LAS VEGAS (AP) — With tears in his eyes and needing a moment to compose himself, Denny Hamlin collected his sixth checkered flag and reflected on everything it meant.
The victory Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway was the 60th of his career — a lifetime goal he dedicated to his ailing father — and it gave him the first of the four spots in NASCAR’s winner-take-all championship finale.
Hamlin, a three-time Daytona 500 winner considered the greatest driver to never win a Cup Series title, is back in the championship race for the first time since 2021. He’s Joe Gibbs Racing’s winningest driver and now Toyota’s, as well.
The 44-year-old Virginia driver is tied for 10th on NASCAR’s career victories list with Kevin Harvick.
Hamlin couldn’t hold back the tears after a frantic final 10-lap drive to run down Kyle Larson and then JGR teammate Chase Briscoe. Two weeks ago, he thought he had his 60th win locked up at Kansas Speedway and was bitterly disappointed to come up short and mentioned letting down his ailing father.
He made good on it two weeks later at Las Vegas in what may be the most important win of his career. He said the win was for his 75-year-old father, who also 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 five,” Hamlin said. “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 able to see 60. That was so important 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 only on 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 — most since 2020.
“Just putting down all the factors, I just can’t imagine there’s a win bigger 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 know one of the things he shared there was his dad. That was emotional for everybody,” Gibbs said.
Larson, seeking to end a 20-race losing streak, was second in a Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. JGR drivers Christopher Bell and 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 never saw him wave, I had no indication he was pitting,” Byron said. “I had zero idea. I am just devastated. Obviously, I wouldn’t have driven full-speed 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 got to be optimistic. I’m not very happy right now, but tomorrow morning I’ll be optimistic to go to the next race,” Blaney said. “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.”
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’s ‘choking’ the renal vein & renal artery. Telling the heart ‘Hey I’m not getting enough blood… pump harder,’” 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 heart and BP while his renin slowly drops.”
Edwards makes his NASCAR debut
Rob Edwards, the longtime team principal of the Andretti Global IndyCar program, made his NASCAR debut this weekend in his new role with the overall ownership group.
Edwards will transition into the role of chief performance officer for TWG Motorsports, the Dan-Towriss led organization that owns teams in NASCAR, IndyCar, IMSA, Formula E and will launch the new Cadillac F1 team next season.
Edwards as part of his new role will be part of all of TWG’s properties — a move he told The Associated Press on Sunday he was excited for as its a new challenge after nearly three decades in IndyCar. He anticipates attending about a half-dozen NASCAR races next year with Spire Motorsports, where Towriss is now the majority owner.
Andretti Global last month named Ron Ruzewski, one of three fired Team Penske executives from an Indianapolis 500 scandal in May, as its new IndyCar team principal.
Up next
NASCAR races next Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway, where Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is the defending race winner. Stehouse is not part of the playoff field.
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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
