South Point 400 NASCAR Cup Series Race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway – Denny Hamlin Wins

By Judy Shields

Photos by Judy Shields and Stanley Rymsza

Las Vegas Motor Speedway (The Hollywood Times) 10/13/2025

Another beautiful day for NASCAR racing at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the South Point 400 in Las Vegas.  The folks that run the Las Vegas Motor Speedway are amazing folks and treated us with so much respect and kindness. They made sure we had plenty of water, coffee, sodas and tea throughout the weekend and of course delicious food too!  Being a long-time fan of NASCAR, it was a great privilege to be able to cover the South Point 400 race in person as media and having the chance to take photos of the race car drivers on the red carpet walk and then them driving their colorful race cars around the track. A dream come true. Thank you.

As in type of sports out here, there is always going to be a winner and for the South Point 400 Race the driver that that pulled off the checked flag win was:

Denny Hamlin age 44 scored his 60th victory in 718 Cup Series races.  This was his sixth victory and 17th top-10 finish in 2025.  His second victory and 15th top-10 finish in 28 races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and his 20th top-10 finish in 2025.  Denny Hamlin leads the point standings by 4 points over Kyle Larson.

Kyle Larson was second and posted his 14th top-10 finish in 19 races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and his 20th top-10 finish in 2025.

Christopher Bell was third and posted his sixth top-10 finish in 12 races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Riley Herbst (17th) was the highest finishing rookie.

He punched his ticket into the Championship 4, winning the South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Article and video from NASCAR with Denny Hamlin’s winning speech:

https://www.nascar.com/news-media/2025/10/13/cup-series-analysis-denny-hamlin-60-wins-las-vegas/

Denny Hamlin took the lead from Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Chase Briscoe with four laps to go, as the sun began to set in Las Vegas. He crossed the line 1.5 seconds ahead of Kyle Larson for the win.  Larson finished second, followed by Christopher Bell, Briscoe and Tyler Reddick. Joey Logano, Alex Bowman, Kyle Busch, Ryan Preece and Brad Keselowski rounded out the top 10.

Here are a few photos of Denny’s burnouts:

Sunday’s South Point 400 marks the first race of the Round of 8 for the NASCAR Cup Series. With the level of uncertainty that Talladega and the Charlotte Roval bring to teams, Championship contenders will be pressured to preform well in this race to put themselves in a good position to advance to the Championship 4. The 1.5-mile tri-oval located in Las Vegas Valley, Nevada, has an asphalt racing surface with 20 degrees of banking in each turn and 9 degrees on the front and backstretch. While the track first opened in 1996, the Cup Series held its inaugural race at the track in 1998 with NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee Mark Martin leading 82 of 267 laps and taking home the first-ever checkered flag in Sin City.

The big Cup Series Race was upon us and the photographs in the media room were getting all their equipment and talking about where they were going to shoot from and looking forward to a great race.  So after a continental breakfast of coffee, pastries and donuts from a famous local donut shop, off we went to the Driver Red Carpet Walk and Drivers Meeting before the big race.  Here are some photos taken on the Red Carpet Walk as the fans lined up to get their favorite driver’s autograph and photo:

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Drivers leaving the Drivers Meeting at the Neon Garage:

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Here was the Starting Lineup for the South Point 400:

Here is a video from turn one and four through the early part of the race:

We had a wonderful time taking photos along side the infield and those amazing colorful NASCAR cars and looking for our favorite driver Chase Elliott and Christopher Bell.  Here are some of those photos:

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NASCAR standings: Results of Cup Series race at Las Vegas

1. Denny Hamlin, No. 11
2. Kyle Larson, No. 5
3. Christopher Bell, No. 20
4. Chase Briscoe, No. 19
5. Tyler Reddick, No. 45
6. Joey Logano, No. 22
7. Alex Bowman, No. 48
8. Kyle Busch, No. 8
9. Ryan Preece, No. 60
10. Brad Keselowski, No. 6
11. Austin Cindric, No. 2
12. Chris Buescher, No. 17
13. Noah Gragson, No. 4
14. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47
15. Erik Jones, No. 43
16. Michael McDowell, No. 71
17. Riley Herbst, No. 35
18. Chase Elliott, No. 9
19. AJ Allmendinger, No. 16
20. Daniel Suarez, No. 99
21. Todd Gilliland, No. 34
22. Bubba Wallace, No. 23
23. Ross Chastain, No. 1
24. Zane Smith, No. 38
25. Austin Dillon, No. 3
26. Josh Berry, No. 21
27. Justin Haley, No. 27
28. Cole Custer, No. 41
29. John Hunter Nemechek, No. 42
30. JJ Yeley, No. 44
31. Katherine Legge, No. 78
32. Carson Hocevar, No. 77
33. Shane van Gisbergen, No. 88
34. Ty Gibbs, No. 54
35. Cody Ware, No. 51
36. William Byron, No. 24
37. Ty Dillon, No. 10
38. Ryan Blaney, No. 12

Until next time we get to visit the Races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. So long for now.