Denny Hamlin knows how to open each playoff round by winning. He followed up his playoff opening win at Darlington with a win Sunday night at Las Vegas in the first race of the second round. The Darlington win locked him into the second round of the playoffs. Sunday night's win locks him into the third round of the playoffs.
“It feels so good to win in Vegas,” Hamlin said. “Last couple times, I’ve been so close, just didn’t have the right brakes. But they dialed the car in great and we were able to hold those guys off.”
Chase Elliott closed in on Hamlin late but was unable to get past him and eventually finished second, about a half second behind the leader.
Kyle Busch finished third in his 600th career race and Martin Truex Jr. was fourth as Joe Gibbs Racing had three Toyota's finish in the top four. Tyler Reddick finished fifth in his Chevrolet after he was second to Hamlin before the final set of pit stops. Reddick ran longer than Hamlin before his final pit stop and that hurt his opportunity for a win.
Final Results:
Denny Hamlin (P)
Chase Elliott (P)
Kyle Busch (P)
Martin Truex Jr. (P)
Tyler Reddick
Ryan Blaney (P)
Brad Keselowski (P)
Kevin Harvick (P)
Kurt Busch
Kyle Larson (P)
Joey Logano (P)
Matt DiBenedetto
Chase Briscoe
Austin Dillon
Daniel Suarez
Bubba Wallace
Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
William Byron (P)
Aric Almirola
Ryan Newman
Michael McDowell
Alex Bowman (P)
Ross Chastain
Christopher Bell (P)
Erik Jones
Chris Buescher
Anthony Alfredo
Cole Custer
Ryan Preece
Corey LaJoie
Cody Ware
Justin Haley
BJ McLeod
Quin Houff
Garrett Smithley
Josh Bilicki
Joey Gase
JJ Yeley
Check out the highlights by Edward Sutelan at the Sporting News:
Chris Estrada has the recap for NBC Sports: