Joe Gibbs Racing driver overcomes penalties to claim 61st career Cup victory in the Pennzoil 400.
Denny Hamlin picked up where he left off last year at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and this year’s victory in the Pennzoil 400 was just as emotional as the one in October 2025. Since dedicating last year’s victory to his terminally ill father, Dennis, he’s lost him to injuries suffered in a December house fire that left his mother, Mary Lou, critically injured.
When it came time to start the season, Hamlin admitted he wasn’t ready, but that all changed at the 1.5-mile Nevada track where the emotions overflowed after Hamlin claimed his 61st career victory. Daughters Taylor and Molly ran to congratulate him during his post-race TV interview. Taylor cried as she stood with her dad’s arm around her. Then his mother walked to his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota parked on the front stretch and congratulated him with a hug. Eventually fiancée Jordan Fish and son Jameson joined him before everyone moved to victory lane. “It took a few weeks to feel like driving,” the 45-year-old Hamlin admitted. “Over the last couple weeks, I definitely regained my love of it, got refocused. “My family obviously had so much sacrifice to help me get here. It’s great Mom gets to see this. I know Dad’s still saying, ‘That’s my boy!’ Hell of a day!” Hamlin fought back from a pit road speeding penalty on lap 83 and a penalty for pitting before pit road was open four laps later to lead the most laps—134—in the 267-lap race and finish 0.502 second ahead of Chase Elliott. “It was not ideal to have to go to the back, but five laps into that restart, I’m like, we’re just faster than everybody else,” Hamlin said. “We just did a great job adjusting on it, especially for the conditions of going to the back. We made a lot of adjustments in the car on pit stops and never lost any spots. “It wasn’t like I had a cake walk, but if I needed to get a couple tenths I could. I think I just had enough speed in reserve throughout the day to make it happen, but it feels really good to win the weeks you should. When I come here, I’m thinking nothing has changed since last year. We were here six races ago, seven races ago. I should win. I expect to win and … pretty gratifying to do it. “We were really good on the short run, and we could just pressure those guys quite a bit, and really just run wherever they weren’t. This is one of the more dominating … speed-wise races I’ve had in quite some time.” Hamlin’s victory was the first for JGR since last October at Talladega when Chase Briscoe was victorious. It made that organization the third one to send a team to victory lane this year. The other two are 23XI Racing with Tyler Reddick and Team Penske with Ryan Blaney. Toyota has now won four of the season’s first five races. Hamlin’s third Las Vegas Motor Speedway victory moved him into sole possession of 10th on NASCAR’s Cup Series all-time win list. Previously, he was tied with Kevin Harvick. The nine drivers ahead of him are Richard Petty , David Pearson , Jeff Gordon , Bobby Allison , Darrell Waltrip , Jimmie Johnson , Cale Yarborough , Dale Earnhardt , and Kyle Busch .“There’s the legends of the sport,” Hamlin said. “I feel very fortunate to be on the list. “Those guys were far more talented than I have ever thought about being. 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.”
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