Denny Hamlin speeds to Bristol Night Race win

Denny Hamlin speeding on pit road seems to be a recurring event. Him winning races is also just as frequent.

Despite being ordered to the rear for a speeding penalty following a lap 70 caution for Austin Cindric getting airbourne after hitting A.J. Allmendinger, Hamlin had plenty of time to make up lost ground. After spending the rest of the first and second stages catching up, he took the lead from his Joe Gibbs Racing team-mate Ty Gibbs on lap 354 and led 142 laps to clinch his third win of the year and third at Bristol Motor Speedway.

“It’s our year. I just feel like we’ve got it all put together. We’ve got the speed every single type of race track. Nothing to stop us at this point,” Hamlin said in his post-race interview before declaring to the jeering fans, “I beat your favourite driver. All of them.”

Fellow JGR driver Christopher Bell dominated the first two stages and led a race-high 187 laps, meaning the trio combined to lead 481 of 500 laps. The team’s fourth driver Martin Truex Jr. struggled mightily and brought out a caution for hitting the wall. Although he finished two laps down, he squeezed into the Round of 12 by just four points thanks to bonuses as the regular season champion; the latter caveat means he is tied for the points lead with William Byron.

Hamlin’s 23XI Racing employee Bubba Wallace claimed the twelfth and final spot in the next round. While Bristol is one of his weaker tracks and he finished a lap down, a third-place Stage #1 finish helped boost him over Ricky Stenhouse Jr. by seven points.

Reigning champion Joey Logano‘s hopes of repeating were dashed by a crash on lap 262 in which Corey LaJoie spun in front of him and also collected Ty Dillon and Justin Haley. Kevin Harvick also received some damage in the incident and placed a disappointing twenty-ninth, meaning his final season ends with a first-round exit. Michael McDowell finished sixth but did not advance to the next round, having been placed in a bad situation after crashing at Darlington.

“It’s a real bummer,” said Logano, whose elimination means the NASCAR Cup Series will still not have a back-to-back champion; the last driver to achieve the feat was Jimmie Johnson during his five consecutive titles from 2006 to 2010. “You get out of the race like that and you’re behind the wall and you’re in denial for a minute. You don’t want to believe that it happened and you want to think that it’s fixable, but the car was tore up too bad.”

The race was marred by concerns of rain, forcing the start to be pushed up an hour only for the first stage to suffer two rain delays.

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	2	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	500	Running
2	36	5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	500	Running
3	1	20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	500	Running
4	20	17	Chris Buescher	RFK Racing	Ford	500	Running
5	8	54	Ty Gibbs	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	500	Running
6	4	34	Michael McDowell	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	500	Running
7	7	9	Chase Elliott^	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	500	Running
8	6	6	Brad Keselowski	RFK Racing	Ford	500	Running
9	3	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	500	Running
10	25	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	500	Running
11	16	42	Carson Hocevar*	Legacy Motor Club	Chevrolet	499	Running
12	17	41	Ryan Preece	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	499	Running
13	13	48	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	499	Running
14	9	23	Bubba Wallace	23XI Racing	Toyota	499	Running
15	12	45	Tyler Reddick	23XI Racing	Toyota	499	Running
16	30	38	Todd Gilliland	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	499	Running
17	18	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	499	Running
18	26	10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	499	Running
19	5	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	498	Running
20	15	8	Kyle Busch	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	498	Running
21	24	99	Daniel Suárez	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	498	Running
22	11	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	498	Running
23	23	1	Ross Chastain	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	498	Running
24	31	43	Erik Jones	Legacy Motor Club	Chevrolet	497	Running
25	10	7	Corey LaJoie	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	497	Running
26	35	15	J.J. Yeley*	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	495	Running
27	14	14	Chase Briscoe	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	495	Running
28	32	21	Harrison Burton	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	495	Running
29	21	4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	495	Running
30	22	16	A.J. Allmendinger	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	491	Running
31	34	78	B.J. McLeod*	Live Fast Motorsports	Chevrolet	490	Running
32	29	2	Austin Cindric	Team Penske	Ford	488	Running
33	33	77	Ty Dillon	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	263	Accident
34	28	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	262	Accident
35	19	31	Justin Haley	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	261	Accident
36	27	51	Ryan Newman	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	260	Accident

Bold – Currently in playoffs
^ – Currently in owner playoffs
Underline – Eliminated from playoffs
Italics – Competing for Rookie of the Year
* – Ineligible for points