MADISON, Ailing.— In a race that featured an odd brew of divergent methods, pole winner Denny Hamlin claimed his series-best fifth victory of the season and superior to the Spherical of 12 of the NASCAR Cup Sequence Playoffs.
Ending 1.620 seconds forward of Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Chase Briscoe in entrance of a sellout crowd, Hamlin received Sunday’s Get pleasure from Illinois 300 at World Huge Expertise Raceway to earn his first win on the 1.25-mile observe and 59th of his profession—eleventh all-time and one win in need of Kevin Harvick in tenth.
Hamlin additionally delivered the 2 hundredth victory for Toyota. After taking the checkered flag, the 44-year-old driver had some alternative phrases for his detractors within the grandstands.
“You possibly can both get on the bandwagon or get run over by it,” Hamlin advised the gang, producing one other refrain of boos.
However the actuality is that Hamlin introduced emphatically his stature as a severe contender for the championship that has eluded him throughout his 20-year Cup profession.
“Yeah, it’s so huge for everybody at Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing,” Hamlin mentioned. “Progressive Toyota was nice there on the finish. So completely satisfied to get this victory. My dad’s not feeling properly at dwelling. Simply shout-out to him…
“Improbable day. Man, couldn’t be higher.”
Earlier than the race, grand marshal Invoice Murray, who sometimes performs in Hamlin’s annual golf event, leaned into the No. 11 Toyota and talked to the motive force.
“Yeah, I simply advised him to speak to the fellows behind me and ensure they keep behind me the remainder of the race,” Hamlin quipped. “We made that occur.”
Each Hamlin and Briscoe pitted early throughout a cycle of green-flag pit stops with roughly 65 laps left within the race.
After Ty Dillon’s contact with the skin wall brought on the tenth and remaining warning on Lap 209—successfully negating the technique of drivers who had been stretching gasoline to the top of the occasion—Hamlin handed Brad Keselowski for the lead moments after the following restart on Lap 216 and held it the remainder of the way in which.
Slowed by a difficulty with the left rear tire on pit highway, Briscoe recovered to safe the runner-up spot.
“I’d say our power was our pace,” Briscoe mentioned. “We had a very good Bass Professional Retailers Toyota. Our weak point was simply the sloppiness, proper? Whether or not it was me behind the wheel or pit highway. I don’t know what the left rear situation was.”
The second race of the 2025 Playoffs widened the chasm between the highest 12 within the standings and the 4 drivers under the present elimination line.
Austin Cindric got here dwelling nineteenth and held onto twelfth on the Playoff grid, 11 factors forward of Thirteenth-place Austin Dillon. 4-time winner Shane van Gisbergen completed twenty fifth and fell 15 factors under the elimination line.
Continued pit highway woes left Alex Bowman (twenty sixth) 35 factors behind Cindric. An early crash relegated Josh Berry to a second straight last-place end that left him 45 factors under the lower line, nearly definitely needing a victory in Saturday’s Night time Race at Bristol Motor Speedway to advance to the Spherical of 12.
On the reverse finish of the spectrum, different Playoff contenders solidified their positions within the standings. Briscoe, already exempt into the following spherical on the power of final Sunday’s win at Darlington, received the primary stage.
Bubba Wallace took the honors in Stage 2 on the way in which to an eighth-place outcome. Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano ran third, fourth and fifth, respectively, as each Hendrick Motorsports and Crew Penske reasserted their power after disappointing performances at Darlington.
For Logano, the inaugural Cup winner at Gateway in 2022, the top-five end was his fourth straight, a feat no different driver within the sequence has been in a position to accomplish.
Christopher Bell ran constantly within the high 10, completed seventh and leaves the St. Louis-area observe 32 factors above the elimination line. Hendrick Motorsports drivers Kyle Larson and William Byron had been eleventh and twelfth, respectively, and are third and sixth within the Playoff standings, needing solely to avert catastrophe at Bristol to advance the Spherical of 12.
Larson, nonetheless, was the supply of antagonism for Blaney. On Lap 135, 5 circuits earlier than the top of Stage 2, Larson charged into Turns 3 and 4, slipped up the observe and despatched Blaney spinning.
Although Blaney recovered to complete fourth, he was not pleased with the incident.
“I simply wished to know what I did to deserve it,” Blaney mentioned after speaking to Larson on pit highway. “He simply mentioned he made a mistake. That’s superb. Make errors. However like on the finish of the day, I nonetheless acquired turned. Got here from all the way in which up the underside of the race observe, hit me within the left rear. I do know he almost definitely didn’t imply to do it, but it surely occurred anyway.
“That’s one I’ve acquired to recollect.”
Larson was duly apologetic.
“I simply advised him I tousled,” Larson mentioned. “I wasn’t which means clearly to go in there and hit him. The lap earlier than I had acquired in there and acquired inside him, slid up, acquired to his door, acquired him tight, acquired to the place I might race him down the frontstretch.
“I used to be simply making an attempt to do this once more. I used to be slightly additional again into (Flip) 3 than I used to be the lap earlier than. Simply misjudged the purpose of the place I (was) going to get subsequent to him and tuck in. I simply clipped him.
“Yeah, all on me. However wasn’t intentional in any respect. I hope he understands that. Clearly, I harm his day the place he might have gained extra factors.”
