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Motorsport

Denny Hamlin earns Toyota’s 200th NASCAR Cup win at Gateway

Denny Hamlin Toyota Chevrolet Ford Kyle Larson Chase Briscoe Brad Keselowski Bubba Wallace Ryan Blaney Cup

Denny Hamlin earned his 59th career win and fifth of the 2025 season at WWT Raceway, locking himself into the Round of 12.

"Yeah, it's so big for everyone at Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing," said Hamlin. "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.

He later added: "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 snatched the lead away with a three-wide pass on the final restart, as he and teammate Chase Briscoe split Brad Keselowski. Briscoe went on to finish second to his 44-year-old teammate, securing Joe Gibbs Racing a 1-2 finish. He is also locked into the next round, courtesy of his Southern 500 win one week ago.

Chase Elliott finished third, Ryan Blaney fourth, and Joey Logano fifth. John-Hunter Nemechek, Christopher Bell, Bubba Wallace, Chris Buescher, and Ty Gibbs filled out the remainder of the top ten.

Stage 1

At the start of the race, it was Kyle Larson who took command early from Hamlin.

Kyle Busch triggered the first caution of the race, spinning early in Stage 1. This set-up a split strategy as Hamlin led one group that stayed out, and Larson led the group that chose to pit.

On the restart, fresh tires appeared to make a real difference as Larson surged forward.

Josh Berry, who was trying to fight back from a crash at Darlington, wrecked again after contact from Elliott. This puts him in a must-win situation for Bristol next weekend.

Briscoe went on to win Stage 1, followed closely by Larson and Hamlin.

Stage 2

Briscoe and the other drivers who chose to stay out were now buried deep in the field after pitting. Unfortunately, as he tried to push forward, Briscoe got into Suarez and ending his day.

Later on, the Dillon brothers had a run-in, as Austin Dillon spun out his brother in the battle for 32nd. He was very apologetic to Ty afterward.

As the stage neared its conclusion, Blaney got spun out by Larson in a surprising incident where the #5 car entered a corner on the bottom of the track and drifted up, seemingly forever, until bumping Blaney. As it happened, Blaney was obviously agitated, and it led to a post-race conversation between the two Cup champions.

The incident set-up a one-lap dash with Wallace winning Stage 2 over Keselowski and Logano.

Stage 3

Early in the final stage, there was a caution for debris as a braking marker — really, a plastic sign held on with zip ties — fell off of the fence.

Later, Wallace's car got stuck in gear on this restart and nearly led to a large incident as the pack checked up, but everyone got away with it.

Shane van Gisbergen then went for a spin in a caution that fell just outside the pit window. A handful of drivers, including Larson, Byron and Wallace, all chose to top off with fuel with the idea of stretching it.

The next run went on for a while, leading to green-flag pit stops. However, before the cycle could complete, Ty Dillon had a brake failure that sent him into the wall and forced the yellow flag to fly.

Brad Keselowski was the leader at the time of the yellow, and Ross Chastain was forced to take the free pass after being trapped a lap down.

The following restart was the last one, with Keselowski unable to hold back the JGR drivers.

Photos from Gateway - Race

1 - 2
Cla	Driver	#	Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Interval	Pits	Points	Retirement
1	D. Hamlin Joe Gibbs Racing	11	Toyota	240	3:03'11.003		6	53
2	C. Briscoe Joe Gibbs Racing	19	Toyota	240	+1.620 3:03'12.623	1.620	9	45
3	C. Elliott Hendrick Motorsports	9	Chevrolet	240	+2.236 3:03'13.239	0.616	7	38
4	R. Blaney Team Penske	12	Ford	240	+2.748 3:03'13.751	0.512	7	39
5	J. Logano Team Penske	22	Ford	240	+5.540 3:03'16.543	2.792	7	40
6	J. Nemechek Legacy Motor Club	42	Toyota	240	+5.966 3:03'16.969	0.426	7	33
7	C. Bell Joe Gibbs Racing	20	Toyota	240	+6.401 3:03'17.404	0.435	7	40
8	B. Wallace 23XI Racing	23	Toyota	240	+8.469 3:03'19.472	2.068	8	44
9	C. Buescher RFK Racing	17	Ford	240	+9.004 3:03'20.007	0.535	7	28
10	T. Gibbs Joe Gibbs Racing	54	Toyota	240	+10.492 3:03'21.495	1.488	8	27
11	W. Byron Hendrick Motorsports	24	Chevrolet	240	+10.753 3:03'21.756	0.261	8	33
12	K. Larson Hendrick Motorsports	5	Chevrolet	240	+10.775 3:03'21.778	0.022	9	41
13	R. Preece RFK Racing	60	Ford	240	+12.797 3:03'23.800	2.022	9	24
14	M. McDowell Spire Motorsports	71	Chevrolet	240	+13.206 3:03'24.209	0.409	8	23
15	C. Hocevar Spire Motorsports	77	Chevrolet	240	+14.384 3:03'25.387	1.178	9	22
16	T. Reddick 23XI Racing	45	Toyota	240	+14.484 3:03'25.487	0.100	9	21
17	B. Keselowski RFK Racing	6	Ford	240	+14.991 3:03'25.994	0.507	8	29
18	A. Dillon Richard Childress Racing	3	Chevrolet	240	+15.040 3:03'26.043	0.049	10	24
19	A. Cindric Team Penske	2	Ford	240	+15.238 3:03'26.241	0.198	8	18
20	R. Stenhouse Jr Hyak Motorsports	47	Chevrolet	240	+16.148 3:03'27.151	0.910	9	17
21	E. Jones Legacy Motor Club	43	Toyota	240	+16.994 3:03'27.997	0.846	10	16
22	K. Busch Richard Childress Racing	8	Chevrolet	240	+17.603 3:03'28.606	0.609	9	15
23	A. Allmendinger Kaulig Racing	16	Chevrolet	240	+17.818 3:03'28.821	0.215	8	14
24	R. Chastain TrackHouse Racing	1	Chevrolet	240	+18.548 3:03'29.551	0.730	7	17
25	S. van Gisbergen TrackHouse Racing	88	Chevrolet	240	+18.721 3:03'29.724	0.173	11	12
26	A. Bowman Hendrick Motorsports	48	Chevrolet	240	+19.786 3:03'30.789	1.065	10	11
27	C. Custer Haas Factory Team	41	Ford	240	+20.669 3:03'31.672	0.883	9	10
28	J. Haley Spire Motorsports	7	Chevrolet	240	+22.114 3:03'33.117	1.445	12	9
29	C. Ware Rick Ware Racing	51	Ford	240	+22.689 3:03'33.692	0.575	12	8
30	N. Gragson Front Row Motorsports	4	Ford	239	+1 Lap 3:03'27.672	1 Lap	8	7
31	R. Herbst 23XI Racing	35	Toyota	239	+1 Lap 3:03'29.103	1.431	8	6
32	T. Gilliland Front Row Motorsports	34	Ford	239	+1 Lap 3:03'31.253	2.150	13	5
33	Z. Smith Front Row Motorsports	38	Ford	239	+1 Lap 3:03'34.314	3.061	8	6
34	T. Dillon Kaulig Racing	10	Chevrolet	207	+33 Laps 2:39'24.055	32 Laps	9	3	Accident
35	D. Suarez TrackHouse Racing	99	Chevrolet	64	+176 Laps 53'54.307	143 Laps	9	2	Accident
36	J. Berry Wood Brothers Racing	21	Ford	35	+205 Laps 24'23.783	29 Laps	4	1	Accident
View full results