LAS VEGAS (AP) — Denny Hamlin has been NASCAR's main character this season, from his lawsuit against NASCAR and his weekly, opinion-laden podcasts to the defining role he played in setting the final eight drivers in the playoff field.
He could be the busiest driver in the Cup Series; he also welcomed the birth of his third child in June, an occasion that caused him to skip NASCAR's race in Mexico City.
Through it all, he has prevailed.
At Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday, he became the first driver to lock up a berth in the championship-deciding season finale — his first appearance in the winner-take-all race since 2021 — with his series-best sixth win of the season. It was win No. 60 for Hamlin, which was always his career goal, and cemented him as not only the winningest driver in Joe Gibbs Racing history but also for Toyota.
It was the most emotional anyone has ever seen Hamlin in his two-plus decades racing in NASCAR. His 75-year-old father, a Virginia native who mortgaged his home multiple times, signed up for every credit card possible and nearly bankrupted the family trying to get his son to the top level of racing.
Hamlin wanted No. 60 for his father. A three-time Daytona 500 winner, he is considered the greatest driver to never win a championship and now wants to give a Cup title to his dad. He was in tears the final three laps, emotional on his radio on his cool-down lap and needed to compose himself on the frontstretch as he collected his checkered flag.
“I’m probably softer than what I put off. I maybe shed a tear during a love story on a movie or something if it’s a really emotional moment. I’ll never let my kids see it. But I do have feelings. I know it’s hard to believe,” Hamlin said. "I just know how much work it took for this to happen. It didn’t just happen. It wasn’t just luck. It just was so gratifying because of all the things I talked about.
“Maybe y’all played recreational sports as a kid, had that game-winning moment, but it’s just so big for me personally because this is what I do, this is what I’m paid to do,” he continued. “It will take a few days for it all to sink in. I knew there was no chance I was holding it back, no chance. Just let it go.”
It's been a tough month for Hamlin alongside his father's health woes:
— He spun JGR teammate Ty Gibbs at New Hampshire in a playoff race when he believed Gibbs, a non-title contender and grandson of the team owner, should not have been racing him so hard.
— He raced Bubba Wallace, who drives for Hamlin at 23XI Racing (the team co-owned by Michael Jordan that is suing NASCAR), too hard in the closing laps at Kansas in pursuit of No. 60. The battle cost Hamlin the win and Wallace a spot in the round of eight of the playoffs.
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— Last week at Charlotte, his last-lap pass of Ross Chastain prevented Chastain from eliminating Joey Logano from the round of eight. Logano is the reigning Cup champion and winner of two of the last three titles. Hamlin complained he didn't know the points picture and NASCAR is now eyeing all playoff drivers for possible race manipulation.
Hamlin has tuned it all out in a remarkable way.
“Probably nobody has more going on in their life than Denny. But he has an amazing ability I think to kind of handle all of it, all the stuff that’s going on in his life right now,” Gibbs said. “Most of us would say how does he handle that? I’m probably one of those.”
Chris Gayle, who is in his first season as crew chief for Hamlin and has never advanced to the championship race, says Hamlin has a remarkable ability to compartmentalize.
“I don’t care what’s going on, whatever controversy last week, lawsuit related, he’ll walk in, 'OK, it’s time to go to work,'" Gayle said. “Not once do we have conversations about all the other stuff going on in his life. Not once. I think he does a good job of focusing on the task at hand in front of him.”
Hamlin likens all this to three-time NASCAR champion and Hall of Famer Tony Stewart, a former Gibbs driver who always thrived when his personal life was at its most disruptive points.
“The cliche things I’ve said is thriving in chaos. The record would show it,” Hamlin said. “There’s absolutely a correlation to the more stuff that goes on, the more that you’re going to get out of me in those moments. It’s really, really hard to do.”
As for the win at Las Vegas that has him back into title contention? “I’m going to take a mental break from racing a little bit," he said.
It might just be what he needs to finally get that Cup title.
AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
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