Denny Hamlin left little to doubt and rallied from an early pit road speeding penalty to achieve a dominant victory in the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday, March 15.
The three-time Daytona 500 champion from Chesterfield, Virginia, led a race-high 134 of 267 scheduled laps in an event where he started alongside teammate Christopher Bell on the front row and assumed the lead for the first time on the third lap.
Hamlin initially appeared to dominate on his way to the first stage victory until Bell overtook him in the closing laps. However, his event went south. Hamlin received a penalty, sending him to the tail end of the field for speeding through pit road during the first stage break period.
Since the start of the second stage period, Hamlin methodically carved his way back to the front. At the conclusion of the second stage period, he was back in the top-five category.
Then, with 83 laps remaining, he overtook William Byron to return to the top of the leaderboard. Despite losing the lead to Byron with 57 laps remaining, a late-race caution that instantly flew due to Connor Zilisch’s spin, followed by pit stops, kept Hamlin in the runner-up spot.
During the final restart with 50 laps remaining, Hamlin battled with teammate Bell for a lap before the former overtook the latter for good. From there, Hamlin managed to fend off a late charge from Chase Elliott to achieve his first Cup victory of the 2026 season.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, March 14, Christopher Bell claimed his first Cup pole position of the 2026 season with a pole-winning lap at 187.156 mph in 28.853 seconds. Bell shared the front row with teammate Denny Hamlin, the latter of whom qualified in second place with a lap at 186.188 mph in 29.003 seconds.
When the green flag waved and the event commenced, Christopher Bell launched ahead from the inside lane, and he led teammates Denny Hamlin and Ty Gibbs, along with the rest of the field, through the first two turns and the backstretch. As Bell proceeded to lead the first lap, Shane van Gisbergen, who was racing in the top-20 mark, slowly drifted up the track in Turns 3 and 4. He then bumped against the side of Erik Jones and got loose entering the frontstretch, but van Gisbergen managed to straighten his car after he barely touched the right side of Chase Briscoe, and all proceeded without igniting a wreck.
Back at the front of the field, Hamlin got underneath teammate Bell and dueled with him through the backstretch. Then, as Hamlin tried to muscle ahead from the inside lane, Bell managed to use the outside lane to launch back ahead and lead the second lap. Hamlin, though, would fight back from the inside lane and duel with Bell through the first two turns and the backstretch before the former cleared the latter through Turns 3 and 4. With Hamlin leading the third lap, Bell trailed in second ahead of Ty Gibbs, Bubba Wallace, Kyle Larson, and Tyler Reddick.
Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Hamlin was leading by four-tenths of a second over Bell, while third-place Ty Gibbs and fourth-place Kyle Larson both trailed by two seconds. Meanwhile, Tyler Reddick was up into fifth place over teammate Bubba Wallace.
Ryan Blaney, William Byron, Ryan Preece, and Chris Buescher followed suit in the top 10 ahead of Chase Elliott, Zane Smith, Austin Dillon, Chase Briscoe, Ross Chastain, Erik Jones, Joey Logano, Carson Hocevar, Daniel Suarez, and Riley Herbst, respectively. Meanwhile, Kyle Busch was mired in 24th place behind Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Austin Cindric, and Brad Keselowski. Shane van Gisbergen dropped to 26th place in front of Justin Allgaier, and Josh Berry scored in 31st place in front of rookie Connor Zilisch.
Fifteen laps later, Hamlin retained the lead by four-tenths of a second over Bell while third-place Gibbs continued to trail by two seconds. Hamlin also continued to lead ahead of a hard-charging Bell by Lap 32 just as the first wave of green flag pit stops commenced, with Reddick pitting from seventh place. More names that included Briscoe, Cindric, Allgaier, and Larson pitted during the next handful of laps before the leader Hamlin, teammate Gibbs, and Wallace peeled off the track to pit on Lap 34. By the time Bell pitted on Lap 35 and returned on the track during the next lap, he was overtaken by Hamlin, Gibbs, Larson, Wallace, and Reddick. This was due to Bell having to step off the throttle to avoid hitting Hamlin as Hamlin was pitting and losing a handful of seconds on the track.
As the green flag pit stops cycled through, Hamlin cycled back to the lead on Lap 41, but he had teammate Gibbs reeling in through every turn and straightaway. Despite Gibbs’s effort in reducing the gap to a tenth of a second, Hamlin managed to stabilize his advantage, and he proceeded to stretch it to eight-tenths of a second by Lap 50. By then, Larson started to reel in Gibbs for the runner-up spot, with Larson trailing Gibbs by three-tenths of a second, while Bell navigated his way up to fourth place in front of Wallace, Reddick, Byron, Blaney, Ryan Preece and Chase Elliott.
