road with the lead after the stop, with Hamlin second and Byron and Elliott third and fourth. A slow stop dropped Larson to eighth for the Lap 218 restart. One lap later, Hamlin cleared Bell for the lead and held it all the way to the checkered flag.

Elliott closed hard in the final laps but fell 0.502 seconds short.

“It (the No. 9 Chevrolet) was definitely better there towards the end than we had started the run,” said Elliott, who had not led a lap at Las Vegas in the four seasons of the Gen 7 car era. “I thought there might be an opportunity. I knew that he was starting to get tight there at the end of runs. Yeah, man, as bummed as I am to come up that close to a win, I have to kind of bring myself back to a reality check, how much better we ran today than we’ve been running. I’m balancing that, right?

“Obviously, these things are hard to win. We had a great opportunity to do it. But really proud of the effort throughout the week, preparation, yesterday. Just kind of fighting through a not-so-good day. Getting up there in the mix with the guys that win a lot of these races anymore. Really proud of that.”

NASCAR Cup Series Standings After Las Vegas

Bell finished fourth, followed by Gibbs, Chris Buescher, Larson, Briscoe, Bubba Wallace, and Brad Keselowski in the top ten. Tyler Reddick, who won the first three races of the season, finished 13th but held the points lead by 61 over Wallace and 67 over third-placed Ryan Blaney.

Justin Allgaier substituted for Alex Bowman, who is sidelined with vertigo, and finished 25th. Of the 36 starters, 20 finished on the lead lap. The race featured 21 lead changes among nine drivers and three cautions for 20 laps.

Post-race inspection confirmed Hamlin as the winner, with the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota and No. 43 Legacy Motor Club Toyota sent to the NASCAR R&D Center in Concord, North Carolina, for further review.

The NASCAR Cup Series moves to Darlington Raceway next Sunday at 3 p.m. ET on FS1.