In 735 career Cup Series starts, Denny Hamlin had never once jumped a start. He picked an interesting time to do it for the first time.
Hamlin was forced to serve a pass-through penalty at Nashville Superspeedway on Sunday night after a violation on the opening green flag, his first such penalty in a career that stretches back to 2005. And then he did what Denny Hamlin does. He put his head down and drove through everyone.
All 37 of them. In a race that finished after midnight. In a car he should not have been leading.
The Race
Hamlin had started from the pole and immediately showed his hand, jumping the green flag and forcing NASCAR to hit him with a pass-through penalty on Lap 4. For most drivers, that is a story about what might have been. For Hamlin, it was a setup.
He methodically worked his way through traffic across 300 laps at the 1.33-mile Nashville Superspeedway, and by the time the final restart came, he was right where he needed to be: at the front with his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe running behind him.
The last lap was the kind of finish that keeps NASCAR fans awake. Hamlin, Bell, and Briscoe went three-wide charging into Turn 1, each driver looking for the line that would get them to the stripe first. Bell pushed a little too deep into the corner, Hamlin slipped underneath, and suddenly the opening was there. He crossed the line 0.115 seconds ahead of Bell, with Briscoe right behind in third.
Joe Gibbs Racing swept the podium. The race finished after midnight Eastern time following an earlier weather delay. And Denny Hamlin, once again, was standing in Victory Lane.
What It Means
This is Hamlin's second points race win of 2026 and his third victory of the year counting the All-Star Race at Dover. He is the hottest driver in the sport right now, and Sunday proved that even when NASCAR gives him a reason to be out of it, he finds a way back in.
The championship picture tightened slightly. Tyler Reddick, who has led the standings since his Daytona 500 victory to open the season, finished sixth but was involved in a late crash that damaged his car and left points on the table. Reddick still holds a comfortable lead, though Hamlin trimmed into it with the Nashville win. Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott, and Ty Gibbs continue to round out the top five mix in the regular-season standings.
Reddick is in control. But Hamlin is not going anywhere.
The Bigger Picture
Hamlin has made a career of finding ways to win when the story seems to be writing itself against him. The start violation could have been a footnote about a bad night. Instead it became the setup for one of the more entertaining comeback drives of the season. Three wide on the final lap of a race he was supposed to have lost hours earlier, that is Denny Hamlin in 2026.
Next up for the Cup Series is Michigan International Speedway on Sunday, June 7, a much different test before the schedule turns again later this month. For now, Nashville belongs to Hamlin.