At the Lap 60 mark, Hamlin stretched his advantage to more than a second over Gibbs, Bell and Larson while 23XI Racing’s Wallace and Reddick trailed by as far back as four seconds in the top-six range. Seven laps later, Bell used a run from the backstretch to get underneath Hamlin and muscle back to the front. Bell, however, was stalled behind several lapped competitors, including John Hunter Nemechek, allowing Hamlin to reassume the lead.
Hamlin and Bell then dueled dead even for the top spot while being mired in lapped traffic, starting on Lap 69. But Bell managed to motor past Hamlin during the next lap. Amid the battles, Kyle Busch was lapped as Larson reeled in on Hamlin for the runner-up spot while Bell was having issues navigating past Nemechek to lap the latter.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 80, Bell captured his second Cup stage victory of the 2026 season. Larson trailed in second place by a second, and Hamlin fended off teammate Gibbs for third place while Wallace, Byron, Preece, Elliott, Blaney, and Reddick were scored in the top 10, respectively. By then, 21 of 36 starters were scored on the lead lap, while notables that included Josh Berry, John Hunter Nemechek, Connor Zilisch, Kyle Busch, and Chase Briscoe were mired a lap down.
Under the event’s first stage break period, the lead lap field led by Bell pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Bell beat Larson off of pit road first to retain the lead as Hamlin, Wallace, Elliott, Byron, Gibbs, Preece, Reddick and Blaney followed suit, respectively. Amid the pit stops, teammates Hamlin and Gibbs were sent to the tail end of the field for speeding on pit road. Teammate Chase Briscoe also received a penalty for stopping in teammate Gibbs’ pit stall to have a loose wheel tightened.
The second stage period started on Lap 88 as Bell and Larson occupied the front row. At the start, both dueled for the lead in front of Wallace, Elliott, Byron and the field through the first two turns and the backstretch. As the field fanned out, Bell managed to muscle ahead of Larson and lead the next lap before Larson utilized a crossover move to get beneath Bell. With both making slight contact, Larson and Bell continued to fiercely duel for the lead while Elliott, Byron and Wallace also fiercely battled for third place in front of Reddick, Zane Smith, Preece and Chris Buescher.
On Lap 92, a tight three-wide battle for the lead ignited as Elliott, who reeled in the top-two leaders from their frantic side-by-side battle, went beneath both teammate Larson and Bell, with the trio challenging each other for the lead for a full lap. Seconds later, Byron reeled in on the trio and elected to draft teammate Larson from the middle lane forward through the frontstretch and entering the first turn.
With Larson leading, Bell, Elliott and Byron all battled for second place while Reddick reeled in and joined the battle. As sixth-place Wallace trailed the top-five contenders by three seconds, Larson retained the lead over Bell by four-tenths of a second at the Lap 100 mark while Elliott, Byron and Reddick followed suit in the top five, respectively.
By Lap 115, Larson stabilized his lead to four-tenths of a second over Bell. Byron, Elliott, and Wallace followed in the top five ahead of Blaney, Reddick, Preece, Cindric, and Buescher, respectively. Meanwhile, Hamlin and Gibbs carved their way up into 13th and 16th, respectively, as Briscoe was mired in 24th and scored a lap down.
As Hamlin moved up into 12th place while Larson led by more than two seconds over Bell by Lap 120, numerous names that included Byron, Reddick, Gibbs, Cindric and Logano commenced the second wave of green flag pit stops. Larson then surrendered the lead to pit during the next lap along with Bell, Elliott, Wallace, Preece, Buescher and Erik Jones. As the pit stops cycled through towards the Lap 125 mark, the top-seven competitors led by Ryan Blaney and including Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, Carson Hocevar, Daniel Suarez, AJ Allmendinger and Riley Herbst have yet to pit.
By the time Blaney, Allmendinger, Herbst, Hamlin, Suarez, and Hocevar pitted towards the Lap 128 mark, Keselowski, the lone competitor who had yet to pit, pitted on Lap 128. This allowed Larson to cycle back as the leader during the next lap. By then, the latter was leading by more than two seconds over Bell and teammate Byron. Wallace and Reddick were scored in the top five ahead of Buescher, Elliott, Preece, Cindric, Hamlin, and Gibbs. Larson proceeded to stretch his lead to nearly three seconds over both Bell and Byron as the event reached its halfway mark between Laps 133 and 134.
