Posted on by Staff Report

World Series 150

Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park

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  • Qualifying results
Pos No. Name Sponsor Best Tm Best Speed In Lap Laps Diff
1 51 Justin Bonsignore Phoenix Communications Inc 19.048 118.123 2 2
2 64 Austin Beers G&G Eletric Supply/Dell Electric/Fastrack Electric/Lumiere Electrical/Andrew James Int/AP Marquadt & 19.156 117.457 2 2 0.108
3 56 Trevor Catalano USNE Power 19.193 117.23 2 2 0.145
4 22 Kyle Bonsignore MTT/ChaLew Performance/Munns Auto 19.212 117.114 2 2 0.164
5 25 Matt  Swanson Ceravolo’s Auto/Mully’s Auto Repair/Casella Snowplows 19.23 117.005 2 2 0.182
6 46 Craig Lutz Riverhead Building Supply 19.253 116.865 2 2 0.205
7 60 Matt Hirschman Elite Towing/Bar Harbor Bank and Trust 19.263 116.804 2 2 0.215
8 54 Tommy Catalano FX Caprara/USNE 19.269 116.768 2 2 0.221
9 3 Tyler Rypkema USNE Power/SYP/Northeast Drilling 19.283 116.683 2 2 0.235
10 66 Timmy  Solomito USNE/Natural Design/FX Caprara/McKinney Construction 19.302 116.568 2 2 0.254
11 16 Ron  Silk Blue Mountain Machine/Future Homes 19.307 116.538 2 2 0.259
12 1 Patrick Emerling Fleetworks Inc. 19.319 116.466 2 2 0.271
13 58 Eric Goodale GAF Roofing 19.335 116.369 2 2 0.287
14 44 Chase Dowling S&S Paving/Harshaw Paving 19.353 116.261 2 2 0.305
15 21 Stephen Kopcik* Newtown Pools/Wanick Construction 19.377 116.117 2 2 0.329
16 17 Anthony Nocella Keene Towing & Recovery/Copart/Xtreme Autobody/Sontag Motorsports/Bells Septic 19.395 116.009 2 2 0.347
17 11 Eric  Berndt Ferguson Motorsports LLC 19.455 115.652 2 2 0.407
18 55 Teddy  Hodgdon IV* Montanari Fuel/Business Time Motorsports 19.498 115.396 2 2 0.45
19 63 Dylan  Slepian Eastport Feeds 19.584 114.89 2 2 0.536
20 82 Woody Pitkat Horton Ave Materials/Gunsmoke Stables Racing/Metro Door Boston/Hartford 19.589 114.86 2 2 0.541
21 20 Max Zachem USNE/Lu-Mac’s 19.729 114.045 2 2 0.681
22 18 Ken Heagy Speed 77 19.801 113.631 2 2 0.753
23 8 John  Michael-Shenette USNE Power Midwest/Eighty-Two Services/Heinz Performance/Anglers Choice 19.892 113.111 2 2 0.844
24 29 Mike Marshall MLM Diagnostics/Jusczak Electric 20.517 109.665 2 2 1.469
25 12 Brian  Sones* DW Machine & Fabricating Co./Bergen Industries 20.644 108.991 1 1 1.596

 

Posted on by Dustin Albino

LAS VEGAS — All of the NASCAR Cup Series alpha dogs have advanced to the Round of 8. Let them bark.

Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing and Team Penske — the flagship team for all three manufacturers — fill the eight positions in the Round of 8. This year joins 2021 as the only time that the eight spots were represented entirely by the three heavyweight organizations. Seven of the eight drivers in this year’s Round of 8 have appeared in multiple Championship 4 battles. Excellence personified.

RELATED: Las Vegas schedule | At-track photos

“I wouldn’t say there’s any surprises in the Round of 8,” reigning Cup champion Joey Logano said on Saturday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. “I think they are all capable of winning the championship this year — every one of them. There are none that are like, ‘I can’t believe this guy made it this far.’ I think you’ve got the best eight teams going for it; it’s going to be a battle right until the end.

“I don’t see a clear favorite or a clear this person is going to kill them all. It seems like it’s going to be close all the way to the end.”

The metrics skew in favor of these eight drivers. Every driver but Logano has multiple victories in the opening 32 events of the season and has accounted for 21 of the 26 wins on ovals. Josh Berry, Austin Cindric, Ross Chastain, Bubba Wallace and Austin Dillon are the outliers.

Over the six previous 2025 playoff races, Chase Briscoe, a JGR newcomer, has tabulated the most points with 233. Christopher Bell, his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, ranks second with 223 points scored. All eight drivers are within 48 points of each other.

“These are some of the best teams,” 2025 Regular Season Champion William Byron said. “It’s pretty straightforward to get here this year. I think that changed with Talladega not being in the Round of 12. It made that round — I would say — based on merit. These are some great race teams.”

The consensus among the Round of 8 drivers is that experience pays dividends. Four of the eight drivers are Cup champions, no doubt future Hall of Famers. Denny Hamlin’s 59 career victories easily secure him a spot among NASCAR immortals. The stock for Bell, Briscoe and Byron continues to rise with each passing season.

“There is a lot of experienced drivers that made it to the Round of 8, and I think that experience allows you to get to the Round of 8 throughout the playoffs,” 2021 champion Kyle Larson said. “I guess I never thought about that, but it’s impressive, and hopefully we can do a good job to make it on.”

The lone driver to not have a prior Championship 4 berth is Briscoe, whose deepest run was to the Round of 8 in 2022 with Stewart-Haas Racing. The script has flipped on his outlook as he had an outside chance of advancing to the Championship 4 that season.

“You don’t luck your way into the Round of 8,” Briscoe said. “I feel like it’s probably the strongest Round of 8 we’ve ever had. Just when you look at the teams and drivers. It’s not going to be easy. The points are tighter than they’ve ever been; nobody has separated themselves. It’s going to be tough, but at this time of the year, you have to go perform.

“I at least know the intensity of the Round of 8. It was a way different situation because we were complete underdogs. It felt different from what it feels like right now, but at least having that experience and knowing how that Round of 8 feels is good. There is a reason the same guys get there year after year, and they have a lot of experience doing it.”

MORE: Where each Round of 8 driver is projected to finish at Las Vegas

The points reset would concur with Briscoe. After the reset from the Round of 12, Hamlin is scored as the No. 1 seed, only eight points above the cutline. That’s the fewest in playoff history by a considerable margin, with the smallest gap previously being 18 points in 2019.

All eight drivers know getting through Las Vegas unscathed is paramount. The middle race in the round is at the hallowed grounds of Talladega Superspeedway, where a driver’s destiny can oftentimes be in the hands of their competition. Hamlin knows that firsthand, which is why winning the Busch Light Pole Award for Sunday’s South Point 400 (5:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App) holds a high magnitude.

“We’ve got really two races to make it,” Hamlin said. “Talladega is going to be a coin flip for all of us, so we have two races to try to execute the best we can and hopefully speed wins out. Hopefully, you don’t get unlucky. That’s going to be the difference. Someone is going to get lucky and someone is going to get unlucky to either make or not make the final four.”

Playoff drivers governed the field in qualifying on Saturday, filling up the top six positions. Ryan Blaney, 2023 Cup champion, is the only driver not to crack the top 10 and will take the green flag from 14th position. The Round of 8 contestants have combined to win five of the last six races at Las Vegas.

Posted on by Staff Report

World Series 150

Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park

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  • Practice results
Pos No. Name Sponsor Best Tm Best Speed In Lap Laps Diff
1 64 Austin Beers G&G Eletric Supply/Dell Electric/Fastrack Electric/Lumiere Electrical/Andrew James Int/AP Marquadt & 19.077 117.943 19 27
2 51 Justin Bonsignore Phoenix Communications Inc 19.125 117.647 21 28 0.048
3 22 Kyle Bonsignore MTT/ChaLew Performance/Munns Auto 19.13 117.616 16 22 0.053
4 16 Ron  Silk Blue Mountain Machine/Future Homes 19.144 117.53 21 22 0.067
5 60 Matt Hirschman Elite Towing/Bar Harbor Bank and Trust 19.148 117.506 23 24 0.071
6 1 Patrick Emerling Fleetworks Inc. 19.154 117.469 22 23 0.077
7 46 Craig Lutz Riverhead Building Supply 19.173 117.353 23 24 0.096
8 25 Matt  Swanson Ceravolo’s Auto/Mully’s Auto Repair/Casella Snowplows 19.179 117.316 14 19 0.102
9 11 Eric  Berndt Ferguson Motorsports LLC 19.196 117.212 14 15 0.119
10 56 Trevor Catalano USNE Power 19.224 117.041 21 22 0.147
11 17 Anthony Nocella Keene Towing & Recovery/Copart/Xtreme Autobody/Sontag Motorsports/Bells Septic 19.288 116.653 14 21 0.211
12 66 Timmy  Solomito USNE/Natural Design/FX Caprara/McKinney Construction 19.307 116.538 21 30 0.23
13 21 Stephen Kopcik* Newtown Pools/Wanick Construction 19.317 116.478 20 26 0.24
14 3 Tyler Rypkema USNE Power/SYP/Northeast Drilling 19.33 116.399 20 27 0.253
15 54 Tommy Catalano FX Caprara/USNE 19.342 116.327 18 21 0.265
16 63 Dylan  Slepian Eastport Feeds 19.354 116.255 27 28 0.277
17 58 Eric Goodale GAF Roofing 19.372 116.147 21 21 0.295
18 44 Chase Dowling S&S Paving/Harshaw Paving 19.378 116.111 15 27 0.301
19 55 Teddy  Hodgdon IV* Montanari Fuel/Business Time Motorsports 19.442 115.729 20 20 0.365
20 20 Max Zachem USNE/Lu-Mac’s 19.445 115.711 9 23 0.368
21 82 Woody Pitkat Horton Ave Materials/Gunsmoke Stables Racing/Metro Door Boston/Hartford 19.448 115.693 15 15 0.371
22 18 Ken Heagy Speed 77 19.517 115.284 20 21 0.44
23 8 John  Michael-Shenette USNE Power Midwest/Eighty-Two Services/Heinz Performance/Anglers Choice 19.547 115.107 18 24 0.47
24 12 Brian  Sones* DW Machine & Fabricating Co./Bergen Industries 19.626 114.644 20 25 0.549
25 24 Andrew  Krause Supreme Mfg. Co. 20.05 112.219 4 5 0.973
26 29 Mike Marshall MLM Diagnostics/Jusczak Electric 20.184 111.474 20 28 1.107

 

Posted on by Holly Cain

LAS VEGAS — Denny Hamlin led a Joe Gibbs Racing sweep of the top three qualifying positions for Sunday’s South Point 400 playoff race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (5:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).

Hamlin’s No. 11 JGR Toyota claimed the Busch Light Pole Award on Saturday afternoon with a lap of 184.849 mph around the 1.5-mile Vegas high banks — just bettering teammates Chase Briscoe in the No. 19 Toyota and Christopher Bell in the No. 20 Toyota Camry. All three are current NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs drivers. It was Hamlin’s first pole at Las Vegas.

RELATED: Starting lineup | At-track photos: Las Vegas

And it’s the second time this season Toyota has swept the top three qualifying spots — the last time was at Indianapolis Motor Speedway during the summer, when the make swept the top five. It was the 25th time in Toyota’s history that it swept the top three starting positions on the grid.

“I felt good about it, truthfully,” said Hamlin, the 2021 Las Vegas playoff race winner and the current championship leader. “There wasn’t a whole lot left out there for it. But a great job by this team to get my car good. It was good in the short run in practice as well, got to work on it for the long run for tomorrow.

“But Saturday [qualifying] has always been our Achilles’ heel at this race track, and that’s a great way to turn that around.”

Heavy winds affected both practice and qualifying sessions, with drivers reporting substantial headwinds on the backstretch.

The eight playoff drivers starting this three-race penultimate round of competition all had solid qualifying performances. However, beyond the Gibbs front trio, Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott was fourth quickest, followed by his Hendrick Chevrolet teammates William Byron and Kyle Larson — a three-time winner in Sin City.

Reigning series champion and defending Las Vegas playoff race winner, Joey Logano, was ninth fastest in the No. 22 Team Penske Ford. His teammate, 2023 series champ Ryan Blaney, will roll off from the 14th on the grid.

Ross Chastain was fastest in Group A from practice, but his No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet brushed the wall and the team spent the closing minutes of the session repairing it before qualifying. He will start 15th. Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ty Gibbs, who ended up fastest overall in practice, will start 10th on Sunday.

Gibbs fastest in practice

Ty Gibbs topped the leaderboard Saturday afternoon in practice at 181.733 mph over Hendrick Motorsports teammates William Byron (181.172 mph) and Chase Elliott (180.953 mph).

Denny Hamlin (180.741 mph) and Bubba Wallace (180.560 mph) rounded out the top five.

MORE: Practice results

Tyler Reddick (180.475 mph), Chase Briscoe (180.385 mph), Ross Chastain (180.288 mph), Kyle Larson (179.922 mph) and Christopher Bell (179.874 mph) completed the top 10.

Byron’s No. 24 Chevrolet had the best 5-, 10-, 15-, 20-, 25- and 30-lap averages. The only two playoff drivers outside of the top 10 were from Team Penske, as Ryan Blaney (179.104 mph) was 17th and Joey Logano (178.094 mph) was 28th.

Posted on by Staff Report

The NASCAR Cup Series and Xfinity Series continue the playoff action this weekend out in the desert, each kicking off their respective Round of 8 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Bookmark this page and come back often for your race-week essentials — from links to qualifying order, average practice speeds, results and more.

RELATED: Full weekend schedule | TV listings

NASCAR Cup Series

Race day: Sunday at 5:30 p.m. ET on USA Network. The categories listed below will be filled out with links as the information becomes available.

Tires: Ten sets for the weekend (eight new race sets, one set transferred from qualifying and one set for practice). 

Entry List
Qualifying Order
Practice Results
Practice Lap Averages
Practice Lap Times
Qualifying Results
Pit Stalls
Stage 1 Results
Stage 2 Results
Race Results

NASCAR Xfinity Series

Race day: Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET on The CW. The categories listed below will be filled out with links as the information becomes available.

Tires: Six sets for the weekend (four new race sets, one set transferred from qualifying and one set for practice). 

Entry List
Qualifying Order
Practice Results
Practice Lap Averages
Practice Lap Times
Qualifying Results
Pit Stalls
Stage 1 Results
Stage 2 Results
Race Results

Posted on by Dustin Albino

LAS VEGAS – Dating back to mid-summer, William Byron’s 2025 statistics are full of waves. The bright spots include stretching his fuel tank at Iowa Speedway en route to his second victory of the season and clinching his first Regular Season Championship.

A deeper dive, however, shows more. Byron’s 11.17 average finish so far during the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs ranks fourth among the eight remaining postseason drivers, despite having just one finish better than ninth in that span. That result was a third-place effort at arguably his worst circuit on the schedule at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

RELATED: Las Vegas schedule | At-track photos

The No. 24 team’s highs haven’t been too high and its lows haven’t been too low — he’s playing on a level field. In the 17 events since Byron led a race-high 98 laps at Michigan International Speedway (only to run out of fuel in the closing laps), he’s led in just three races. He paced the field for a total of 147 laps in that span, with 141 coming in his Iowa triumph.

Byron isn’t concerned, however, shrugging off the possibility that the No. 24 team isn’t hitting its stride.

“All that is behind us,” Byron said Saturday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. “We’ve done what we’ve needed to do. We haven’t done what we’ve wanted to do, but we’ve done what needs to be done to get to this point. The real race starts [in practice] and [Sunday]. Not really looking much at the past, but feel like we’re right where we need to be, at least from a preparation standpoint, going into Vegas. I’m pretty optimistic about today and tomorrow.”

Byron is a former winner at Las Vegas (spring 2023) and enters the weekend with five straight top-10 finishes in Sin City, the longest active streak in the series. With the points resetting, he drops to fourth, four points above Christopher Bell and the cutline.

The most recent intermediate track race at Kansas Speedway in the Round of 12 was disheartening for the No. 24 team. A late two-tire call by crew chief Rudy Fugle jumped Byron up the scoring pylon, gaining crucial track position and scoring a ninth-place effort. But the majority of the race was spent throwing “Hail Marys” to have a respectable showing.

The last 1.5-mile track before Kansas came at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May, when Byron crushed the field by winning the opening three stages and leading a career-high 283 laps. Ultimately, Ross Chastain got by in the closing laps to secure the victory.

MORE: Where Byron is projected to finish at Las Vegas | Las Vegas results hub

After dissecting the Kansas performance, Byron feels like the No. 24 team can conquer Las Vegas (Sun., 5:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App) and advance to the Championship 4 for the third consecutive season. He believes that it’s his best intermediate venue.

“This is a totally new beast now that we’re at the race track and see what we unload with,” Byron said.

Byron has pointed his way into the Championship 4 in each of the last two seasons. His average finish of 8.9 on 1.5-mile tracks is the best in the Next Gen era, according to Racing Insights. During Saturday’s practice session, Byron topped the scoring chart in five, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30-lap averages. He’ll roll off fifth in Sunday’s 267-lapper after Joe Gibbs Racing swept the top three starting positions.

Posted on by Staff Report

See where your favorite NASCAR Cup Series and Xfinity Series drivers will pit this weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

NASCAR Cup Series
View of Cup Series pit stalls.

South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday (5:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).

RELATED: How to watch NASCAR on USA Network, NBC Sports App

NASCAR Xfinity Series

Pit stalls for Xfinity Series race at Las Vegas.
Focused Health 302 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Saturday (7:30 p.m. ET, The CW, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

MORE: How to watch NASCAR on The CW

Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

In each of the last two years, Christopher Bell has finished second in the Round of 8 opener at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The frustration in 2023 left him gutted after Kyle Larson beat him by 0.082 seconds. The disappointment he felt in 2024 after Joey Logano and the No. 22 team utilized a clutch fuel strategy call to earn the win by 0.662 seconds was summed up on his radio: “You’ve got to be [expletive] kidding me!”

MORE: Las Vegas schedule | Playoff standings

The memories of those defeats have lingered in the minds of Bell and crew chief Adam Stevens for the last year — particularly after missing the Championship 4 in 2024 in part due to his October loss in Sin City.

“That Vegas race we’ve been looking at and studying for basically since Vegas one earlier this year (in March),” Bell said ahead of last week’s race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval. “Everyone knows how important that race is. It’s everything. I mean, we’ve seen it time and time again. That’s why the losses have been so heartbreaking. To come up close, to be so close to walking into that Championship 4 and not having it, everybody knows that Vegas is a super important race. Hopefully, we can dot our I’s, cross our T’s here at Charlotte, and then have that opportunity ahead of us next week.”

Indeed, it was mission accomplished for the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team at Charlotte, where Bell took the checkered flag third and advanced to the Round of 8 for the fourth consecutive season. In two of the past three years, Bell has also qualified for the title race at Phoenix Raceway by locking into the Championship 4, a streak interrupted by last year’s ousting.

But what makes Vegas so important when it’s the first in a three-race round? That comes down to preparation in a championship pursuit. A win at Vegas for a playoff contender buys the successful party some cushion and mental relief from the stress of trying to lock in at the predictably unpredictable Talladega Superspeedway, in addition to short-track madness that could unfold at Martinsville Speedway.

Factor in an extra two weeks to focus preparations on the team’s car for Phoenix, and a Vegas win becomes priceless.

Bell finished 12th in the spring race at Vegas earlier this season, but he and his team have renewed reason to enter the Nevada 1.5-miler with confidence. At the most recent 1.5-mile track, Kansas Speedway, Bell was fighting for the lead when the white flag waved before ultimately placing third after leading 43 laps.

He described the team’s outlook as “very optimistic,” but a tinge of the anxiety that comes with this race’s results was also evident.

