Denny Hamlin scored a historic victory on Sunday (Oct. 12) at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, as he locked himself into the Championship 4 and became just the 11th NASCAR Cup Series driver to score 60 wins.
Sixty had been Hamlin’s long-sought-after goal, and with his father not doing well, the fans got to see an emotional side of Hamlin they don’t normally see last weekend.
Sunday might’ve been one of, if not the most important win of Hamlin’s career. And with him reaching a historic milestone, it’s time to look at his 60 wins through the numbers.
8
The number of times Hamlin has won a Cup race from the pole.
Las Vegas marked Hamlin’s 47th career pole, breaking a tie with Junior Johnson for the 11th-most all time. The nine laps Hamlin led on Sunday en route to victory marked the fewest laps led by a pole- and race-winner in the modern era of the Cup Series.
It also marked Hamlin’s second consecutive win from the pole, as his 59th career win at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway was also won from first place on the starting grid.
The other six races Hamlin won from the pole were the 2022 Coca-Cola 600, the 2019 Bristol Night Race, the 2016 fall race at Richmond Raceway, the fall 2010 race at Martinsville Speedway and both races at Pocono Raceway in 2006.
6
The number of Cup races Hamlin has won after leading single-digit laps.
Hamlin led three times for a total of nine laps on Sunday, which marked his sixth Cup win after leading fewer than 10 laps. The fewest laps he’s led in a Cup win is five, at both Richmond in April 2022 and Michigan International Speedway in 2025. He led eight laps in a win at Michigan in June 2011 and nine laps in his wins at Chicagoland Speedway in 2015, Pocono in 2023 (coincidentally his 50th career win) and his aforementioned win at Vegas.
9
The number of Cup races Hamlin has won after leading more than half the laps.
On the flip side, Hamlin has led the most laps in 26 of his 60 Cup wins; nine of those 26 saw him lead more than half the race. The most laps he’s led in a win is 299, set at Richmond in the fall of 2009. The highest percentage of laps he’s led in a win came at Pocono in July 2006, where he led 151 of the race’s 200 laps (75.5%).
8
The number of primary Cup sponsors Hamlin has brought to victory lane.
FedEx, unsurprisingly, leads the list by serving as the primary sponsor for 47 of Hamlin’s Cup wins. Mavis, Sport Clips and Progressive have won three races each, while Offerpad, Express Oil Change, Yahoo! and ampm have each experienced one trip to victory lane.
20
The number of Cup tracks where Hamlin has earned at least one points-paying win.
Hamlin is the all-time wins leader at Pocono (seven) and Kansas Speedway (four), and he’s tied with Tony Stewart and Greg Biffle for the most wins at Homestead-Miami Speedway with three.
He has recorded at least four wins at six different tracks: Pocono, Kansas, Martinsville (six), Richmond (five), Darlington Raceway (five) and Bristol (four). Of all the tracks where Hamlin has recorded at least 20 Cup starts, the defunct Auto Club Speedway (21 starts) was the only one where Hamlin failed to score a win.
Gateway became Hamlin’s 20th track with a Cup win in September, while Nashville Superspeedway (344 laps) is the track where Hamlin has spent the most circuits out front without a victory.
7
The number of crown jewels Hamlin has won throughout his Cup career.
That total includes three Daytona 500s (2016, 2019 and 2020), three Southern 500s (2010, 2017 and 2021) and the 2022 Coke 600. Only a Brickyard 400 crown is missing from his crown jewel resume, with a best finish of third at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on four occasions (2008, 2014, 2018 and 2025).
16
The number of Cup wins Hamlin has earned after his 40th birthday.
Hamlin had 44 wins when he celebrated his 40th in 2020, and he has nearly doubled his win total since 2019. At the conclusion of 2018, Hamlin was 38 years old with 31 wins. He has scored 29 wins in the seven seasons since with Chris Gabehart and Chris Gayle on the pit box.
57
The number of Cup wins Hamlin has earned with Toyota.
Hamlin’s win at Las Vegas made him the winningest Cup driver in Toyota’s history, surpassing the 56 wins that Kyle Busch scored at Joe Gibbs Racing between 2008 and 2022.
The first three wins of Hamlin’s Cup career came with Chevrolet, as JGR did not switch to Toyota until the 2008 season.
19
The number of seasons where Hamlin has recorded at least one Cup win.
The 2018 season remains the only full-time season of Hamlin’s Cup career where he was shut out of victory lane. If he had managed to win a race that year, he would’ve set an all-time record with 20 consecutive winning Cup seasons.
Hamlin’s current streak of seven consecutive winning seasons is the second-longest active streak, trailing only Joey Logano‘s 14.
4
The number of seasons where Hamlin has recorded at least six Cup wins.
He won eight races in 2010, seven races in 2020 and six races apiece in 2019 and 2025. That gives Hamlin a 15-year gap between seasons with six-plus wins, which came at the ages of 29 and 44.
10
Hamlin’s rank on the Cup Series’ all-time win list.
Hamlin’s 60th win tied him with Kevin Harvick for the 10th-most all time. Win No. 61 would give Hamlin sole possession of 10th, and with 63 wins, he would tie Busch for the ninth-most all time.
Dale Earnhardt ranks eighth all time with 76 wins. Stranger things have happened before, but that mark is — for all intents and purposes — unreachable.
1
Hamlin’s ranking on the all-time win list among drivers without a championship.
Hamlin has been the unfortunate record holder for this “feat” since 2023, when he surpassed Junior Johnson and his mark of 50 wins. Hamlin has since left the rest of his contemporaries behind, as he has significantly gapped Mark Martin (40 wins), Fireball Roberts (33) and Carl Edwards (28) on the all-time leaderboard. Of the five winningest drivers without a championship, only Edwards, Martin and Hamlin have raced full time in the series.
5
The number of times in the playoff elimination format where the champion won the first race in the Round of 8.
Hamlin’s the winningest driver in 2025, and this year will mark his first Championship 4 appearance since 2021. It’s Hamlin’s fifth Championship 4 appearance overall. But most importantly, this is the first time Hamlin’s clinched a spot in advance; in his first four appearances, he qualified by pointing his way in.
With extra time to prepare for the season finale, winning the opening race of the Round of 8 had traditionally been an advantage. In the first 11 years of the elimination format, the eventual champion won the Round of 8 opener on five occasions. Jimmie Johnson was the first driver to do it in 2016, followed by Logano in 2018. Kyle Larson became the third driver to accomplish the feat in 2021, followed by Logano once again in 2022 and 2024.
In other words, the winner of the opening race in the Round of 8 has gone on to win the title three times in the last four years.
Could this finally be Hamlin’s year to win it all? Or will 2025 prove to be his 20th year of trying and his 20th year of frustration?
Stephen Stumpf is the NASCAR Content Director for Frontstretch and is a three-year veteran of the site. His weekly column is “Stat Sheet,” and he formerly wrote "4 Burning Questions" for three years. He also writes commentaries, contributes to podcasts, edits articles and is frequently at the track for on-site coverage.
Find Stephen on Twitter @stephen_stumpf