Polesitter Denny Hamlin captured his 59th career NASCAR Cup Series win and series-best fifth of the 2025 season at World Wide Technology Raceway (WWTR) in the Enjoy Illinois 300. With the win, Hamlin also captured the 200th NASCAR Cup Series victory for Toyota and locked himself into the Round of 12.
“Yeah, it’s so big for everyone at Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing. Progressive Toyota was great there at the end. So happy to get this victory. My dad’s not feeling well at home. Just shout-out to him. The whole family’s here. Fantastic day. Man, couldn’t be better.” Hamlin said.
On the final restart, Hamlin took the lead after a three-wide pass with Brad Keselowski and his teammate Chase Briscoe. Briscoe held on to finish second in his No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, resulting in a Joe Gibbs Racing 1-2 finish.
“That just shows how fast our Bass Pro Shops Toyota was. I felt like if we never had to go to the back two or three different times – if I could have just maintained control of the race, I definitely felt like we had the car to beat. Wish it would have been us. It would have been cool to win the 200th race for Toyota, but it is crazy what a year can make, to be disappointed with second place says a lot. Congrats to Denny (Hamlin), Coach (Joe Gibbs, owner and founder, Joe Gibbs Racing), and congrats to Toyota as well on 200.” Briscoe said.
Chase Elliott finished third and earned his career-best finish at WWTR in his No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet. This is Elliott’s eighth top-five finish of the season and sits in ninth in the playoff standings with a 28-point cushion heading into Bristol.
“It felt good to just have a solid day for this No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet team. I thought we were really good at times; certainly more competitive than we’ve been in a minute. It was a lot of fun to be up in the mix. We just needed a little bit more there at the end, but we were way, way better than we’ve been here lately, so that’s nice.” Elliott said.
Ryan Blaney finished fourth after recovering from a spin after there was contact from Kyle Larson.
“I got turned around. He made a mistake, but I paid the penalty for it. I am happy we were able to rebound and come away with a pretty good finish. Next week, we just want to go run another race and run where we should run. We will approach it like a normal weekend and see where we end up after Bristol.” Blaney said.
Joey Logano finished fifth, marking his fourth consecutive top-5 finish.
“The strategy gave us a shot to win. We were up there racing against the 11. I thought maybe on that green flag cycle we could get him but he short pitted us a lap, and we just weren’t able to get ahead of him. That would have been the control of the race. We gave up control on the restart and we just couldn’t regain it. Overall, we needed to score points with the Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford Mustang here, and we did that. We got some stage points in the second stage and a top five finish. It is a pretty cool top five string we have going here at Gateway but wish it was a win.” Logano said.
John Hunter Nemechek finished sixth, Christopher Bell seventh, Bubba Wallace eighth, Chris Buescher ninth, and Ty Gibbs rounded out the top-10 finishers.
The race featured 15 lead changes among 9 drivers, and 10 caution flags for 52 laps.
After World Wide Technology Raceway, Hamlin leads the series standings by 5 points over Chase Briscoe, 17 points over Kyle Larson, 27 points over Bubba Wallace, and 35 points over Ryan Blaney.
NASCAR Cup Series Playoff Standings after WWTR
| Pos | Driver | No | Points | Behind | Next |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Denny Hamlin (P) | 11 | 2120 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | Chase Briscoe (P) | 19 | 2115 | -5 | 5 |
| 3 | Kyle Larson (P) | 5 | 2103 | -17 | 12 |
| 4 | Bubba Wallace (P) | 23 | 2093 | -27 | 10 |
| 5 | Ryan Blaney (P) | 12 | 2085 | -35 | 8 |
| 6 | William Byron (P) | 24 | 2082 | -38 | 3 |
| 7 | Tyler Reddick (P) | 45 | 2080 | -40 | 2 |
| 8 | Christopher Bell (P) | 20 | 2075 | -45 | 5 |
| 9 | Chase Elliott (P) | 9 | 2071 | -49 | 4 |
| 10 | Joey Logano (P) | 22 | 2064 | -56 | 7 |
| 11 | Ross Chastain (P) | 1 | 2062 | -58 | 2 |
| 12 | Austin Cindric (P) | 2 | 2054 | -66 | 8 |
| 13 | Austin Dillon (P) | 3 | 2043 | -77 | 11 |
| 14 | Shane Van Gisbergen (P) | 88 | 2039 | -81 | 4 |
| 15 | Alex Bowman (P) | 48 | 2019 | -101 | 20 |
| 16 | Josh Berry (P) | 21 | 2009 | -111 | 10 |
Up Next:
The NASCAR Cup Series heads to Bristol Motor Speedway for the Bass Pro Shops Night Race on Saturday, September 13th at 7:30 pm ET on the USA Network.