“I think Vegas races different (than Kansas),” Bell said. “It takes different things from your cars, but the general car potential and speed should be relevant. So yeah, I’m excited and obviously nervous, Vegas is a huge opportunity, and it seems like we’ve got the pace in our Camrys to go out there and do it.”

Stevens, Bell’s crew chief since the 2021 season, knows what it takes to win a championship, leading Kyle Busch to both of his titles in 2015 and 2019, respectively. He also knows how to get the most out of Bell.

“We know we can go there and be competitive,” Stevens told NASCAR.com. “Our intermediate stuff has really turned the corner here these last few weeks, and we feel like we’ll have the speed we need. And it’s up to us to execute the weekend and maximize our day.”

Sunday’s race (5:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App) may not make or break Bell’s season, a campaign marked by four wins, 12 top fives, 19 top 10s and a series-best 11.7 average finish. But those 400 miles could determine whether Bell has a chance to win a championship — and that means everything.

Posted on by Cameron Richardson

Racing Insights is back with NASCAR Insights stats focused on the entire Round of 8 tracks. By looking at performances on similar tracks, Racing Insights has come up with ratings for each driver in speed, long-run speed, passing, defense and restarts to see who’s set up well for the upcoming semifinal-round races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Talladega Superspeedway and Martinsville Speedway.

RELATED: Cup Series standings | Weekend schedule

What we’ve done in the chart below is total up those numbers and order the drivers from lowest to highest (with the lowest being the best or the most likely to do well in this round). Six of the eight title-eligible drivers rank the highest. While Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe rank the lowest of their playoff counterparts.

Briscoe ranks 14th among the entire field for the Round of 8 ratings, but take that with a grain of salt as the four-year Cup veteran has turned into one of the best drivers in the field since the second half of the season. Las Vegas, Martinsville and Talladega were all early-year tracks and since the spring race at Kansas, Briscoe and the No. 19 team have gone on a tear with a pair of victories, six Busch Light Pole Awards and top-10 finishes in five of the six playoff races so far.

MORE: Playoff hub page |  Check your Playoff Grid Challenge score

On the flip side is Ryan Blaney, who ranks first in speed, long-run speed and passing for the next three tracks. It would come as no surprise if Blaney were to pull off the impressive feat of his Team Penske teammate, Joey Logano, to sweep an entire round (2015, Charlotte, Kansas, Talladega). Blaney is a three-time winner at Talladega and has won the last two playoff elimination races at Martinsville. Speaking of Logano, he ranks first in defense for this round and is pretty consistent among the pack as he ranks top 10 in every category — most notably, fifth in long-run speed.

The playoff drivers are tightly packed together, meaning it will take perfect execution to reach the Championship 4. The biggest differentials among the Round of 8 are restarts, all coming from JGR drivers as Briscoe (12th), Hamlin (13th) and Christopher Bell (15th). Besides that, you can throw a blanket over everyone else and there’s no telling who could break through and punch their ticket to Phoenix.

Check out the full list to see what jumps out at you that could be interesting for the Round of 8:

*Denotes playoff driver

DriverSpeedLong-RunPassingDefenseRestartsTotal
Ryan Blaney*1115614
Kyle Larson*2353215
William Byron*3667123
Chase Elliott*8732525
Joey Logano*9571729
Christopher Bell*54281534
Tyler Reddick612410436
Denny Hamlin*421191339
Bubba Wallace1011811343
Josh Berry7812121049
Austin Cindric1191361453
Ross Chastain16151041156
Alex Bowman12101515961
Chase Briscoe*131319161273
Ryan Preece2021919877
Brad Keselowski171418131880
Chris Buescher151622141784
Carson Hocevar142014292097
Ty Gibbs1819162722102
AJ Allmendinger1917202426106
Kyle Busch2528171719106
Zane Smith2118282027114
Daniel Suárez2326231825115
Michael McDowell2424253116120
Noah Gragson2823292121122
Erik Jones2229212328123
Austin Dillon2625242529129
John Hunter Nemechek2727262823131
Shane van Gisbergen3022313034147
Ricky Stenhouse Jr.3132302233148
Justin Haley2930273332151
Todd Gilliland3231322630151
Riley Herbst3334353424160
Ty Dillon3435333531168
Cole Custer3533343235169
Cody Ware3636363636180

Posted on by Nate Ryan

It might be maddening to be the often unwittingly agonizing center of attention every week, but Denny Hamlin at least has a sense of humor about it.

“I am that guy again,” the Joe Gibbs Racing star said with a chuckle in opening the latest episode of his “Actions Detrimental” podcast. “Three weeks in a row. Some I asked for it, some I did not. But this is three weeks in a row we definitely have been part of the story while finishing 12th, second and 23rd.”

RELATED: Denny Hamlin driver page | Playoff standings

For those who might have forgotten (which seems implausible if you watched one lap during the second round), here are the recent recurring turns by Hamlin as NASCAR’s leading man in the Cup Series Playoffs:

  • At New Hampshire Motor Speedway, he spun Ty Gibbs during a fierce battle in midpack, sparking nonstop debates about teammate etiquette and family ties.
  • At Kansas Speedway, he chose to fight tooth and nail for the lead on the last lap against Bubba Wallace (whose 23XI Racing Toyota is co-owned by Hamlin), opening the door for both cars losing at the checkered flag to Chase Elliott (and effectively eliminating Wallace from reaching the next round).
  • At the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval, Hamlin’s last-lap pass on Ross Chastain kept three-time Cup champion Joey Logano in the playoffs (and also led to a perplexed Hamlin getting clobbered in the final corner as Chastain made a desperate move to stay in the championship fight).

After the race, an agitated Hamlin animatedly questioned team members about why they had failed to inform him about Chastain’s points scenario and playoff outlook.

Maybe they just presumed their driver would omnisciently know that the narrative had revolved around him for the third consecutive week.

No driver in 12 seasons of the elimination playoffs has had a larger impact on a single round — and especially in determining which rivals advanced — than the clout commanded by Hamlin in the Round of 12 this year.

“And you know what sucks about all of it? I’ve gotten no DAP points for all of this,” he said sardonically on his podcast.

Logano has been the runaway leader in the Driver Ambassador Program, the first-year program known as DAP, that financially rewards stars for spreading the gospel of NASCAR.

But if there were a lifetime achievement award for media impressions, Hamlin would be an automatic finalist … if not the presumptive favorite among active drivers.

For years, the lightning rod of the Cup Series was Kyle Busch, who often overshadowed Hamlin with everything he did and said over 15 seasons and two championships at JGR. In three seasons since moving to Richard Childress Racing and more than two years without a victory, Busch now exists mostly on the periphery.

Hamlin has emerged as NASCAR’s main character — even without capturing a championship. Even when running a nondescript 15th at the end of a playoff cut race in which he was already locked into the next round.

Remarkably, Hamlin somehow gets thrust into the spotlight and often when he’s done little to deserve it (such as at the Roval).

Amid all the front-facing drama in his life, there is also a tremendous amount happening off the track.

Hamlin has added a third child to his family this season. He is wrestling with the health challenges faced by his father (whom he has alluded to multiple times in post-race interviews). Between race cars and podcast tapings, he seems to be in front of a camera on the daily.

And looming over this omnipresence is the fact that we already know when the curtain will drop on the Denny Hamlin Show (at least as a driver).

MORE: Las Vegas schedule | Bubble Watch

He has signed what he expects to be his final contract through the 2027 season and playfully has noted he knows exactly how many points races are left in his Cup career (the counter currently stands at 76).

For many drivers, that might be a detriment. For Hamlin, it’s a net positive. When the stakes are high, he usually thrives amid chaos.

It’s a quality that he shares with his NASCAR business partner. Michael Jordan is an NBA legend known as perhaps the most mentally tough pro athlete in history. In “The Last Dance” documentary series, Jordan and his Chicago Bulls were the NBA’s main characters during their run of six championships.

A title is virtually the only way that Hamlin hasn’t been the center of attention in NASCAR.

Yet it’s a starring role that seems inevitable.