Denny Hamlin still has it with Dover NASCAR win; fourth of 2025

Denny Hamlin still has it.

Sure, there were some lucky breaks along the way in winning the Autotrader Echopark Automotive 400 at Dover Motor Speedway on Sunday but the 44-year-old executed under pressure in a big way over the final 12 laps of the race.

And that’s the story here — that at nearly 45-years-old, Hamlin has four wins this season and 58 in a career that is still searching for the decisive career-defining championship this November.

Hamlin is more than capable of doing what it takes to get there at an age where many of his recent peers have started to taper-off competitively.

“I love it,” Hamlin said. “I just love that I’m able to still do it at a high level. I mean, every morning when I wake up, I’m just hoping I still got what I had yesterday, you know? You just never know when you get to this age, right?

“Last night, I was looking at the TV. It was a little fuzzy. I think I was just tired. ‘Oh, man, I’m not losing my eyesight, am I?’ I get paranoid about little things that might hamper my ability to do things at a high level.

“Every time I get in the car, during the first stage, I’m just driving by cars (and) it’s like, ‘We’re still good.’

Good is an understatement. Hamlin is leading the division in wins and is on pace to be the top-seeded contender once the playoffs start in September. His latest triumph comes at one of the most physically demanding tracks in Dover on a hot and humid day where so many of his peers opted to wear cool suits — something his old-school approach doesn’t partake in.

“This is one of the more physical, demanding racetracks that we go to anyway,” Hamlin said. “It’s certainly in the top I think three just simply because of the g-forces it has. You don’t have long straightaways to take breaks. When I say ‘take breaks’, typically drivers like to relax your body. You should relax your bodies on the straightaways to not fatigue all your muscles during the course of a three-and-a-half-hour race.

“There’s not a lot of time to do that at this track. With it hotter, you’re going to be more dehydrated. You’re going to have to take in more fluids, have sweat dripping in your eyes. Many times, I had to clean off my eyes because I have sweat dripping down through my visor. It was one of those hotter races that we’ve had this season, what we’ve had in a while.

“But really, I felt fine all day long. It’s just the hottest it was is when we went back racing. The car heat soaking on pit road there, the car was way hotter once we got back in with 13 laps to go than it was when we were running all day long. Just not having that wind running through the car and cooling it, it was an oven.”

Then Hamlin proceeded to fend off much younger peers in the form of 30-year-old teammates Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe. He arguably schooled them. Bell spun under Hamlin on the first restart back after a one-hour rain delay and then gritted out the win on older tires compared to Briscoe.

Gritted being the word for contact and a late clear, whatever it took to get the decisive clean air, even against drivers out of the same shop.

“That’s the toughest line to walk truthfully because if it is someone else, you don’t mind running ’em up in the fuzz, right,” Hamlin said. “If it’s a teammate, you got to sit down and you got to see that guy tomorrow afternoon. It’s just a little different in that aspect.

“When we went back, right before we went back, me and Christopher were walking back to our cars. I said, ‘Just don’t wipe me out.’ I was afraid (because) we had old tires (and) I don’t know what the grip level of the track is. I just didn’t want JGR cleaning itself out (and) somebody else winning it.

“I think, truthfully, he probably laid off of me there off of four and ended up wrecking himself because he didn’t want to have the big contact.”

It was the second time in the race that Bell spun racing for the leader, the first coming against Chase Elliott.

“Denny was on my outside and we’re both pushing hard,” Bell said. “You know, whoever gets clean air and wins that restart is going to win the race. I wasn’t going to let him go, that’s for sure.”

Bell was only in a position to even have a chance at the end because he caught a caution as the leader but only after everyone ahead of him pitted. Hamlin cycled through to the lead and was able to fend off all the challenges on the ensuing restarts.

That included Briscoe at the end.

“He was doing such a good job of pinning me so tight that I couldn’t really do a whole lot,” Briscoe said. “If I could have stayed there one more lap? I don’t know, it’s hard to say, right? I was two, three inches away from clearing him a couple of times and could never get it done.

“Denny was probably the best car, so it was going to be hard to just pass him – even with the tire advantage, I couldn’t do it. I definitely think if it wasn’t a teammate, I could have done a lot of things differently to potentially win the race. But I didn’t want to screw one of the JGR cars.”

So here is Hamlin, approaching 45, as good as he ever was and it’s time to start entertaining the question about his chances of winning that elusive championship. As Hamlin himself is fond of saying, every year is his year, until it’s no longer his year.

“It’s not an accident that the same five guys running up front every single week,” Hamlin said. “It’s just a matter of can those five guys make it through this type of format in the playoffs? We couldn’t even make it out of 32nd seed in a bracket. It’s a tough format. When you shorten your seasons into three races, fricking anything can happen. I try not to just, ‘oh, we’re going to do it this year.’

