After a couple of late cautions, pole sitter Denny Hamlin made the winning move around Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Chase Briscoe with four laps to go to win at Las Vegas and secure his spot in the Championship 4 at Phoenix in three weeks.
Here are three takeaways from the Round of 8 opener in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs:
Denny Hamlin notches milestone win at Las Vegas
Some two-tire calls gave Briscoe and Joey Logano the track position after the race’s final caution with 28 laps to go, but Hamlin utilized his four fresh tires to run them down and win his 60th Cup Series race to tie him with Kevin Harvick for 10th-most all-time.
Hamlin dedicated his series-leading sixth win of the season to his father, who has been battling some health issues. He was solid the entire race despite only leading nine laps, but it looked like the win would go through the Hendrick Motorsports duo of William Byron and Kyle Larson, who combined to lead 154 of the 267 laps.
A few late restarts were all that Hamlin needed, though, to insert himself back into the picture and take the pressure off his shoulders for the next two weeks while the rest of the drivers fight for the other three positions that await at Phoenix.
William Byron’s strong day ends in disaster
It was no secret coming into the Round of 8 that Byron’s playoff run up to this point had been disappointing. The regular-season champion only had a pair of top-10s in the last six races and zero laps led, but claimed the Stage 1 win, paced the field for 55 laps and appeared to be on his way to a long overdue win at LVMS.
That was not meant to be, however, after Byron ran into the back of Ty Dillon at full speed with 31 laps remaining as Dillon tried to make his way to pit road. Byron had just lost the lead to Larson five laps earlier, but scored 18 stage points and was in an excellent position to come out of