Denny Hamlin survives rain delay,
overtime finish to win for 2nd straight year at Dover
[July 21, 2025]
By DAN GELSTON
DOVER, Del. (AP) — Denny Hamlin balked when a surfboard he was asked
to sign for charity was placed on the floor. At his age, Hamlin
cracked, he might not be able to get back up. The 44-year-old driver
had similar aging concerns a night earlier when the picture on the
TV he watched as he started to doze off seemed a bit fuzzy.
“I'm not losing my eyesight am I?” Hamlin said.
Hamlin's vision was on point Sunday at Dover — his sights set firmly
on victory lane.
Hamlin can eliminate distractions and succeed like few drivers in
the series can can do: He shook off a setback in his court battle
with NASCAR, shrugged off old tire concerns once he took a late lead
ahead of a rain delay, and survived a late charge from his teammate
to go back-to-back at Dover Motor Speedway for the Joe Gibbs Racing
driver’s series-best fourth victory of the season.
“I just love that I'm able to still do it at a high level,” Hamlin
said. “Every morning when I wake up, I just hope I still got what I
had yesterday.”
Hamlin won in the No. 11 Toyota for the second straight time at
Dover to add to wins this season at Martinsville, Darlington and
Michigan.
Hamlin has 58 NASCAR Cup Series victories, leaving him two short of
Kevin Harvick for 10th on the career list. The veteran Virginia
driver might hit that mark this season as he chases his first career
Cup championship.
Hamlin is on NASCAR's short list of greatest drivers to never win a
championship. He won't let the void on an otherwise stellar resume
full of Hall of Fame credentials define how he feels about his
career.
Hamlin says, it's trophies, not titles, not he celebrates the most
“If we do, we do. If we don't, we don't,” Hamlin said. “I care about
wins. I want more trophies, more trophies, more trophies. When I'm
done, I want to be in the list of that top-10 all-time winners. That
will mean more than any other accomplishment.”
Hamlin took the checkered flag days after he suffered a setback in
court with his own 23XI Racing team’s federal antitrust suit against
NASCAR.
On Thursday, a federal judge rejected a request from 23XI Racing and
Front Row Motorsports to continue racing with charters while they
battle NASCAR in court, meaning their six cars will race as open
entries this weekend at Dover, next week at Indianapolis and perhaps
longer than that in a move the teams say would put them at risk of
going out of business.
Hamlin vowed this weekend “all will be exposed” if the case goes to
its scheduled Dec. 1 trial date.
The courtroom drama hasn’t affected Hamlin’s performance on the
track. Hamlin held off JGR teammate Chase Briscoe for the victory.
Hendrick Motorsports drivers took the next two spots, with Alex
Bowman third and Kyle Larson fourth.
“I thought I did everything I needed to,” Briscoe said. “I thought I
had him there for a second. I wish the Camry, the back, was about 3
inches shorter. I was so close to clearing him. I just couldn’t do
it. Obviously, racing a teammate, I wanted to make sure at least a
JGR car won.”
Hamlin held off Kyle Larson down the stretch last season to earn the
second of his three career wins at the Monster Mile.
The first July Cup race at Dover since 1969 started with steamy
weather and drivers battled the conditions inside the car during a
relatively clean race until rain fell late and red-flagged the race
with 14 laps left. Hamlin said the during the break changed his
firesuit — temperatures inside the car soared to 140 degrees, and
sweat kept dripping inside his visor.
[to top of second column] |
Denny Hamlin (11) drives behind the pace car during a yellow flag
for rain during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Dover Motor
Speedway, Sunday, July 20, 2025, in Dover, Del. (AP Photo/Derik
Hamilton)
He also returned to the car after the 56-minute
delay with old tires. Hamlin — who was the betting favorite to win,
per BETMGM Sportsbook —- had enough to win on cool tires at Dover
and park the Toyota in victory lane.
There was never any real consideration to pit with the lead for
fresh tires.
“We need wins,” crew chief Chris Gayle said. “How can we manufacture
some way to give ourselves more opportunity for that to happen?
Might not pan out, but we definitely weren’t going to do it doing
the same thing as everybody else. That was our train of thought
there and thankfully it worked out and we held on.”
He became the 19th Cup driver to win three times at Dover and the
13th driver to win consecutive races on the mile concrete track.
“I just studied some of the greats here,” Hamlin said. “I was very
fortunate to have Martin Truex as a teammate. Jimmie Johnson,
watching him win (11) times here. You learn from the greats and you
change your game to match it, you have success like this.”
In-season challenge
The Tys have it in NASCAR.
It’s Ty Gibbs vs. Ty Dillon next week at Indianapolis to decide the
first winner in NASCAR’s $1 million mid-season tournament.
NASCAR seeded 32 drivers for the first In-season Challenge, a
five-race, bracket-style tournament that mirrors the NCAA basketball
tournaments.
Both drivers are winless and Dillon made it as the No. 32 seed.
Gibbs finished fifth Sunday for JGR.
John Hunter Nemechek and Tyler Reddick were eliminated.
Logano’s 600th
Joey Logano finished 14th for Team Penske in his 600th career start.
Logano has made every start since the 2009, 597 straight, putting
him within striking distance of Jeff Gordon’s Cup record of 797
straight starts.
Logano was 35 years, 1 month, 26 days old when he hits No. 600 on
Sunday, making him the youngest driver to reach that milestone. He
topped seven-time NASCAR champion and Hall of Famer Richard Petty by
six months.
Petty is the only driver to have won his 600th start.
Up next
It's off to Indianapolis Motor Speedway where Kyle Larson won last
season on the oval after a four-year break on the road course.
All contents © copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved |
