March 15, 2026 | By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service

Hamlin overcomes penalty to win at Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS, Nev.—A refocused and rejuvenated Denny Hamlin drove the dominant car to victory in Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 Presented by Jiffy Lube at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The NASCAR Cup Series victory was Hamlin’s first of the season, his third overall and second straight at the 1.5-mile track and the 61st of his career—good for 10th on the all-time list.

The win came five races after Hamlin suffered a crushing 11th-hour defeat in the race for the 2025 Cup championship at Phoenix Raceway last November. Three laps from his first title and foiled by an ill-timed caution, the driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota took months to reconcile the disappointment.

“I knew it took a few weeks to feel like driving,” Hamlin said. “Over the last couple weeks, I definitely regained my love of it, got refocused. These are great opportunities for us.”

His 61st victory broke a tie on the career list with Kevin Harvick.

“My name stands out amongst… there’s the legends of the sport,” said the 45-year-old driver. “I feel very fortunate to be on the list. Those guys were far more talented than I have ever thought about being.

“I just work really hard. I still to this day work really hard at my craft to try to continue to get better. Days like today certainly make me feel happy about where I’m at in the sport still and what I can still do.”

Brushing off a pit road speeding penalty at the first stage break, Hamlin rallied to lead a race-high 134 laps and held off the Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolets of Chase Elliott and William Byron, who ran second and third, respectively.

Pole winner Christopher Bell was fourth, followed by Ty Gibbs, Chris Buescher and Kyle Larson, who led 62 laps and finished second in both Stage 1 and Stage 2.

Chase Briscoe ran eighth, overcoming a pit road speeding penalty, as did Gibbs, his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate. Bubba Wallace came home ninth and Brad Keselowski 10th.

Tyler Reddick, winner of the first three races this season, faded to 13th in the final run but maintained his series lead by 61 points over Wallace, his 23XI Racing teammate, and 67 over third-place Ryan Blaney.

With Hamlin relegated to the rear after his speeding penalty, the start of the second stage was a thrill show, with the cars of Larson, Bell, Byron and Elliott packed together like the Air Force Thunderbirds flying in formation.

The four drivers, soon joined by Reddick, jockeyed for position for three laps before Byron pushed Larson into the lead on Lap 93, with Bell soon following into second.

Larson led 28 laps before steering his car to pit road on Lap 121. When the pit cycle ended, Larson led Bell by nearly three seconds but began to fade toward the end of the stage. Both Bell and Byron tracked Larson down, with Byron seizing a chance to take the lead three-wide in the tri-oval on Lap 159.

Byron pulled away to win the stage, with Larson and Bell finishing second and third under the green/checkered flag on Lap 165.

Meanwhile, Hamlin spent the entirety of Stage 2 recovering from the pit road speeding penalty he incurred under caution during the Stage 1 break on Lap 84. Restarting 21st on Lap 89, Hamlin methodically worked his way forward and was fifth when the second stage ended.

Hamlin moved to second behind Byron after the final-stage restart on Lap 174, grabbed the lead to the inside of the Hendrick driver on Lap185 and began to pull away.

But Hamlin’s lead was short-lived. On Lap 211, Byron pulled ahead in Turn 3 moments before Connor Zilisch spun off Turn 4 to cause the first caution of the race for an on-track incident.

Under the yellow, Bell regained two positions and the lead with a quick stop, with Hamlin exiting pit road in second and Byron and Elliott following in third and fourth. A slow pit stop relegated Larson to eighth for the Lap 218 restart.

One lap later, Hamlin passed his JGR teammate for the lead and held it the rest of the way, holding off a fast-closing Elliott by 0.502 seconds at the finish.

“It (the No. 9 Chevrolet) was definitely better there towards the end than we had started the run,” said Elliott, who hasn’t led a lap at Las Vegas since NASCAR introduced the Gen 7 race car in 2022. “I thought there might be an opportunity. I knew that he was starting to get tight there at the end of runs.

“Yeah, man, as bummed as I am to come up that close to a win, I have to kind of bring myself back to a reality check, how much better we ran today than we’ve been running. I’m balancing that, right?

“Obviously, these things are hard to win. We had a great opportunity to do it. But really proud of the effort throughout the week, preparation, yesterday. Just kind of fighting through a not-so-good day. Getting up there in the mix with the guys that win a lot of these races anymore. Really proud of that.”

Substituting for Alex Bowman, who is suffering from vertigo, Justin Allgaier finished 25th. With long green-flag runs being the order of the day, only of the 20 of the 36 starters finished on the lead lap.

There were 21 lead changes among nine drivers and three cautions for 20 laps.

The NASCAR Cup Series races next at Darlington Raceway on March 22 (3 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).



NASCAR Cup Series Race Number 5
Race Results for the Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube - Sunday, March 15, 2026
Las Vegas Motor Speedway - Las Vegas, NV - 1.5 - Mile Paved
Total Race Length - 267 Laps - 400.5 Miles

