Denny Hamlin Delivers Emotional Win at Las Vegas

Denny Hamlin won the NASCAR Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday, notching his first victory of the 2026 season. Hamlin and the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team were consistently strong over the final long run of the race.

Much of Hamlin’s close family arrived to embrace him at the finish line after he exited his car. The Hamlin clan endured heavy loss over the off-season; Hamlin’s father passed away in a house fire last December that also left his mother injured. The weight of that tragedy loomed above Hamlin’s crushing championship loss in 2025 plus the stresses of his team’s prolonged courtroom battle against NASCAR.

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

By winning Sunday, Denny Hamlin broke a tie with Kevin Harvick for tenth on the all-time wins list. At 61 victories, Hamlin is two behind Kyle Busch for ninth, and 15 behind Dale Earnhardt Sr. for eighth. He remains the winningest driver in NASCAR history without a series championship.

The No. 11 team battled back from a pit road speeding penalty at the end of Stage 1 en route to their first win of the year. Joe Gibbs Racing as a whole was winless this year before Hamlin put them in the win column. Toyota opened up the year with three straight victories, all coming from 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick. Thanks to Hamlin, Toyota has four wins in the first five races.

Hendrick Motorsports Shows Up Strong

Chase Elliott and William Byron delivered encouraging second and third-place runs for Hendrick Motorsports respectively, as Chevrolet’s 2026 body continues to attract scrutiny. Both of those two drivers, as well as teammate Kyle Larson, showed consistent top-five speed throughout the race Sunday.

Runner-up Chase Elliott was nearly able to steal the victory away from Hamlin in the race’s closing laps. At times his No. 9 Chevrolet was a half-second quicker than Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota, but he took the checkered flag 0.502 seconds away from the lead.

“It was definitely better there towards the end than when we started a run,” Elliott said. “I thought there might be an opportunity and I knew that [Hamlin] was starting to get tight there at the end of the run. As bummed as I am to come up that close to a win, I have to kind of just bring myself back to a reality check with just how much better we ran than we’ve been.”

Kyle Larson was unable to complete a weekend sweep after winning the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race on Saturday. His No. 5 Chevrolet led 62 laps, but didn’t have the long-run speed needed to convert for the win. Larson wound up with a seventh-place finish.

Justin Allgaier drove the No. 48 Chevrolet on Sunday, filling in for Alex Bowman as the latter driver battles vertigo. Rebounding from running in last place earlier in the day, Allgaier was able to navigate to an admirable 25th-place run.

Long, Clean Runs

Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 was defined by long clean runs and green flag pit cycles. Only three caution flags waved, and two were triggered by the ends of the first two stages. Christopher Bell won Stage 1, while William Byron took the green-and-white checkered flag in Stage 2.

On Lap 211 the race had its first caution not for a stage break. Connor Zilisch appeared unaware that Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was slowing down to pit ahead of him, and wound up spinning his No. 88 Chevrolet near the entrance to pit road. Zilisch’s team reported slight nose damage from the incident.

Zilisch wasn’t the only Trackhouse Racing driver who had a Las Vegas trip to forget. After initially qualifying 16th, Shane van Gisbergen nearly lost control of his No. 97 Chevrolet early in the race. He and his team struggled to find pace throughout the day and ultimately finished five laps down in 36th. Despite a strong start to the season, van Gisbergen fell from fifth to 16th in the NASCAR Cup Series standings.

There was one point of contention after Sunday’s race. Daniel Suárez and Ross Chastain made contact after the race during the cooldown laps, and confronted one another on pit road minutes later.

Just a quick post-race … chat … for Ross Chastain and Daniel Suárez 👀 pic.twitter.com/fWbi5uXKCS

— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) March 15, 2026

“We got together a little bit in Corner 2 and he was mad about it,” Suárez told Frontstretch after the race. “Our relationship has been always very weird, almost like a little bit of two-faced of his part for some reason.” Multiple reporters at the track Sunday said Chastain declined to comment.

Points Picture

Tyler Reddick remains the points leader after five races, having seized it with the Daytona 500 and not let go of it since. Bubba Wallace moved back ahead of Ryan Blaney for second, and is 61 points out of the lead. Denny Hamlin vaulted from 12th to fourth, while Chase Elliott dropped from fourth to fifth despite his solid second-place finish.

Shane van Gisbergen is the last driver currently in possession of a Chase spot, by virtue of a tiebreaker over 17th-place Daniel Suárez and 18th-place AJ Allmendinger. Carson Hocevar is also closely mired near the cutoff line, just one point ahead of the cutoff line five weeks in.

RFK Racing continued their quietly strong start to the season on Sunday, with all three cars remaining within the Chase margin. Chris Buescher is highest at ninth in points, followed by Brad Keselowski in 12th and Ryan Preece in 13th.

Race Results