At the Lap 150 mark, Larson, who was reeling in on competitors to lap, including Ross Chastain and Kyle Busch, had his advantage decrease to half a second over Bell while third-place Byron trailed by a second. Five laps later, Larson managed to lap Chastain while Byron reeled in and overtook Bell for the runner-up spot. Meanwhile, Hamlin carved his way to sixth place before Byron used a bold three-wide move beneath teammate Larson and Busch through the frontstretch to lead on Lap 159. Seconds prior to Byron’s move, Busch scrubbed the outside wall while dueling with Larson to avoid losing a second lap.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 165, Byron, who stretched his late lead to more than a second, cruised to his first Cup stage victory of the 2026 season. Teammate Larson and third-place Bell followed suit as they trailed by more than a second. Wallace, Hamlin, Reddick, Buescher, Preece, Elliott and Cindric were scored in the top 10, respectively, ahead of Blaney, Zane Smith, Gibbs, Keselowski and Logano. By then, 18 of 36 starters were on the lead lap.
During the event’s second stage break period, the lead lap field led by Byron returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Larson barely edged both teammate Byron and Bell off of pit road first while Hamlin, Wallace, Reddick, Elliott, Buescher, Zane Smith and Preece followed suit, respectively.
With 94 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as teammates Larson and Byron occupied the front row in front of Bell, Hamlin, Reddick and Wallace. At the start, the field fanned out entering the first two turns as both Larson and Byron dueled for the lead. With Bell attempting to throw a three-wide move beneath the latter two for the lead, Hamlin used the outside lane to motor past Larson and challenge Bell for the runner-up spot while Byron led the next lap. Byron fended off a hard-charging Hamlin and Bell to retain the lead with 90 laps remaining while Larson, Reddick, Elliott, Wallace, Buescher, Blaney and Preece followed suit in the top 10, respectively.
Then, with 83 laps remaining, Hamlin got underneath Byron entering Turn 3 and overtook him through the frontstretch to return atop the leaderboard for the next lap. Hamlin proceeded to extend his advantage to more than a second over Byron with 75 laps remaining while Bell, Larson and Elliott trailed in the top five ahead of Reddick, Buescher, Wallace, Blaney and Gibbs, respectively.
Down to the final 60 laps of the event, Hamlin stabilized his lead to more than a second over Byron and by more than two seconds over third-place Bell. Behind, teammates Larson and Elliott raced in the top five ahead of Reddick, Buescher, Blaney, Gibbs and Wallace. Preece, Keselowski, Suarez, Cindric, Zane Smith, Erik Jones, Logano, Austin Dillon, Chastain and Briscoe, with the latter being scored the first competitor a lap down.
Two laps later, Blaney, who overshot his pit stall, pitted under green from the top-10 mark. During the next lap and just as Cindric and Cole Custer pitted, the caution flew when Connor Zilisch spun in Turn 4 after he bumped into the rear of Ricky Stenhouse Jr., when Zilisch was unaware that Stenhouse was slowing to pit under green. By then, Byron had overtaken Hamlin for the lead.
During this latest caution period, the lead lap field led by Byron pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Bell returned atop the leaderboard after he took advantage of the first pit stall and quick service from his No. 20 pit crew to beat both teammate Hamlin and Byron off of pit road first. Elliott, Buescher, Gibbs, Reddick, Larson, Wallace and Keselowski followed suit in the top 10, respectively.
The start of the next restart, with 50 laps remaining, featured teammates Bell and Hamlin dueling in front of Elliott, Byron and the field from the first two turns and the backstretch. As the field continued to fan out, Bell and Hamlin remained dead even for the top spot during the next lap before Hamlin motored ahead. As Bell tried to keep teammate Hamlin close to his front windshield, Hamlin continued to hold steady with the lead with 45 laps remaining. By then, Elliott was racing in third place while both Byron and Buescher battled for fifth place in front of Larson, Gibbs, Reddick, Wallace, Keselowski and Preece.
With 35 laps remaining, Hamlin extended his lead to eight-tenths of a second over teammate Bell while Elliott, Byron, Buescher, Gibbs, Larson and Reddick followed suit in the top eight, respectively. Meanwhile, Briscoe, who was pinned a lap down prior to the latest caution period, carved his way up to ninth place in front of Wallace. Keselowski, Preece, Suarez, Austin Dillon, Zane Smith, Chastain, Logano, Erik Jones, Cindric and Blaney were all scored both in the top 20, respectively, and on the lead lap.
Down to the final 25 laps of the event, Hamlin, who was navigating his way through lapped traffic, continued to lead by more than a second over Elliott while Byron, Bell and Buescher continued to trail in the top five, respectively. Hamlin continued to lead by a second over Elliott over the next 15 laps while top-five competitors Byron, Bell and Gibbs trailed by as far back as nearly four seconds.