Provided by NASCAR Statistics - Sunday, 3/15/2026 @ 07:01 PM Eastern

Fin Str Car Driver Team Laps Pts Pos Status Tms Laps Pos
1 2 11 Denny Hamlin Yahoo! Toyota 267 3 5 70 Running 5 134
2 15 9 Chase Elliott NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet 267 8 9 40 Running
3 9 24 William Byron Raptor Chevrolet 267 6 1 49 Running 3 26
4 1 20 Christopher Bell Interstate Batteries Toyota 267 1 3 51 Running 5 31
5 3 54 Ty Gibbs Monster Energy Toyota 267 4 39 Running
6 10 17 Chris Buescher Smith's/Farm Rich Ford 267 7 35 Running
7 5 5 Kyle Larson HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 267 2 2 48 Running 3 62
8 18 19 Chase Briscoe Bass Pro Shops Toyota 267 29 Running
9 4 23 Bubba Wallace Xfinity Toyota 267 5 4 41 Running
10 28 6 Brad Keselowski Trimble Ford 267 27 Running 2 4
11 8 60 Ryan Preece Body Guard Ford 267 7 8 33 Running
12 11 3 Austin Dillon Breztri Chevrolet 267 25 Running
13 7 45 Tyler Reddick Jordan Brand Toyota 267 10 6 30 Running
14 12 38 Zane Smith Aaron's Rent To Own Ford 267 23 Running
15 21 22 Joey Logano Pennzoil Ultra Premium Ford 267 22 Running 1 3
16 6 12 Ryan Blaney Menards/Pennzoil Ford 267 9 23 Running 1 5
17 17 1 Ross Chastain Kubota Chevrolet 267 20 Running
18 13 7 Daniel Suarez Freeway Insurance Chevrolet 267 19 Running
19 31 2 Austin Cindric Discount Tire Ford 267 10 19 Running
20 14 43 Erik Jones Dollar Tree Toyota 267 17 Running
21 26 42 John Hunter Nemechek TriState Vacuum & Rental LLC Toyota 266 16 Running
22 19 77 Carson Hocevar Chili's Ride the 'Dente Chevrolet 266 15 Running 1 1
23 20 35 Riley Herbst FRE Nicotine Pouches Toyota 266 14 Running
24 29 16 AJ Allmendinger U-Save Chevrolet 265 13 Running
25 22 48 Justin Allgaier(i) Ally Chevrolet 265 0 Running
26 30 71 Michael McDowell Workforce Chevrolet 265 11 Running
27 35 41 Cole Custer HaasTooling.com Chevrolet 265 10 Running 1 1
28 24 8 Kyle Busch Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen Chevrolet 265 9 Running
29 23 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. NOS Energy Chevrolet 265 8 Running
30 34 4 Noah Gragson Curate Ford 265 7 Running
31 32 21 Josh Berry Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford 264 6 Running
32 25 88 Connor Zilisch # Jockey 150th Anniversary Chevrolet 264 5 Running
33 36 10 Ty Dillon Campers Inn RV/U-Save Chevrolet 264 4 Running
34 27 34 Todd Gilliland Love's Travel Stops Ford 264 3 Running
35 33 51 Cody Ware Yeego Chevrolet 263 2 Running
36 16 97 Shane Van Gisbergen SuperFile Chevrolet 262 1 Running

Fastest Lap Bonus: #11 , lap 2 / 29.454

Race Comments: Denny Hamlin won the Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, his 61st NASCAR Cup Series victory. No drivers dropped to the rear prior to the green flag to start the race.

Failed to Qualify: None.

Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 41 Mins, 17 Secs. Average Speed: Margin of Victory:

Caution Flags: 3 for 20 laps; Laps: 82-88 (Stage 1 Conclusion [35]); 167-173 (Stage 2 Conclusion [1]); 212-217 (#88, 47 incident turn 4 [19]).
21 among 9 drivers; C. Bell 1-2; D. Hamlin 3-33; C. Bell 34-35; J. Logano 36-38; C. Hocevar 39; B. Keselowski 40; C. Custer 41; D. Hamlin 42-67; C. Bell
68; D. Hamlin 69-70; C. Bell 71-92; K. Larson 93-120; R. Blaney 121-125; B. Keselowski 126-128; K. Larson 129-158; W. Byron 159-169; K. Larson
170-173; W. Byron 174-184; D. Hamlin 185-210; W. Byron 211-214; C. Bell 215-218; D. Hamlin 219-267.

Lead Changes: 148.992 MPH .502 Seconds
Stage 2 Top 10: 24, 5, 20, 23, 11, 45, 17, 60, 9, 2
Stage 1 Top 10: 20, 5, 11, 54, 23, 24, 60, 9, 12, 45

(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series

Next Race: March 22, 2026 - Darlington Raceway

NASCAR Integrated Marketing Communications @ P.O. Box 2875, Daytona Beach, FL 32120-2875



CURRENT NASCAR CUP SERIES STANDINGS

UNOFFICIAL UNOFFICIAL

1. Tyler Reddick 45 5 0 255 0 0 3 0
2. Bubba Wallace 23 5 -1 194 -61 61 0 2
3. Ryan Blaney 12 5 1 188 -67 6 1 1
4. Denny Hamlin 11 5 -8 177 -78 11 1 0
5. Chase Elliott 9 5 1 168 -87 9 0 0
6. Christopher Bell 20 5 0 164 -91 4 0 2
7. Kyle Larson 5 5 -3 157 -98 7 0 0
8. William Byron 24 5 -3 157 -98 0 0 1
9. Chris Buescher 17 5 0 146 -109 11 0 0
10. Ty Gibbs 54 5 -5 140 -115 6 0 1
11. Joey Logano 22 5 4 135 -120 5 0 0
12. Brad Keselowski 6 5 -4 127 -128 8 0 0
13. Ryan Preece 60 5 -5 125 -130 2 0 0
14. Michael McDowell 71 5 6 122 -133 3 0 0
15. Carson Hocevar 77 5 1 118 -137 4 0 0
16. Shane Van Gisbergen 97 5 11 117 -138 1 0 0
17. Daniel Suarez 7 5 0 117 -138 0 0 0
18. AJ Allmendinger 16 5 5 117 -138 0 0 0
19. Zane Smith 38 5 0 108 -147 9 0 1
20. Ross Chastain 1 5 -3 94 -161 14 0 1