NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev. — Dennis Hamlin, the 75-year-old father of NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin, has made it known he does not like it when his son taunts the crowd after a victory.
When the waterfall of boos flows down from the grandstands following one of the No. 11 car’s wins, Denny loves to fire back. He has repeatedly used the line “I beat your favorite driver” — even adding a “Daddy, I’m sorry” when he said it after a Michigan win in June.
Every son has some of those “Sorry, Dad, but …” moments. Yet in one of the biggest moments of his career on Sunday, winning the Cup Series playoff race in Las Vegas, Hamlin struck a decidedly different tone.
This time, the 44-year-old was overcome with emotion — and took his father’s words to heart.
“This is the point where I kind of give the fans some s—, but not today,” a tearful Hamlin said. “I appreciate all of you so much …”
For Dad. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/dAoAI8iILc
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) October 13, 2025
Part of that emotion, Hamlin said later, was the way he won the race. The pure adrenaline of snatching away a win from his competition by putting the car on his back and racing from sixth to first in 14 laps, one of the best drives of his life, felt to him like hitting a game-winning shot in an NBA playoff game.
Another part was the significance of what he’d just achieved. Las Vegas marked career win No. 60, which not only tied him for 10th on NASCAR’s all-time wins list but thrust him into next month’s championship race with a chance to finally win the title that has always eluded him.
But another part, the most meaningful, was the knowledge his dad was still around to watch that moment happen on TV. Dennis has been ailing from an undisclosed illness this year (“just not doing well, not feeling well,” Denny said Sunday), and the driver has hinted multiple times that he has been racing with his dad in mind.
“I can’t imagine there’s a win bigger for me than this one,” Hamlin said. “With the family (health struggles), with the significance of it, now being back on top for most wins in the season, punching the ticket to the (Championship) 4, the fashion in which the last 10 laps played out — all of the above is why this means the most.”
When he reached his phone after the race, Hamlin took a glance at the list of names who had texted him before entering the media center for his post-race news conference. There was former teammate Martin Truex Jr., popping up with the rarest of texts from a quiet man. There was Kevin Harvick, whom Hamlin had just tied for 10th on the wins list.
And there was a text from his dad, experiencing a moment of joy amidst his health struggles.
Hamlin didn’t write back immediately; he wanted to wait until he got home to have a larger, more meaningful conversation with his father. But he certainly planned to reminisce when he got the chance.
In the Richmond, Va., suburbs, Dennis Hamlin owned and operated Chesterfield Trailer and Hitch — selling trailers and installing hitches for vehicles. The family poured the money from their business into Denny’s racing career, often at extreme risk, and nearly lost their home on several occasions due to the financial pitfalls.
“That way is a path I would never recommend anybody taking,” Hamlin said Sunday night. “Every credit card that comes to the mail, it’s ‘OK, we’ll use it.’ Asking people to help. Second and third mortgaging the house. The arguments I had to listen to; I’m in my room, and my mom and dad are going at it. One is saying, ‘I can’t do it anymore.’ The other one saying, ‘Please, just one more week.’”
Sunday’s win meant something more for Denny Hamlin, whose father is battling an undisclosed illness. (Chris Graythen / Getty Images)
It was often Dennis who felt the family should pull the plug financially. But each time, he relented. Denny ultimately made it pay off and had enough success on the Virginia short tracks to get noticed by J.D. Gibbs, the late son of team owner Joe Gibbs, who discovered Hamlin and brought him to NASCAR.
When Denny left for Charlotte, Dennis Hamlin told J.D.: He’s yours now. You’re responsible for him. I got him to this point, but look after him.
J.D. died in 2019 at age 49, and the father figure role shifted to Joe Gibbs, the three-time Super Bowl-winning head coach and team owner.
Their bond runs deep as well; in the first race after his death, Hamlin won the Daytona 500 — a moment Joe Gibbs said Sunday was “the greatest sporting event I was ever in.” Hamlin’s own son, born in June, is named Jameson Drew — J.D.
And now, at an age when most drivers have either retired or stopped winning, Hamlin has gone to victory lane six times this season to ensure his father could witness him join the legends of the sport.
Tears from a brash trash-talker? It may have been surprising for fans watching at home, but a moment like Sunday brought emotions Hamlin knew he couldn’t hold back.
“Joe was here, Dad is at home watching,” Hamlin said. “Certainly love making both of them proud.”
Penske problems
One day before his car blew a tire and crashed at Las Vegas, Ryan Blaney was asked about how the field will approach next week’s crucial race at Talladega.
“There are going to be some guys who leave here in a must-win (situation), and Talladega is going to be at the top of their mind,” Blaney said. “Hopefully we’re not one of them.”
