Denny Hamlin Muscles Way to 59th Career Win in Gateway Performance

Just like that, Denny Hamlin is one victory away from the mark he had set in his sights as the thing he most wanted to achieve this season. The driver, who wants to tie Kevin Harvick's 60-career wins mark, now sits at 59 after an impressive march to the finish in Sunday afternoon's Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway.

Race Results: Enjoy Illinois 300 at WWT Raceway

Standings: Updated NASCAR Cup Series Playoff Grid

While the win pushed Hamlin one win away from the career milestone he wants to achieve, it did mark the 200th NASCAR Cup Series win for his manufacturer Toyota.

"Yeah, it's so big for everyone at Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing," Hamlin said of picking up the milestone win. "Progressive Toyota was great there at the end. So happy to get this victory. My dad's not feeling well at home. Just shout-out to him. The whole family's here. Fantastic day. Man, couldn't be better."

"It's a testament to what's gone in over, what is it, the last 19 years," Tyler Gibbs, president of TRD, said. "The team we have at TRD, the team we have at TMNA, the team we have on the track. When you look at JGR, 23XI, Furniture Row, Red Bull, and Michael Waltrip Racing combining for over 200 wins is just incredible for us."

Hamlin started from the pole position and led a race-high 75 laps, but for the majority of the race, he looked to be heading toward a roughly second-to-third-place finish on the day. However, as strategy reigned supreme at the 1.25-mile speedway, and tires were ultra-important throughout the day, Hamlin, his crew chief Chris Gayle, and the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing pit crew stepped up when it mattered most.

Hamlin would take the lead from Brad Keselowski, who was attempting to hold off the furious pack of drivers on a massive tire disadvantage, with 25 laps to go, and as it turned out, that was the pass for the win.

With the win, Hamlin's fifth of the 2025 season, the driver is now onto the Round of 12 of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, regardless of how he finishes next weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway. Hamlin also became the second Joe Gibbs Racing driver to score a win through the opening two races of the Round of 16 of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.

Before heading to victory lane, Hamlin took a shot at the fans in attendance, as he typically does following his race wins.

"Man, it's just a great victory. Love that Denny time flag, poster is pretty good. Y'all can boo me. You can either get on the bandwagon or you can get run over by it," Hamlin quipped with a smile.

Briscoe, who came up shy of his third win of the season in a runner-up performance on Sunday, won last weekend's Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, which allowed him to race stress-free this weekend at Gateway. As a result, Briscoe was able to be very aggressive while battling Kyle Larson for the Stage 1 win, which he pulled off, and in the process, pocketed an additional Playoff Point.

Briscoe suffered some issues after the Stage 1 win on pit road, and then also encountered an on-track incident, which led to the end of Daniel Suarez's day on Lap 61. This mired Briscoe back in the pack, but he credited crew chief James Small for continuing to find ways to get him back toward the front of the field.

"Great recovery. James did an amazing job of doing something different to get us up there," Briscoe explained. "[I] would have loved to battle up there and potentially try to be everybody's favorite driver for Toyota's 200th win. I was at a tire deficit. I thought our car, for having the tire deficit and everything else, showed how good it was."

Hamlin will have that same luxury of racing stress-free next weekend at Bristol.

Chase Elliott had one of his best performances since his win at EchoPark Speedway in Atlanta in late June, as he came home with a solid third-place run. Elliott knifed his way through the field from the 19th position thanks to a solid No. 9 Chevrolet and great pit calls by crew chief Alan Gustafson.

Ryan Blaney rebounded from an incident, where he was spun by Kyle Larson on Lap 135, near the end of the race's second Stage. Blaney sought out Larson to talk about the incident on pit road following the conclusion of Sunday's race. Blaney talked about his chat with Larson in a post-race interview on USA Network.

"I just wanted to know what I did to deserve it," Blaney said. "He just said he made a mistake. That's fine. Make mistakes. But like, at the end of the day, I still got turned. Came from all the way up the bottom of the racetrack, hit me in he left rear. I know he most likely didn't mean to do it, but it happened anyway."

Blaney says he'll have to file the incident away in the back of his head for later.

"That's one I've got to remember," Blaney stated. "I was happy we bounced back, not to get turned around, and did a good job of coming out where we need to be. Having a good enough car to get back to fourth. Proud of the effort. Appreciate Menards, Pennzoil, Ford for a good day, good recovery. Go onto Bristol next week."

While the incident looked intentional, Larson explained after the race that there was no mallice behind the move, which literally spun Blaney's day out of control.

"I just told him I messed up. I wasn't meaning obviously to go in there and hit him," Larson told USA Network. "The lap before I had got in there and got inside of him, slid up, got to his door, got him tight, got to where I could race him down the frontstretch. I was just trying to do that again. I was a little further back into three than I was the lap before. Just misjudged the point of where I wasn't going to get next to him and tuck in. I just clipped him."

Larson reiterated that he didn't intend to spin Blaney, and expressed that he hopes Blaney understands that going forward.

"Yeah, all on me. But it wasn't intentional at all. I hope he understands that," Larson said. "Obviously, I hurt his day where he could have gained more points."

Joey Logano, Blaney's Team Penske teammate, collected a fifth-place result on a day when he climbed from the 13th starting spot and ranked near the front of the field for the majority of the day.

John Hunter Nemechek, and the No. 42 LEGACY MOTOR CLUB team, backed up a top-five performance last weekend at Darlington with a sixth-place finish in the Enjoy Illinois 300. Christopher Bell, Bubba Wallace, who won Stage 2, Chris Buescher, and Ty Gibbs rounded out the top-10 finishers in the race.

While 10 Playoff contenders finished inside the top-16 of Sunday's race at Gateway, it was a rough afternoon for several contenders.

Josh Berry had an early-race incident for the second straight week, and as a result, the driver in his first-ever Playoff appearance has started off the Round of 16 with back-to-back last-place finishes. This time, Berry spun after contact from Chase Elliott, which sent him into the outside wall on Lap 36, and put an early end to his day.

Alex Bowman had a shaky start to the race, but worked his way into the top-10 with great strategy from crew chief Blake Harris. However, a miscue on a pit stop, where the car fell off the jack followed by a pit road speeding penalty later in the race foiled his chances at a good run. Bowman would finish the day in 26th.

Shane van Gisbergen would go for a late-race spin in Turn 4 on Lap 156, which really upended his afternoon. The Trackhouse Racing driver would finish in 25th, which was just one spot behind Ross Chastain, his teammate, who also is in the Playoffs and finished a dismal 24th.

Austin Dillon had a forgettable race for the majority of the day as he struggled with a race car that was ill-handling to say the least. At one point, Dillon spun out his brother Ty Dillon due to the unpredictability of his car. But Dillon would utilize a strategy call by crew chief Richard Boswell to gain track position at the end of Stage 2, which allowed him to collect five Stage Points.

Dillon would then restart from inside the top-15 on the final restart of the race, and he was able to hold on to finish the day in 18th. All-in-all, not a bad finish for Dillon and the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing team.

As a result, Dillon will head into next weekend's Round of 16 elimination race as the first driver outside of the Playoffs cutline. He will go into Bristol trailing Austin Cindric, the final driver inside the top-12 of the standings, by 11 points.

Next up for the NASCAR Cup Series is the Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday, September 13. That race will be televised on USA Network, and coverage will kick off at 7:30 PM ET. The Performance Racing Network (PRN) and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will provide the radio broadcast of that event.

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