Denny Hamlin solidified his place in the NASCAR Championship 4 with a thrilling sixth victory in the 2025 season at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, which also netted his 60th career Cup Series victory, tying him with Kevin Harvick for 10th all-time highest race winners in the series.Hamlin, 44, who drives for Joe Gibbs Racing, came from sixth on the final restart to overtake Kyle Larson and teammate Chase Briscoe with 4 laps to go. NASCAR Insider Jordan Bianchi saw this as a great opportunity for Hamlin to work on specifics, which could hurt the rest of the contenders.The Round of 8 opener at Las Vegas, which was highly favorable for Hamlin, appeared to be the other way for the vast majority of the race. Hendrick Motorsports drivers Kyle Larson and William Byron had controlled the race, with much of their dominance coming from Byron winning Stage 1 and Larson winning Stage 2. However, the race took a devastating turn for Byron's championship hopes when he was involved in an incident with Ty Dillon, who had slowed down significantly after attempting to enter pit road.This incident put Byron 36th in the race and placed him 15 points under the cutoff line for the playoffs. Hamlin started first in a race where 11 of the last 12 winners in Las Vegas had started in the top 10. On the last restart, Hamlin took four tires while others took two. He restarted in 6th with under twenty laps to go, and through the remaining laps, he did not hesitate to pass Joey Logano, racing Larson hard on the inside, and eventually passing Briscoe for the lead with four laps remaining in the race. With him already qualifying for the Championship four, Hamlin has three races left in the Round of 8, where he has the distinct opportunity to fine-tune his car and strategy, as suggested by Jordan Bianchi on the Teardown Podcast:"Denny Hamlin behind the scenes is as tireless worker as you're going to find. He does not get enough credit for how much time he puts in behind the scenes in terms of sim work, meetings, leadership, et cetera. You're giving a guy who has got a tireless work ethic, who is all in on doing the little things. You're giving him a three-week head start now and you're giving his team three-week head start where they can effectively just forget about the next two weeks and their mindset is boom, go on Phoenix. That's really dangerous."Bianchi meant that Denny Hamlin gained a strategic advantage by being the first driver to win in the Round of 8. Said three-week period represents the time between Hamlin's Las Vegas victory and the final championship race at Phoenix, during which the JGR ace's team can focus exclusively on preparing for the title decider without having to worry about playoff survival. This is Denny Hamlin's fifth appearance in the Championship 4 since the inception of NASCAR's present playoff paradigm in 2014 and his first since 2021. While he will undoubtedly be in pursuit of the elusive Cup Series championship title, which happens to be the singular honor missing from his resume, he has talked about his true 'legacy focus' lying elsewhere.Mark Martin reacts to Denny Hamlin getting emotionalFormer NASCAR driver Mark Martin responded to Denny Hamlin's emotional victory celebration at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where the Joe Gibbs Racing driver matched Kevin Harvick's record with 60 career Cup wins. Starting from pole position, Hamlin dropped to fourth place in Stages 1 and 2 before rallying in the final stage to outrun Kyle Larson and deny teammate Chase Briscoe the victory, becoming the first driver ever to start first and win at the track.Following the race, Hamlin became teary-eyed, prompting Martin to share on X:"Love the emotion @dennyhamlin I get it man. 🏁"Through 32 races in the 2025 season, Denny Hamlin has accumulated six victories, 14 top-five finishes, 17 top-10s, and has led 813 laps with an average starting position of 12.344 and an average finishing position of 13.25.