Denny Hamlin won Sunday’s (July 20) Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400 at Dover Motor Speedway, holding off Chase Briscoe to score his fourth win of the 2025 season.
Hamlin cleared Briscoe in turn 1 on the final lap and drove away to earn Joe Gibbs Racing’s 12th Dover victory.
The final 14 laps of the NASCAR Cup Series race occurred after a 56-minute red flag for rain.
“It was tough,” Hamlin told TNT. “Those guys gave me a run for it. To have back-to-back here over the last couple years is amazing.”
“I thought I did everything I needed to,” Briscoe said. “I thought I had him. Racing a teammate, I wanted to make sure a JGR car won.”
Briscoe, Alex Bowman, Kyle Larson, Ty Gibbs, Chase Elliott, Bubba Wallace, Ryan Blaney, Chris Buescher and Brad Keselowski rounded out the top-10.
Bowman had a front row seat of the race for the win.
“Just looking for an opportunity to get by,” Bowman said. “This place is so aero-dependent that you’re just looking for an hole. Unfortunately, we never really got clean air.”
Elliott led 238 laps, but took two tires late in stage three and lost the lead to Hamlin. Meanwhile, Christopher Bell finished 18th after spinning for the second time on Lap 393.
Elliott had perhaps the most heartbreaking result of the afternoon, as the No. 9 was the dominant car for much of the afternoon. However, the aforementioned two-tire call by crew chief Alan Gustafson in the race’s final stage took Elliott out of winning contention.
Bell had gotten back into contention after a previous spin on Lap 260 and led a total of 67 laps.
“I definitely wasn’t going to lift, and I knew (Denny) wasn’t going to lift,” Bell said. “We were going to race really hard, and I just spun out. I’m proud of the effort that this team has put into trying to improve.”
Elliott won stage one, while Bell won stage two.
Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400 Results
The NASCAR Cup Series will return on July 27 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The Brickyard 400 will begin at 2 p.m. ET on TNT.
A member of the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA), Samuel also covers NASCAR for Yardbarker, Field Level Media, and Heavy Sports. He will attend the University of Arkansas in the fall of 2025.
Worst. broadcast. ever.
First of all, the graphics are way too small.
Second, they used about a fourth of my screen to show Jeff Burton, Larry McReynolds and whatever former drivers they could get on the phone talking to each other.
Finally, way, way, way too much focus on the in-season challenge gimmick. It was a bad idea, it’s even worse in practice, and NO ONE cares. John Hunter Nemechek? Ty Dillon? As John Lovitz would say, “Yeah, that’s the ticket“. Even the end of the race was all about the ridiculous ISC.
I’m gonna pass on next week. I don’t think I can handle the ISC BS
It sounds like you had it on the wrong channel. The normal race broadcast is on TNT.
They also broadcast the race on Tru TV where Burton and McReynolds cover the in-season challenge gimmick.
I’ll have to pay more attention to the channel I guess. Thanks, Bill.
Do you mean Jon Lovitz? And the ticket is way overpriced with a lousy ROI!!
The finish of the second time out was 20, 48, 11, 9, 5, 24, 19, 54, 12, 23. That’s four from Mr. H and five from Reverend Joe! That says there is parity between Mr. H and Reverend Joe.