The boos that usually follow Denny Hamlin across victory lanes like an unwanted parade float were, for once, nowhere to be found Sunday night at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Instead, the 44-year-old climbed from his car to the sound of cheers, not jeers — and for once, the tears weren’t from the crowd. They were his.
Gone was the trademark swagger, the cheeky villain’s smirk he wears like a badge of honor when taunting fans after a win. This time, the emotion got him.
“Yeah, it definitely means a lot,” Hamlin said, his voice cracking as tears rolled down his cheeks. “This is the point where I kind of give the fans some shit, but not today. I appreciate all of you so much.”
Hamlin took the lead from teammate Chase Briscoe with three laps remaining and sailed off into the neon-lit desert night for his sixth win of 2025. But this one hit different.
Because somewhere between the burnout smoke and the sunset of his career, Denny Hamlin — the eternal nearly-man — had just scored his 60th career Cup victory, keeping alive his last, best shot at the one thing that’s always eluded him: a championship trophy.
Kyle Larson, a four-time Vegas winner and the man who seems to treat this track like his personal ATM, led 129 laps and won a stage but had to settle for second. Instead of frustration, though, Larson tipped his hat.
“Yeah, he did an awesome job,” Larson said. “He got up on the wheel there. I felt like I was up on the wheel. He did a really good job. I tried to take his line away in three and four. He got to my outside. Rarely do you see Denny do that. He did a great job. Hats off to them.”
Even Briscoe, who faded to fourth after smacking the wall and then daring fate with a two-tire call, could manage a smile. His late-race gamble nearly paid off — he led until eight laps from the finish when Hamlin blasted by like a jet on afterburner taking off from Nellis Air Force base next door.
“I was hanging on,” Briscoe said, managing a grin. “I thought I was in a really good spot there, the first three or four laps after the restart, my car drove really good… I thought there for a while when they were racing hard enough, maybe I was going to sneak one off on them.
“Just really loose at the end. Glad at least a JGR car won. That’s going to sting for a while.”
Briscoe had snatched the lead from polesitter Hamlin before the first lap even ended. Hamlin complained about trouble shifting into fifth gear, which let Briscoe pull away to a 3.4-second lead by lap 27 as William Byron slipped by for second.
The day’s first act was a tug-of-war between pit crews. Briscoe’s slow first stop dropped him behind Byron and Larson, and by lap 42 the green-flag cycle had settled with Byron up front, Reddick second, and Larson lurking like a cat in the dark.
Stage 1 ended with Byron out front and Larson beating Briscoe in a photo finish for second. Everyone in the playoff hunt grabbed stage points, with Joey Logano clinging to tenth like a cat to a screen door.
Stage 2 started just as spicy. Byron led, Briscoe tried to shove him into the grass, and Larson swept around both to take the lead — all before the fans could finish their nachos. Larson, in total command, took another stage win as Elliott’s crew lost a tire down pit road (literally) and any hope of a clean stop.
The final stage saw the usual Vegas mayhem: Larson, Reddick, and Hamlin trading blows while Briscoe ping-ponged off the wall. Pit cycles turned the order upside down as Byron jumped ahead with the undercut — until he didn’t.
Byron’s day went kaboom, quite literally, on lap 237 when Ty Dillon slowed to pit and Byron plowed into him, lifting Dillon’s car clean off the ground. The wreck ended Byron’s day and probably his mood for the week.
Briscoe won the race off pit road thanks to that two-tire gamble, restarting with Logano and Keselowski in tow. Larson lined up behind them with fresh rubber and a predator’s patience. The green flag waved, and within half a lap chaos erupted again — a mid-pack accordion of Ty Gibbs, Shane van Gisbergen, AJ Allmendinger, Cody Ware, and half the neighborhood stacked up in Turn 1.
Once the cleanup was done, Briscoe led the restart with 14 laps to go. Larson and Hamlin closed in like wolves scenting dinner. With ten laps left, the duel was on.
Hamlin and Larson went wheel to wheel until five to go, when Hamlin finally got past and immediately hunted down Briscoe. With four fresher tires, he made it look effortless — sweeping by to seal the deal and cruise home by 1.533 seconds.
It wasn’t the loudest win of his career. It wasn’t the flashiest. But under the neon glow of Las Vegas, Denny Hamlin — NASCAR’s unapologetic villain — gave us something far rarer than a burnout: a human moment.
And for once, instead of boos, he got applause.
Greg was a writer for DriveTribe supporting Amazon's The Grand Tour and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, and a Masters degree in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek and a regular contributor to Forbes.
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