Denny Hamlin had to hold off a charging Kyle Larson in the closing laps to pick up his third win of the season at Dover Motor Speedway.
After the caution flag flew for a late-race crash, Hamlin would lead for the final 72 laps as he got a jump on Kyle Larson on the restart. Hamlin thanked his team after the race.
“Just a great team, they just did a great job,” said Hamlin, who led a race-best 136 of the 400 laps.
“All the guys on the wall right here, they made it happen,” he added. “Thank you to them and to [crew chief] Chris Gabehart. The whole team just gave me a great car. I think the key moment, really, was Kyle did an excellent job executing during the green-flag pit cycle and then we were able to get the lead there on that restart, then got the caution that allowed us to control the restart. That was really the key moment for us and certainly feels good winning here at Dover.”
A disappointed Larson explained after the race that the contact he had with Martin Truex Jr’s No. 19 Toyota hurt his chances of getting around Hamlin and winning the race.
“I knew when I got within three car lengths, he was going to start moving around,” said Larson, who led 39 laps and won the second stage. “I couldn’t really do anything. I was trying all sorts of different angles and speeds, all that. Nothing could generate enough speed to get close enough, I guess, to do anything. That was a bummer.”
“A great day for our HendrickCars.com Chevy team. Started 21st, and drove up to sixth in the first stage or fifth. Got a stage win. Another stage win sounds good. Good points day. We would have loved to get a win.”
As for Truex, he looked strong early on in the race, looking to cap off the weekend by joining his brother Ryan in victory lane, who won the Xfinity race the day before. He led for 69 laps and won the first stage, but lost ground due to a slow pit stop mid-race. He would go on to finish third, as he is now second in the standings, just 15 points back from Larson.
Polesitter Kyle Busch finished fourth, and Texas winner Chase Elliott finished fifth. Noah Gragson finished sixth, Ryan Blaney was seventh, Alex Bowman eighth, and Daniel Hemric and Ty Gibbs rounded out the top ten. Hemric’s ninth-place finish is his best so far this season.
William Byron had a rough outing at Dover, as the three-time winner this season got involved in a wreck with Bubba Wallace and Christopher Bell with 71 laps to go.
“Just sucks,” Byron said. “We had a good car early, but once we got in traffic, we were terrible.”
Corey Heim made his NASCAR Cup Series debut, as he was substituting for the injured Erik Jones after his crash at Talladega. Heim would run clean driving the No. 43 for LEgacy Motor Club and finish 25th. His team co-owner, seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson, finished 28th in his third start of the season.
The NASCAR Cup Series heads to the Midwest next at Kansas Speedway for the AdventHealth 400. That race will be Sunday Math 5th at 3 pm EST.
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