Denny Hamlin opens Round of 12 with South Point 400 win

After going 0-for-26 in the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series regular season, Denny Hamlin is 2-for-2 in 2021 playoff round openers. After winning the first race in the Round of 16 at Darlington three rounds prior, he dominated the Round of 12 kickoff at Las Vegas Motor Speedway as he led 137 of 267 laps en route to his maiden win at the track.

Kyle Larson, who won last week at Bristol, was on the pole but second-place starter Ryan Blaney had the early advantage to lead seven laps before Hamlin did so until the lap 26 competition caution. Although Hamlin continued to lead on the restart, Larson was in front by lap 45 and held it to the end of the segment. Kyle Busch, Hamlin, Blaney, William Byron, Chase Elliott, Tyler Reddick, Kevin Harvick, Matt DiBenedetto, and Martin Truex Jr. rounded out the top ten. All but Reddick and DiBenedetto were in playoff contention, and Byron and Truex had started the night at the rear for multiple pre-race inspection failures (as did Aric Almirola and J.J. Yeley).

Five circuits into Stage #2 on lap 93, Joey Gase would be involved in the race’s lone wreck in major fashion when his left-rear wheel came off in turn two and caused him to spin and slam into the outside wall, briefly sending his car airbourne. The crash resulted in hospitalisation for further evaluation. Neither the team nor NASCAR have provided updates at the time of this article’s publishing.

Larson led on the restart and dominated the rest of the stage. However, he was among those who pitted under green shortly before the segment’s conclusion and cycled the lead to Reddick and Hamlin. The latter would take the stage win ahead of Busch, Reddick, Truex, Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski, Kurt Busch, Harvick, Austin Dillon, and Bubba Wallace.

The 101-lap Stage #3 ran completely green. Hamlin led before the next green-flag pit cycle opened on lap 210, which rotated the top spot to Reddick, Keselowski, and Dillon. Dillon led the most of the trio with seven laps, his highest lap-led count of the season and a personal best at Las Vegas (beating his two in 2016), before relinquishing first back to Hamlin on lap 229.

Although Elliott tried to chase down Hamlin, he was too far away as he drove off to his second win of the year, forty-sixth of his career, and first at Vegas. The win locks him into the Round of 8.

“My crew chief (Chris Gabehart) would say I missed out on two more wins in the first round,” Hamlin commented in his post-race press conference. “We should have won all of them. I can’t disagree, we probably should have won every race so far in the playoffs. I guess I heard out there we led a third of all the laps so far in the playoffs. We’re good.

“We knew that this is what we’re capable of—really, we’ve shown this all year long. It shows in laps led, top fives, top tens. For whatever reason, whether it be bad luck, mistakes on our own, we haven’t got all the bunches of wins that we’ve had in the past.

“Hopefully, this is the start of a really good run.”

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	6	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	267	Running
2	11	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	267	Running
3	10	18	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	267	Running
4	4	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	267	Running
5	2	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	267	Running
6	13	8	Tyler Reddick	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	267	Running
7	8	2	Brad Keselowski	Team Penske	Ford	267	Running
8	20	1	Kurt Busch	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	267	Running
9	5	4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	267	Running
10	1	5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	267	Running
11	9	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	267	Running
12	14	21	Matt DiBenedetto	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	267	Running
13	15	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	266	Running
14	19	14	Chase Briscoe	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	266	Running
15	26	99	Daniel Suárez	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	266	Running
16	21	23	Bubba Wallace	23XI Racing	Toyota	266	Running
17	22	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	266	Running
18	3	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	266	Running
19	17	10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	266	Running
20	29	6	Ryan Newman	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford	266	Running
21	23	34	Michael McDowell	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	266	Running
22	7	48	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	265	Running
23	18	42	Ross Chastain	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	265	Running
24	12	20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	265	Running
25	25	17	Chris Buescher	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford	265	Running
26	16	43	Erik Jones	Richard Petty Motorsports	Chevrolet	265	Running
27	32	38	Anthony Alfredo	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	265	Running
28	24	37	Ryan Preece	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	265	Running
29	28	41	Cole Custer	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	265	Running
30	27	7	Corey LaJoie	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	264	Running
31	35	51	Cody Ware*	Rick Ware Racing	Chevrolet	260	Running
32	33	77	Justin Haley*	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	260	Running
33	34	78	B.J. McLeod*	Live Fast Motorsports	Ford	257	Running
34	36	00	Quin Houff	StarCom Racing	Chevrolet	255	Running
35	30	53	Garrett Smithley*	Rick Ware Racing	Chevrolet	254	Running
36	31	52	Josh Bilicki	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	252	Running
37	37	15	Joey Gase*	Rick Ware Racing	Chevrolet	84	Accident
38	38	66	J.J. Yeley	MBM Motorsports	Toyota	76	Handling

Bold – Currently in playoffs
Italics – Competing for Rookie of the Year
* – Ineligible for Cup points