Denny Hamlin overcomes adversity on track and in personal life to win Pennzoil 400, move into 10th on all-time win list

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By Kyle Foster, photo courtesy of Eric Thompson (Shamboozled.com) 

Kfost91197@gmail.com

Twitter/X: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews

Las Vegas-A championship caliber team doesn’t let the bumps in the road affect them. However, winning isn’t normally something that happens when you make a mistake. 

In Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 presented by JiffyLube at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, this is what Denny Hamlin did as he overcame some issues early to get his first win of the season. 

But these issues were minor compared to the wild offseason the driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota went through over the winter. 

After all, he battled NASCAR in a lawsuit, lost his father Dennis in a fire, and lost the championship in the most gut-wrenching way possible. 

HE NEVER LET IT GET THE BEST OF HIM. We have all lost loved ones, and it’s always about honoring them the best you can. After all, he had contemplated retirement after the loss in Phoenix last fall. When you fight through all of this, it is extremely gratifying. This is why he celebrated with his family by the car post-race.   

“Yeah, it’s very gratifying because it’s always the first race of every season that you can win is gratifying,” Hamlin explained. “I don’t know what goes on in those two months. I’m no fool. I know my reaction’s deteriorating. There’s all kind of things that are deteriorating. Father Time is undefeated. Three months is a long time, where it’s like, ‘Okay, am I still at the level that I was last year, especially to end last year.’ Today confirmed that nothing had changed, which is really good. It’s a good sign. We’re still able to do it at a really, really high level. So it’s just gratifying to me that I’m still at this age getting it done.” 

He also had a great team around him to help him get back to winning ways. This is very similar to how it is in life. 

“I mean, ultimately, I’m still a competitor, right?” Hamlin added. “Everyone’s got to go through that process, the grieving process. There were a lot of different things through the off-season that were really, really tough. Yeah, I mean, I showed up at Bowman Gray. I ran the race. Still just up until a couple weeks ago, not fully locked in to what I need to do, got to do. That’s just natural. I mean, everyone has to go through stuff.

I think for me ultimately, I said it before, promise to Joe Gibbs, that family, that I’d fulfill my obligations to them,” he continued. “Then, the thrill of going out there and getting more wins. That to me is what drives me. It makes me work as hard as I do at this. Everyone goes through tragedies and stuff. It doesn’t change kind of who I am, and that’s a competitor that loves to go out there. This is my life’s work.”  

In the race, Hamlin led a race-high 134 laps over 5 times. This was also win No. 61 of his long career. It also moves Hamlin to fourth in points through five races. This gives him sole possession of 10th on the all-time win list. He has also won a race every year for the last 20 years.

“My name stands out amongst — there’s the legends of the sport,” Hamlin said of the win. “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.”

On top of that, all of the JGR cars were inside the top 8. It was a flexing of the muscles for one of the powerhouse organizations. This came as many of their drivers got speeding penalties early in the race, which included Hamlin. 

“I think it’s been a great start for us,” team owner Joe Gibbs said. “We realize how fortunate we are to be where we are. We love coming to Vegas. The fan base here, our sponsors that we had here today, it was a huge deal. Right now, our race team, we’re excited about where we are.”

Yet, he wasn’t without some tough competition as the race wound down. Over the final few laps, Chase Elliott ate into the lead and needed just a few more laps to win the race. 

“Yeah, he was getting really tight, and I was able to paint the line off of four a little better than he was,” Elliott said of him cutting the deficit down at the end. “Saw that the last run, and kind of felt like that was going to be the case again. Yeah, never got close enough to make a big move, maybe up the track or something. But yeah, I wish I had been a little tidier in those closing laps. Really fine line to paint that white line over there, or whatever color it is. Bummed, obviously, but man, from where we’ve been running to how we ran today is a pretty large difference.” 

This showed that the Hendrick Motorsports group isn’t all that far away from a win, with three of their drivers in the top 7. They are all still working through the gremlins of a modified Chevrolet body. 

“We had some just different balance issues today that we kind of had to work through in the first stage,” Byron said. “Kind of all weekend, we were just a little bit kind of perplexed on what the car needed.” 

The NASCAR Cup Series will be back in actio next weekend at Darlington for the Goodyear 400.