Race Results
NASCAR Cup Series Race Number 28
Race Results for the Enjoy Illinois 300 – Sunday, September 7, 2025
World Wide Technology Raceway – Madison, IL – 1.25 – Mile Paved
| Pos | St | No | Driver | Team | Laps | S1 | S2 | S3 | Points | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 11 | Denny Hamlin (P) | Progressive Toyota | 240 | 3 | 7 | 0 | 53 | Running |
| 2 | 3 | 19 | Chase Briscoe (P) | Bass Pro Shops Toyota | 240 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 45 | Running |
| 3 | 19 | 9 | Chase Elliott (P) | NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet | 240 | 10 | 8 | 0 | 38 | Running |
| 4 | 5 | 12 | Ryan Blaney (P) | Menards/Pennzoil Ford | 240 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 39 | Running |
| 5 | 13 | 22 | Joey Logano (P) | Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford | 240 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 40 | Running |
| 6 | 20 | 42 | John Hunter Nemechek | Pye Barker Fire & Safety Toyota | 240 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 33 | Running |
| 7 | 8 | 20 | Christopher Bell (P) | DEWALT Toyota | 240 | 7 | 5 | 0 | 40 | Running |
| 8 | 14 | 23 | Bubba Wallace (P) | McDonald’s Toyota | 240 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 44 | Running |
| 9 | 11 | 17 | Chris Buescher | Body Guard Ford | 240 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 28 | Running |
| 10 | 21 | 54 | Ty Gibbs | SiriusXM Toyota | 240 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 27 | Running |
| 11 | 6 | 24 | William Byron (P) | Z by HP Chevrolet | 240 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 33 | Running |
| 12 | 2 | 5 | Kyle Larson (P) | HendrickCars.com Chevrolet | 240 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 41 | Running |
| 13 | 32 | 60 | Ryan Preece | BuildSubmarines.com Ford | 240 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 24 | Running |
| 14 | 28 | 71 | Michael McDowell | Delaware Life Chevrolet | 240 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 23 | Running |
| 15 | 27 | 77 | Carson Hocevar | Zeigler Auto Group Chevrolet | 240 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 22 | Running |
| 16 | 7 | 45 | Tyler Reddick (P) | Jordan Brand Toyota | 240 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 21 | Running |
| 17 | 23 | 6 | Brad Keselowski | Consumer Cellular Ford | 240 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 29 | Running |
| 18 | 15 | 3 | Austin Dillon (P) | Dow DayGlo Chevrolet | 240 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 24 | Running |
| 19 | 9 | 2 | Austin Cindric (P) | Freightliner Ford | 240 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 18 | Running |
| 20 | 34 | 47 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Ram Self Storage Chevrolet | 240 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 17 | Running |
| 21 | 16 | 43 | Erik Jones | Family Dollar Toyota | 240 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 16 | Running |
| 22 | 22 | 8 | Kyle Busch | Rebel Bourbon Chevrolet | 240 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 15 | Running |
| 23 | 17 | 16 | AJ Allmendinger | Celsius Chevrolet | 240 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14 | Running |
| 24 | 4 | 1 | Ross Chastain (P) | Busch Light Chevrolet | 240 | 8 | 10 | 0 | 17 | Running |
| 25 | 18 | 88 | Shane Van Gisbergen (P) | WeatherTech Chevrolet | 240 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | Running |
| 26 | 25 | 48 | Alex Bowman (P) | Ally Chevrolet | 240 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 | Running |
| 27 | 29 | 41 | Cole Custer | Haas/Andy’s Ford | 240 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | Running |
| 28 | 31 | 7 | Justin Haley | Gainbridge Chevrolet | 240 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | Running |
| 29 | 36 | 51 | Cody Ware | Parts Plus Ford | 240 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | Running |
| 30 | 24 | 4 | Noah Gragson | Beef A Roo Ford | 239 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | Running |
| 31 | 33 | 35 | Riley Herbst | Monster Energy Toyota | 239 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | Running |
| 32 | 30 | 34 | Todd Gilliland | Morton Buildings Ford | 239 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | Running |
| 33 | 10 | 38 | Zane Smith | Long John Silver’s Ford | 239 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 6 | Running |
| 34 | 35 | 10 | Ty Dillon | Draft Kings Chevrolet | 207 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | Accident |
| 35 | 26 | 99 | Daniel Suarez | Choice Privileges Waffle Chevrolet | 64 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | Accident |
| 36 | 12 | 21 | Josh Berry (P) | Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford | 35 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | Accident |
