Hamlin back in Victory Lane
Denny Hamlin returned to Victory Lane in Las Vegas after a clean NASCAR Cup race — Trackhouse struggled while RFK ran as 'best of the rest' in the weekend’s shakeup x.com x.com.
Hamlin led a race-high 134 of 267 laps, showing long-run dominance at Las Vegas The Third Turn ([thethirdturn.com)]. He recovered from a Stage 1 pit-road speeding penalty to regroup and finish strong, holding off late pressure NASCAR recap ([nascar.com)]. The victory was Hamlin’s 61st career Cup win, a mark that moved him into the top-10 on NASCAR’s all-time winners list Wikipedia ([en.wikipedia.org)]. It was also his first win of 2026 and came amid an emotional stretch after he lost his father in a December house fire, a fact Hamlin mentioned in postrace comments AP/NBC Sports ([nbcsports.com)]. Hamlin started on the front row alongside Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Christopher Bell after qualifying, then posted the race’s fastest long-run pace in the second half to pull away Speedway Media; NASCAR live timing ([speedwaymedia.com)]. The margin at the checkered flag was 0.502 seconds, underscoring how tight the finish was with Chase Elliott NASCAR live timing ([nascar.com)]. Roush Fenway Keselowski (RFK) emerged as the weekend’s “best of the rest,” placing all three cars inside the top 11 — Chris Buescher sixth, Brad Keselowski 10th and Ryan Preece 11th — according to the team release RFK Racing ([rfkracing.com)]. Buescher’s sixth was a season-best outing that pushed him up the points table after Las Vegas Speedway Digest/Trackside ([speedwaydigest.com)]. Trackhouse had a rough event: Shane van Gisbergen suffered early damage after a slide onto the apron and finished 36th (last) Speedcafe ([speedcafe.com)], Connor Zilisch struggled to a 32nd-place result and called the day “not fun” afterward On3/ESPN ([sports.yahoo.com)], while Ross Chastain brought the No. 1 home in 17th NASCAR results scoreboard ([nascarwagers.com)]. Hamlin collected the winner’s 70 points for the weekend, and the Pennzoil 400 featured 21 lead changes, three cautions for 20 laps and an average race speed near 149 mph — small race metrics that nonetheless shaped pit strategy and the late-race sprint Race results/live stats; race scoreboard ([nascarwagers.com)].
