MADISON, Ill. – Denny Hamlin punched his ticket to the Round of 12 with a win in front of a sellout crowd on Sunday in the Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway.

Hamlin had an off performance in the Cook Out Southern 500 the weekend prior at Darlington Raceway, a track where he is known to run up front. On Sunday in Illinois however, Hamlin started on the pole and was strong all race long. The driver of the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 Progressive Toyota finished third in Stage 1, seventh in Stage 2 and held off teammate Chase Briscoe in the final 25 laps for his 59^th career NASCAR Cup Series victory, as well as the 200^th win for Toyota.

“Yeah, it’s so big for everyone at Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing,” Hamlin said. “Progressive Toyota was great there at the end. So happy to get this victory. My dad’s not feeling well at home. Just shout-out to him. The whole family’s here.

“Fantastic day. Man, couldn’t be better.”

Although Hamin now has a spot in the Round of 12, he’s eager to get to Bristol as he looks to earn win No. 60 and tie Kevin Harvick for 10^th on the all-time wins list.

“I’m not going to change my preparation for Bristol,” Hamlin said. “All this win did was just add work to the week ’cause it allows us to now get ahead to the next round.

“There’s no way I’m willing to go to Bristol compromising my normal routine.”

Briscoe finished runner-up in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota. He entered the weekend coming off his second consecutive Cook Out Southern 500 weekend, which guaranteed him a spot in the Round of 12. On Sunday, Briscoe ran up front early but the team had their issues. Briscoe locked up the left front entering Turn 1 and took out Daniel Suarez on Lap 62. Later, his team had issue with the left rear on pit road, and it resulted in a 28-second stop.

“I would say our strength was our speed,” Briscoe said. “We had a really good Bass Pro Shops Toyota. Our weakness was just the sloppiness, right? Whether it was me behind the wheel or pit road. I don’t know what the left rear issue was. Great recovery.”

NASCAR Playoffs contenders, Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano rounded out the top-five. Coming off a career high finish at Darlington Raceway, John Hunter Nemechek kept the momentum going with a sixth-place finish, followed by Christopher Bell, Bubba Wallace, Chris Buescher and Ty Gibbs.

Briscoe won Stage 1, and Bubba Wallace won Stage 2.

There were 15 lead changes among nine drivers. Hamlin led a race high of 75 laps. Wallace led 73 laps throughout the afternoon.

The caution came out on 10 occasions for 52 laps. The most notable caution came out on Lap 136, when Kyle Larson took out Blaney while they were racing for the lead. After the race, the two drivers spoke to each other on pit road. Larson says that he didn’t mean to get into Blaney.

“I just told him I messed up,” Larson said. “I wasn’t meaning obviously to go in there and hit him. The lap before I had got in there and got inside of him, slid up, got to his door, got him tight, got to where I could race him down the frontstretch.

 “I was just trying to do that again. I was a little further back into three than I was the lap before. Just misjudged the point of where I wasn’t going to get next to him and tuck in. I just clipped him.”

Blaney had a car that was potentially capable of challenging Hamlin if he had been in a position to do so, but he ran out of time. Blaney is happy his team rebounded but its thrilled about having to do so.

“He just said he made a mistake,” Blaney said. “That’s fine. Make mistakes. But like at the end of the day I still got turned. Came from all the way up the bottom of the racetrack, hit me in he left rear. I know he most likely didn’t mean to do it, but it happened anyway.

 “That’s one I’ve got to remember. I was happy we bounced back, not to get turned around, did a good job of coming out where we need to be. Having a good enough car to get back to fourth. Proud of the effort.”

Leaving World Wid Technology Raceway, Hamlin and Briscoe are moving on to the Round of 12 and now heading into the final race of the round, Larson is +60 to the good, followed by Wallace (+50), Blaney (+42), William Byron (+39), Tyler Reddick (+37), Bell (+32), Elliott (+28), Logano (+21), Ross Chastain (+19) and Austin Cindric (+11). On the outside looking in is Austin Dillon (-11), Shane van Gisbergen (-15), Alex Bowman (-35) and Josh Berry (-45).

The NASCAR Cup Series will visit Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday, Sept. 13 for the Bass Pro Shop Night Race. Live coverage of the final race of the Round of 16 will broadcast on the USA Network at 7:30 p.m. ET.

Photo Credit: Christian Koelle/TheFourthTurn.com