Hamlin Charges Late to 60th Career NASCAR Cup Series Win at Las Vegas

Denny Hamlin's 60th NASCAR Cup Series win may be his most special to date.

Race Results: NASCAR Cup Series South Point 400 at Las Vegas

Hamlin captured the checkered flag in the South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, his sixth win of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season.

The Chesterfield, Virginia native took the lead with four laps to go from Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Chase Briscoe, and raced his way to the win by 1.5 seconds ahead of Kyle Larson. The win secures Hamlin's spot in the Championship 4 for the NASCAR Cup Series finale at Phoenix Raceway on November 2.

The win is also an emotional one with Hamlin, with his thoughts back home in Virginia with his father.

"This means a lot," said Hamlin following the win on the USA Network. "Usually, this is the point where I kind of give the fans some shit, but not today. I appreciate all of you so much.

"Obviously, I want to say hi to my dad and family back at home. All the friends that came out here to Vegas, hoping we'd get 60. I didn't think we were, but yeah. I just put the pedal down those last 10 laps and made it happen.

Hamlin led just nine laps in Sunday's race, with the day largely dominated by Briscoe and the Hendrick Motorsports duo of Kyle Larson and William Byron. However, a pair of late cautions opened the door for Hamlin to steal a victory.

"Chris [Gayle] did an amazing job on that final stop getting the car just right," said Hamlin. "I just held it down. That's all I could do, just go for it. I felt like I had nothing to lose, just go for it and try to punch a ticket now. This feels great."

Before Hamlin passed Briscoe for the lead, he first battled Larson, who went on to finish second. The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion was impressed by Hamlin's drive on the decisive dash to the finish.

"I thought I had a big enough gap down the backstretch to get to the top and get momentum," said Larson. "His car, the Toyotas in general, were really, really fast on the short run and had a lot of speed. He must have nailed the bottom and got to my inside behind me. It was over from there.

"He got up on the wheel there. I felt like I was up on the wheel and he did a really good job. I tried to take his line away in three and four, and he got to my outside. Rarely do you see Denny do that, and he did a great job."

Briscoe salvaged a fourth-place finish after leading late. As the likes of Hamlin, Larson and others battled behind him in the closing laps, Briscoe believed he'd be the one taking the win. However, Hamlin's charge denied him the trip to victory lane.

"I thought I was in a really good spot there, the first three or four laps after the restart," Briscoe said. "My car drove really good. As I ran, I was just absolutely sideways in our Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Toyota.

"I thought there for a while, when they were racing hard enough, that I was maybe going to sneak one off on them. I was just really, really loose there at the end. At least a JGR car won. That one will sting for a while."

Byron's bid for a victory ended in dramatic fashion 32 laps shy of the finish. While running in the second position shortly after losing the lead to Larson, Byron collided with Ty Dillon while Dillon angled towards pit road for a green flag stop.

The next stop for the NASCAR Cup Series is Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday, October 19 for the YellaWood 500. Coverage of the event will be available on NBC, the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

-Photo credit: Logan Riely/Getty Images