Denny Hamlin mastered the strategy at Gateway to score his fifth win of the season and punch his ticket to the next round of the Playoffs. He joins teammate Chase Briscoe, who won in Darlington, as Joe Gibbs Racing sweeps the opening two rounds of the postseason.
Hamlin started from the pole and led a race-high 75 of 260 laps en route to victory in the Enjoy Illinois 300, but no driver truly controlled the race. Fluctuating strategy calls led to multiple leaders and movement throughout the field.
The No. 11 only took the lead for the decisive final time with 25 laps to go. Hamlin gave up the lead midway through the final stage to pit but cycled back to the front when a caution came out and the drivers running long came down pit road. From there, he never looked back and won with a 1.620-second margin of victory.
“Fantastic day. Man, couldn’t be better,” Hamlin said on the frontstretch.
As has become his trademark, Hamlin embraced the chorus of boos that rained down as he stepped out of the car while his team held up a flag and poster behind him and riled up the crowd.
“Man, it’s just a great victory,” he said. “Love that ‘Denny Time’ flag, the poster is pretty good. Y’all can boo me. You can either get on the bandwagon or you can get run over by it.”
Hamlin explained the comment after the race, saying in a postrace press conference that he celebrates each win like it’s the last and enjoys the small pleasure of angering the crowd.
“You never know. You never know when it’s your last. This could be my last win,” Hamlin said. “We just never know. I try my best to enjoy the moment and do the best I can to rile up the fans any chance I get.”
The win is Toyota’s 200th Cup Series victory since it joined the Cup Series in 2007. Hamlin said that earning that milestone for the brand is so important to him considering how much Toyota has meant for his career ever since Joe Gibbs Racing switched to Toyota that year.
“It’s super special,” Hamlin said. “They’ve been such a big partner of Joe Gibbs Racing for such a long time. Certainly I was worried when we switched over from Chevy to Toyota. It was a big leap of faith by everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing. It turned out to be the best partnership that they could imagine, being the top team. Now that I’ve got 23XI, I’ve formed a different relationship with them.
“So, yeah, I’ve got Toyota running through my blood.”
Chase Briscoe ended up second. It was a huge recovery for the defending series winner after a mistake make their race much more difficult. Early on in the second stage, Briscoe came down pit road after making contact with Daniel Suarez and had a very slow stop as they struggled to attach the left-rear wheel. That sent Briscoe all the way out of the top 30 and forced him to battle back the rest of the race.
“I would say our strength was our speed. We had a really good Bass Pro Shops Toyota,” Briscoe said. “Our weakness was just the sloppiness, right? Whether it was me behind the wheel or pit road. I don’t know what the left rear issue was.”
Briscoe got back in contention by the final stage after climbing through the field and pitted in the same cycle as Hamlin. He was the first Playoff driver to do so, which left him at a tire disadvantage as he tried to chase down Hamlin in the closing laps.
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“Great recovery. [Crewchief] James [Small] did an amazing job of doing something different to get us up there,” Briscoe described. “I was at a tire deficit. I thought our car, for having the tire deficit and everything else, showed how good it was.”
Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney, and Joey Logano rounded out a top-five of all Playoff drivers. The result means that Logano has never finished outside the top five in any of the four years that the series has visited Gateway.
Fourth place was a recovery drive for Ryan Blaney. Late in Stage 2, Blaney was battling Kyle Larson for fifth when Larson drove deep into the corner and drifted up into Blaney, sending the No. 12 car spinning. Blaney grabbed Larson for a discussion after the race, but acknowledged that ending the race back in the top five made him feel a lot better about the situation overall.
John Hunter Nemechek, Playoff drivers Christopher Bell and Bubba Wallace, Chris Buescher, and Ty Gibbs rounded out the top ten respectively.
Several Playoff drivers struggled, finishing outside the top ten. William Byron and Kyle Larson ended up 11th and 12th respectively. Tyler Reddick finished 16th. Austin Dillon and Austin Cindric finished 18th and 19th respectively. Ross Chastain finished 24th, Shane van Gisbergen finished 25th, and Alex Bowman finished 26th.
From Vegas High to Gateway Low: Josh Berry’s Playoff Freefall
The worst finisher among the Playoff drivers was Josh Berry who was involved in a crash in both of the first two races of the postseason. At Darlington, he got loose and spun by himself into the inside wall on the first lap. At Gateway, he got a little further into the race before a three-wide attempt went wrong and he turned over the nose of Chase Elliott, with Berry getting sent spinning into the wall.
That makes the Playoff picture much clearer. Austin Dillon (-11), Shane van Gisbergen (-15), Alex Bowman (-35), and Josh Berry (-45) all leave below the cutline with sizeable deficits to make up in the final race of the round.
The Cup Series returns at Bristol Motor Speedway for a night race on Saturday, September 13th. It is the final race of the first round of the Playoffs, and four drivers will be eliminated.
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