With five laps remaining, Hamlin had his lead slightly decrease to seven-tenths of a second over Elliott. Despite Elliott’s attempt to reel in the deficit to as low as half a second, Hamlin maintained the lead over the next three laps.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Hamlin remained in the lead by four-tenths of a second over Elliott. Amid Elliott’s last-lap attempt to reel in Hamlin, Elliott could not reduce the deficit enough as Hamlin cycled around Las Vegas Motor Speedway smoothly for a final time before he returned to the frontstretch and claimed the checkered flag by half a second over Elliott.
With the victory, Hamlin notched his 61st NASCAR Cup Series career victory and solidified himself in 10th place on the all-time wins list. In addition to becoming the third different winner through the first five events of the 2026 season, Hamlin also achieved his third victory at Las Vegas and his first win in the Cup circuit since he won at Vegas in October 2025. He also recorded the fourth Cup victory of the 2026 season for Toyota and the first of this year for Joe Gibbs Racing.
Hamlin’s 2026 Las Vegas victory was an emotional one amid the turmoils he endured in the closing stages of the year 2025, from falling short of the 2025 Cup championship to losing his father, Dennis Hamlin, to injuries suffered in a house fire in Gaston County, North Carolina, last December.
The meaningful part of Hamlin’s victory on Sunday was celebrating with his daughters and his mother, Mary Lou Hamlin, the latter of whom survived despite being injured during the house fire, on the frontstretch in front of the fans.
“Being part of Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota, that definitely helps the situation,” Hamlin said on FS1. “Over the last few races here, I’ve had the dominant car and it makes me look good when I can drive cars like this. I got to thank the whole team. They’re the ones that made all of this happen. I knew it took a few weeks to feel like driving and over the last couple of weeks, I definitely regained my love of it and got refocused. These are great opportunities for us. This is a family sport. My family, obviously, had so much sacrifice to help me get here…It’s great that Mom gets to see this. I know Dad is still saying, ‘That’s my boy.’ All day. Days like today certainly make me feel happy about where I’m at with this sport still and what I can still do.”
Chase Elliott, who started in 15th place, settled in second place for his second top-five result of the 2026 season and his second straight at Las Vegas. Amid the strong run, Elliott was left disappointed as he fell short of winning for the first time this season for himself, Hendrick Motorsports and Chevrolet.
“[The car] was definitely better there towards the end than we had started the run. I thought there might be an opportunity. I knew that [Hamlin] was starting to get tight there at the end of runs. As bummed as I am to come up that close to a win, I have to kind of bring myself back to reality check and just how much better we ran today than we’ve been running. These things are hard to win. We had a good opportunity to do it, but really proud of the effort throughout the week in preparation and yesterday, just kind of fighting through a not-so-good day and getting up there in the mix with the guys that win a lot of these races anymore. Really proud of that…I don’t know. Just kind of mixed feelings.”
William Byron and pole-sitter Christopher Bell, both of whom led a combined 57 laps, finished third and fourth, respectively, while Ty Gibbs settled in fifth place for his third consecutive top-five result this season. Chris Buescher, Kyle Larson, Chase Briscoe, Bubba Wallace and Brad Keselowski completed the top 10 in the final running order.
There were 21 lead changes for nine different leaders. The event featured three cautions for 20 laps. In addition, 20 of 36 starters finished on the lead lap.
Following the fifth event of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season, Tyler Reddick continues to lead the standings by 61 points over teammate Bubba Wallace, 67 over Ryan Blaney, 78 over Denny Hamlin, 87 over Chase Elliott and 91 over Christopher Bell.
Results:
- Denny Hamlin, 134 laps led
- Chase Elliott
- William Byron, 26 laps led, Stage 2 winner
- Christopher Bell, 31 laps led, Stage 1 winner
- Ty Gibbs
- Chris Buescher
- Kyle Larson, 62 laps led
- Chase Briscoe
- Bubba Wallace
- Brad Keselowski, four laps led
- Ryan Preece
- Austin Dillon
- Tyler Reddick
- Zane Smith
- Joey Logano led for three laps
- Ryan Blaney led for five laps
- Ross Chastain
- Daniel Suarez
- Austin Cindric
- Erik Jones
- John Hunter Nemechek, one lap down
- Carson Hocevar, one lap down, one lap led
- Riley Herbst, one lap down
- AJ Allmendinger, two laps down
- Justin Allgaier, two laps down
- Michael McDowell, two laps down
- Cole Custer, two laps down, one lap led
- Kyle Busch, two laps down
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr., two laps down
- Noah Gragson, two laps down
- Josh Berry, three laps down
- Connor Zilisch, three laps down
- Ty Dillon, three laps down
- Todd Gilliland, three laps down
- Cody Ware, four laps down
- Shane van Gisbergen, five laps down
Next on the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, March 22, and air at 3 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM and HBO MAX.
