Denny Hamlin overcomes penalty, beats Chase Elliott to win Las Vegas Cup race

Last fall, Denny Hamlin earned a milestone 60th career at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, dedicating the win to his father. Since then, Hamlin suffered a bitter defeat in the title race, and lost his ailing father in an off-season house fire.

But on Sunday, he returned to Victory Lane at Vegas for his 61st career win, and his first of the 2026 season.

“I mean, I knew it took a few weeks to feel like driving,” said Hamlin, talking about how he had to go back racing after all he went through. “Over the last couple weeks, I definitely regained my love of it, got refocused. These are great opportunities for us.

“I mean, this is a family sport. My family obviously had so much sacrifice to help me get here. Now that I’ve got three generations of Hamlins following me. It’s great Mom gets to see this. I know Dad’s still saying, ‘that’s my boy!’ Hell of a day.”

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Chase Elliott finished second, William Byron third, Christopher Bell fourth, and Ty Gibbs fifth. Chris Buescher, Kyle Larson, Chase Briscoe, Bubba Wallace, and Brad Keselowski filled out the remainder of the top ten.

Stage 1

Hamlin took the lead early from Bell, but in the middle of the field, Shane van Gisbergen nearly saw his race come to an abrupt end. He got into Erik Jones and spun sideways, but managed to save the car as he slid down the track.

The rest of the stage ran green, which meant there were green-flag pit stops. Both Allgaier and Briscoe were caught speeding, pushing them off the lead lap. But there were several other drivers a lap down too, as the JGR drivers continued to dominant the early stage of the race.

Bell bested Hamlin as they fought through traffic, and eventually drove away as Hamlin faded. He lapped all the way up to the back of the 21st place car, winning Stage 1 over Larson, Hamlin, Gibbs, Wallace, Byron, Preece, Elliott, Blaney, and Reddick.

Riley Herbst, running 22nd, was granted the free pass to get back onto the lead lap.

Stage 2

During the stage break, the balance of power shifted suddenly from JGR to Hendrick. Both Gibbs and Hamlin were caught speeding, sending them to the rear of the field. That left Bell to fight a trio of Hendrick cars on the restart.

He battled Larson side-by-side before Elliott made it three-wide, nearly leading to contact. Byron then joined the fray, pushing Larson ahead and ending the battle.