NASCAR News: Hamlin holds off Elliott to win Pennzoil 400 in Vegas

Veteran Denny Hamlin (pictured) drove his #11 Joe Gibbs Racing Yahoo Toyota to victory in the Pennzoil 400 NASCAR Cup race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Hamlin held off the closing Hendrick Chevys of #9 Chase Elliott and the #24 of William Byron.

Elliott finished 0.502s behind Hamlin while Byron was 3.414s behind.

In getting his 61st NASCAR Cup race, he broke a tie for 10th with Kevin Harvick. Hamlin led the most laps (134 of 267) and pretty much dominated all day long, except for a speeding penalty on pit lane that required him to drive from 31st to 1st..

The win came five races after Hamlin suffered a crushing 11th-hour defeat in the race for the 2025 Cup championship at Phoenix Raceway last November. Three laps from his first title and foiled by an ill-timed caution, the driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota took months to reconcile the disappointment.

“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.”

“My name stands out amongst… there’s the legends of the sport,” said the 45-year-old driver. “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.”

Christopher Bell was 4th in the #20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, 3.787s behind teammate Hamlin.

Rounding out the top-5 was Ty Gibbs in the third Joe Gibb racing Toyota, 4.441s behind Hamlin.

Chris Buescher, Kyle Larson, Chase Briscoe, Bubba Wallace and Brad Keselowski rounded out the top 10.

Tyler Reddick, winner of the first three races this season, faded to 13th in the final run but maintained his series lead by 61 points over Wallace, his 23XI Racing teammate, and 67 over third-place Ryan Blaney.

With Hamlin relegated to the rear after his speeding penalty, the start of the second stage was a thrill show, with the cars of Larson, Bell, Byron and Elliott packed together like the Air Force Thunderbirds flying in formation.

The four drivers, soon joined by Reddick, jockeyed for position for three laps before Byron pushed Larson into the lead on Lap 93, with Bell soon following into second.

Larson led 28 laps before steering his car to pit road on Lap 121. When the pit cycle ended, Larson led Bell by nearly three seconds but began to fade toward the end of the stage. Both Bell and Byron tracked Larson down, with Byron seizing a chance to take the lead three-wide in the tri-oval on Lap 159.

Byron pulled away to win the stage, with Larson and Bell finishing second and third under the green/checkered flag on Lap 165.

Meanwhile, Hamlin spent the entirety of Stage 2 recovering from the pit road speeding penalty he incurred under caution during the Stage 1 break on Lap 84. Restarting 21st on Lap 89, Hamlin methodically worked his way forward and was fifth when the second stage ended.

Hamlin moved to second behind Byron after the final-stage restart on Lap 174, grabbed the lead to the inside of the Hendrick driver on Lap 185 and began to pull away.

But Hamlin’s lead was short-lived. On Lap 211, Byron pulled ahead in Turn 3 moments before Connor Zilisch spun off Turn 4 to cause the first caution of the race for an on-track incident.

Under the yellow, Bell regained two positions and the lead with a quick stop, with Hamlin exiting pit road in second and Byron and Elliott following in third and fourth. A slow pit stop relegated Larson to eighth for the Lap 218 restart.

One lap later, Hamlin passed his JGR teammate for the lead and held it the rest of the way, holding off a fast-closing Elliott by 0.502 seconds at the finish.

“It (the No. 9 Chevrolet) was definitely better there towards the end than we had started the run,” said Elliott, who hasn’t led a lap at Las Vegas since NASCAR introduced the Gen 7 race car in 2022. “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.”

Substituting for Alex Bowman, who is suffering from vertigo, Justin Allgaier finished 25th. With long green-flag runs being the order of the day, only of the 20 of the 36 starters finished on the lead lap.

There were 21 lead changes among nine drivers and three cautions for 20 laps.

The NASCAR Cup Series races next at Darlington Raceway on March 22.

Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Race Results

Average Speed of Race Winner:  148.992 mph.

Time of Race:  2 Hrs, 41 Mins, 17 Secs. Margin of Victory:  .502 Seconds.

Caution Flags:  3 for 20 laps.

Lead Changes:  21 among 9 drivers.

Lap Leaders:   C. Bell 1-2;D. Hamlin 3-33;C. Bell 34-35;J. Logano 36-38;C. Hocevar 39;B. Keselowski 40;C. Custer 41;D. Hamlin 42-67;C. Bell 68;D. Hamlin 69-70;C. Bell 71-92;K. Larson 93-120;R. Blaney 121-125;B. Keselowski 126-128;K. Larson 129-158;W. Byron 159-169;K. Larson 170-173;W. Byron 174-184;D. Hamlin 185-210;W. Byron 211-214;C. Bell 215-218;D. Hamlin 219-267.

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led):  Denny Hamlin 5 times for 134 laps; Kyle Larson 3 times for 62 laps; Christopher Bell 5 times for 31 laps; William Byron 3 times for 26 laps; Ryan Blaney 1 time for 5 laps; Brad Keselowski 2 times for 4 laps; Joey Logano 1 time for 3 laps; Carson Hocevar 1 time for 1 lap; Cole Custer 1 time for 1 lap.

Stage #1 Top Ten: 20,5,11,54,23,24,60,9,12,45

Stage #2 Top Ten: 24,5,20,23,11,45,17,60,9,2