Except he is one of them — along with his Team Penske teammate Joey Logano. Blaney finished last and Logano finished sixth on Sunday after a Hail Mary two-tire call didn’t quite work, but the impact on the standings was the same: With two races remaining, Logano is 24 points below the cutoff line and Blaney is out by 31.
“It sucks for Penske that we’re both in the same boat right now,” Logano said. “Coming into the race, you can kind of look at and say, ‘OK, Blaney is the point car (who can advance to the championship via points, without a win) and I’m the must-win car. Now we’re both must-win cars, so it’s not a great spot to be in.”
Huge playoff implications on Lap 72! @Blaney has trouble and gets into the wall. pic.twitter.com/MoCg5bEGHx
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) October 12, 2025
Even though Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron crashed in the most unfortunate of ways — colliding with a slowing Ty Dillon while that driver surprised Byron with his attempt to reach pit road — he’s still only out by 15 points thanks to his regular-season championship and accompanying playoff points.
But the situation feels more desperate already for the Penske drivers, and both left Vegas feeling like they’ll need a victory to advance.
“We’ve still got a good chance of putting two in — it’s just going to have to be pretty special the next couple of weeks,” Logano said.
The competition, though, isn’t exactly bummed at the thought of the Penske cars missing out on the championship race. The entire dynamic changes if the season finale at Phoenix is Joe Gibbs Racing vs. Hendrick Motorsports rather than having a car from Penske — which has won all three championships in the Next Gen Era.
“Obviously, we don’t want to see them win, because they will be crazy fast at Phoenix,” Hendrick’s Kyle Larson said. “So if they don’t make it, then I think it’s wide open.”
Hold your horses
Larson spent a Tuesday last month testing on a road course in Kershaw, S.C. Three days later, on the plane ride to the next race, his team asked Larson what he thought of the increased engine horsepower used at the test.
“I’m like, ‘We had higher horsepower?’” a surprised Larson said.
No one at the test had told Larson about the increase from 670 to 750 hp — which NASCAR president Steve O’Donnell revealed last week will be the number used for all short tracks and road courses in 2026.
Since he didn’t notice it at the test, the news left Larson wholly unconvinced the additional boost will change the racing that much.
“I would encourage you all (media) to not over-promote it, like it’s going to fix everything,” Larson said. “I would encourage everybody to temper their expectations. It’s not way different.”
But Larson and other drivers said the minor increase was directionally better, even if it’s not a game-changer. And now that Goodyear has figured out a way to make the tires wear more quickly, that amount of additional horsepower could work well in a package together.
“What Goodyear is doing with the tire is the biggest thing right now, more so than horsepower,” Logano said. “Horsepower would be big if they put 1,000 in it. But 50, 75? Eh. It’s probably not going to change much.
“But the tire falling off (in lap times)? That changes the world.”
Mostly, drivers were just pleased they were finally heard after begging for more horsepower for the entirety of the Next Gen Era so far — and NASCAR stubbornly refusing to go down that road to even try it.
Now that officials have relented, no one is going to complain about that.
“It’s something and they’re trying,” Chase Elliott said. “So I applaud them for the effort.”
Championship 4cast
Each week during the playoffs, we’re taking a look at the current projections to advance to NASCAR’s championship race at Phoenix in November.
1. Denny Hamlin (last week: 1; pre-playoffs: 3). Could this finally be the year? We’ll have to see who else makes it to Phoenix, but Hamlin is certainly going to have a heck of a shot. What a storyline that would be in a season that has been missing them.
2. Kyle Larson (last week: 4; pre-playoffs: not ranked). Larson tied Hamlin for the most points scored in Sunday’s race (54) and is 35 points above the cutoff line. If he can just have a clean Talladega — easier said than done — he should be able to advance through to the championship without needing a win.
3. Christopher Bell (last week: 3; pre-playoffs: not ranked). Bell felt he missed a huge opportunity to win at Las Vegas, and he’s right. A wreck at Talladega could erase everything and leave him vulnerable at Martinsville. But he’s still in relatively OK shape for now (20 points above the cutoff) and has never crashed at the Talladega playoff race in four races since joining Joe Gibbs Racing.
4. Ryan Blaney (last week: 2; pre-playoffs: 2). Blaney is last in points after he blew a tire and wrecked at Las Vegas, but let’s not count him out yet with two of his best tracks ahead. He could absolutely win one of the next two races, and he’s done it before with his back against the wall (just last year). It’s not an ideal start to Round 3, but his title hopes also aren’t over.
Reminder of my pre-playoffs picks: Logano (champion), Blaney, Hamlin (clinched), Briscoe.