Denny Hamlin made history after winning the South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Hamlin, who is in his 20th full time season in the NASCAR Cup Series, notched his 60th win, tying him with Kevin Harvick for 10th on the Cup Series all-time wins list. That win also gave Hamlin a shot at the championship four in two weeks.
38 drivers lined up at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway with all 36 full-time cup drivers and two part-time drivers, Katherine Legge and J.J. Yeley.
Legge started seven races this season, including a 19th place finish at the Chicago Street Course in early July and 17th place finish at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in late July. Her 19th place finish at Chicago was the highest finish Live Fast Motorsports has achieved on a road or street course in its five-year history.
Yeley has started nine races so far with plans to race at Phoenix for the season finale. His highest finish so far was 30th for the NY Racing Team in Las Vegas.
Hamlin started on pole position with teammates and playoff rivals Chase Briscoe and Christopher Bell right behind him. Behind Bell was fellow playoff driver Chase Eliott in fourth, William Byron in fifth, Kyle Larson in sixth, Joey Logano in ninth and Ryan Blaney in 14th.
At the start of the race, Hamlin had shifting issues and fell to second place on lap one to Briscoe and later to third place on lap 29 to Byron.
The first round of green flag pit stops started on lap 33 with Larson and Logano starting the pit cycle. After the first green flag pit stop cycle, Byron took first place with Larson, Briscoe, Hamlin and Bell in third, fourth, fifth and sixth respectively.
On lap 72, a caution came out after Blaney’s front left tire went down, slamming him into the wall and taking him out of the race. Blaney is now 31 points below the cutline with two races remaining in the round of eight.
Stage one was won by Byron, followed by Larson, Briscoe, Hamlin and Elliott. Bell finished stage one in seventh and Logano in 10th.
After the green flag on lap 87 to start stage two, Byron fell to fourth behind Briscoe and Hamlin while Larson took the lead. Byron worked his way back to second by lap 113 with Larson leading by 1.8 seconds and green flag pitstops started again soon after. On lap 120, Elliott was penalized for an uncontrolled tire and had to complete a passthrough penalty through pit lane, that sent him back to 32nd place on lap 127.
Larson won stage two followed by Byron in third, Hamlin, Briscoe and Bell in sixth. Logano finished stage two in ninth and Elliott received the free pass in 25th place.
With 75 laps to go Larson led Byron in second with Hamlin in third, Bell, Briscoe and Logano and Elliott in 16th and 21st. After the third round of green flag pitstops, Byron led Larson and Bell with Briscoe and Hamlin in seventh and eighth, Logano in 14th and Elliott in 20th.
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With 29 laps to go, Byron, in second, smashed into Ty Dillon at turn four due to a miscommunication. That ended Byron’s race, and he fell 15 points below the cutline. Joe White, Dillon’s spotter, was released from Kaulig Racing after travelling to Talladega for this week’s race due to miscommunication.
With 23 laps to go, the final caution came out after Ty Gibbs and Shane Van Gisbergen got into each other. The final green flag came with 14 laps remaining with Hamlin charging from sixth to third with 10 laps to go. Hamlin got by Larson with 5 laps to go, with his eyes now set on Briscoe. Hamlin erased the five-tenth second lead by the next lap and finished 1.5 seconds ahead of Larson after the checkered flag.
Following Hamlin was Larson, Bell, Briscoe, Logano in sixth and Elliott in 18th.
Above the cutline with two races to go is Hamlin with a win, Larson, Bell and Briscoe. Byron, Elliott, Logano and Blaney are below the cutline.
The next race is Sunday, Oct. 19 at 2 p.m. at Talladega Superspeedway.