“If we do, we do. If we don’t, we don’t. I care about wins. Trust me, I want more trophies, more trophies, more trophies. When I’m done, I want to be in the top 10 of all-time winners. That will mean more than any other accomplishment I could have.”

58 down.
Three to go.

The rest can (maybe) come later.

Settling

On one hand, Chase Elliott took over the NASCAR Cup Series championship lead with a sixth-place result but after leading 238 laps, it felt like settling.

For one, the Hendrick Motorsports No. 9 team led171 of the first 184 laps before the car fell off a jack during a pit stop in the middle of the second stage. Crew chief Alan Gustafson called Elliott down pit road from a top-three position, wanting two tires to try to offset the advantage Hamlin and Bell had inherited, but the track position was too much to overcome and they settled for sixth.

Ty vs Ty

Kaulig Racing

Ty Dillon survived Atlanta as the No. 32 seed to advance past No. 1 seeded Denny Hamlin in the opener of the In-Season Challenge. He advanced again in Chicago over No. 17 Brad Keselowski, the 2012 Cup champion, and used a bump-and-run on No. 8 Alex Bowman on the final lap at Sonoma to make the Final Four.

On Sunday at Dover, Dillon finished 20th to advance over No. 12 seeded John Hunter Nemechek by one spot. As a result, he will race Ty Gibbs for a million dollars next week in the Brickyard 400 in a head-to-head battle to determine the winner of the inaugural bracket showdown.

“It feels good,” Dillon said. “You know, I have been the underdog for a long time now, just battling my way to try to get opportunity. Eventually you get comfortable in fighting from behind and people underestimating you.

“It’s hard to say that we lucked into it this far in, and I am proud of the way we have run. We haven’t been a dominating car, but we have been a pain to everyone around us. That is all we can do — put pressure on them and execute at the right time and that is what we have done.”

Gibbs’ grandfather and team owner, Joe Gibbs, addressed what this meant to their No. 54 team after the race.

“I really appreciate everybody that’s on that team,” the elder Gibbs said. “There’s some people there that we got off to a terrible start. It was awful. I had people on that group that came to me encouraging me, ideas for me, after it. I think they care for Ty. It just was a huge deal.

“We’ve added a lot to that team, as you guys know. When you see somebody go through some real tough like that… This sport will really measure you. But those guys have fought back.

“Our pit crew there, those guys did a great job today. They have been there through the first part of the year when nothing went right. There was nothing went our way. So you appreciate those guys. Just kept fighting. I appreciate that.

“So for us to get to this point, we still got a long ways to go because we got to win to probably get in the (Playoffs). It was a huge deal today. They fought their guts out at the end.”

Gibbs advanced after eliminating No. 27 seed Justin Haley at Atlanta), No. 22 seeded AJ Allmendinger in Chicago, No. 14 seed Zane Smith at Sonoma and No. 23 seeded Reddick by a margin of fifth-to-12th.

Standings Talk

There are five races remaining in the regular season, meaning that a shake-up of the Round of 16 may very well need to be decided by a surprise winner at one of the remaining wild card races like Watkins Glen or Daytona.

Bubba Wallace gained nine points on Ryan Preece after the latter was involved in a late incident with Zane Smith. The finished P7 and P19 respectively.

It would take a big meltdown or penalty for the likes of Reddick, Bowman or Buescher to fall off the provisional playoff grid. Instead, it’s going to take an upset winner like Harrison Burton at Daytona to make the first round and bump someone else out.

To that point, the gap from Buescher to Wallace remains relevant because that could be the race for the final spot on points should an upset winner happen on the final road course and superspeedway of the regular season.

For now, the regular season championship battle seems to have the most intrigue with Elliott taking the points lead over teammate William Byron. Remember that the top-10 in the final regular season championship points all earn playoff points to the tune of 15, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 respectively.

Race winners get five playoff points for each win and every stage win is a playoff point as well. All playoff points accrued carry over from round to round should a driver advance.

Provisional Playoff Grid

Denny Hamlin WWWW
Kyle Larson WWW
Christopher Bell WWW
Shane Van Gisbergen WWW
William Byron W
Ryan Blaney W
Austin Cindric W
Joey Logano W
Chase Elliott W
Chase Briscoe W
Ross Chastain W
Josh Berry W
Tyler Reddick +156
Alex Bowman +63
Chris Buescher +44
Bubba Wallace +16
Ryan Preece -16
Kyle Busch -39
Ty Gibbs -52
Michael McDowell -77

Updated standings

1. Chase Elliott 702 points
2. William Byron: -17
3. Kyle Larson -38
4. Denny Hamlin -39
5. Tyler Reddick -62
6. Christopher Bell -67
7. Ryan Blaney -126
8. Chase Briscoe -132
9. Alex Bowman -155
10. Chris Buescher -174
11. Joey Logano -178
12. Ross Chastain -185
13. Bubba Wallace -202
14. Ryan Preece -218
15. Kyle Busch -241

Results