Who… should you be talking about after the race?
He didn’t lead the most laps, and probably didn’t even have the fastest car, but Denny Hamlin and the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team played their pit strategy during a pair of rain delays perfectly. That was enough for Hamlin to win the Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400 at Dover Motor Speedway on Sunday (July 20).
Hamlin started 13th and finished third in each of the opening stages. He didn’t show quite as much speed as Chase Elliott, who led a race-high 238 laps from the pole, or teammate Christopher Bell, but he had track position.
That proved to be the key to winning on Dover’s concrete banks. Clean air made it nearly impossible to pass the leader under green. Elliott, who had the fastest car for most of the day, lost the lead on a pit error and was never the same afterward.
Hamlin made the most of the final two restarts, using the top lane to hold just enough momentum that neither Bell nor Chase Briscoe, who lined up next to him, could clear the No. 11. Having teammates start in the number two spot on both probably helped as another driver might have been more willing to pin Hamlin to the wall, the only chance the inside car had to complete the pass. Hamlin drove away from Briscoe on the final lap to win by .310 seconds.
It’s Hamlin’s series-leading fourth win of 2025 and third at Dover, tying him with Kyle Busch for the most among active drivers.
On the other hand…
After starting third, Bell looked like a solid contender for the win. He finished second in the first stage, won the second, and led three times for a total of 67 laps.
Even after a lap 260 spin from the front of the field, Bell drove away undamaged and the No. 20 team used smart strategy to get him back in the hunt between rain showers.
When the race restarted after a nearly hour-long delay for the rain, Bell restarted in position to race teammate Hamlin for the win, but on a day where clean air was king, Bell got loose trying to pass Hamlin.
He again got away with minimal damage, but a pit road speeding penalty on top of having to pit for repairs was too much for Bell to overcome. He finished 18th.
What… does this mean for the points standings?
After a late tangle between the Nos. 4 and 24, William Byron is not the point leader for the first time since the Cup Sereis left Kansas Speedway in May. Teammate Elliott takes over the top spot this week after a sixth-place finish. Byron trails Elliott by 16 points, with a gap of six more over Kyle Larson. Hamlin bumps Tyler Reddick out of fourth; Reddick sits fifth, 62 points behind Elliott.
Bell, Ryan Blaney and Briscoe remain in sixth, seventh and eighth respectively. Alex Bowman gains three spots to sit ninth this week while Chris Buescher holds onto 10th. Ross Chastain falls out of the top 10 this week, tumbling to 12th after crashing out of the race.
Hovering around the playoff bubble this week, Bowman has a decent 63-point pad, while Buescher has a 44-point advantage over the cut line. Bubba Wallace holds the final spot by 16 over Ryan Preece. Busch gained a handful of points on the line, 39 points to the wrong side of it while Ty Gibbs is minus 52.
If you’re following the $1 million in-season tournament, that will wrap up this coming weekend in a battle of the Tys. Ty Dillon faces off with Gibbs with the top finisher at Indianapolis Motor Speedway getting the bonus dollars.
Where… did he come from?
Sunday’s field was set by the rulebook after qualifying was rained out, so starting position was not an indicator of speed this week. Still, a handful of drivers started in the back half of the field only to drive into the top 10 on a track where passing is notoriously difficult.
Larson drove through the field after starting 25th, was in the top 10 by the end of stage one, and found himself racing for the win on the first overtime restart. That was halted by Bell spinning directly in front of him, but Larson kept his cool and avoided trouble, and while he wasn’t able to make a run on the final restart, he still finished fifth, a gain of 20 positions on the day.
Also working their way forward were close friends and on-track rivals Wallace and Blaney. Wallace, who is fighting to make the playoffs on points, drove from 22nd to seventh, scoring a stage point in the second segment. Blaney came even further from the back, starting 31st but picking his way to ninth in stage two and eighth at the finish. That’s a decent momentum swing for Blaney, who needs it after finishes of 40th, 12th and 37th in the last three weeks.
When… was the moment of truth?
It would have been easy to call the race in the second rain delay of the day. With fewer than 15 laps left, fans in attendance would have been shorted a large percentage of the laps they paid to see, and as it turned out, the result was the same.
But NASCAR made a good call. The racing surface dried quickly after the brief shower and there was plenty of daylight left. The late restarts injected a little excitement into the memories fans will take home
They also made the right call for the Xfinity Series race on Saturday (July 19), though it was the exact opposite one. Instead of keeping everyone waiting when darkness wasn’t far away and finishing the entire distance was unlikely, NASCAR made the right call to end it with a minimum of waiting around.
NASCAR seems to have found a better balance when it comes to delays, finishing races if they possibly can at a reasonable hour and not keeping everyone waiting for hours only to call it anyway or restart as the clock approaches midnight on a work/school night. It’s hard to be consistent as each track is different (Dover, for example, doesn’t have lights, so sunset is an issue that some tracks don’t have to worry about). There’s no one size fits all here, but this time NASCAR got it just right.
Why… should you be paying attention this week?
The Cup Series heads to the big oval at Indianapolis with just five races left to lock down a playoff spot. One driver who might have the date circled on his calendar is Reddick. He has a pair of top 10s and a fifth-place average in his two Cup starts on the oval. Bell has also been strong in limited starts, with an 8.0 average finish.
Among the veterans, there are just three current drivers with wins on the Indy oval: Busch (2), Brad Keselowski and Larson. Joey Logano has the best average finish (12.6) among drivers with 10 or more starts.
For drivers lurking around the cut line, Indy has been a mixed bag. Busch certainly has the best resume. Wallace has three top 10s in four starts, two of them top fives. Buescher has a top 10 and a mediocre 19.3 average that’s still better than drivers like Byron’s or Briscoe’s, so he’s not losing too much sleep this week.
For Bowman and Preece, Indy probably looks more like an obstacle than an opportunity. In three starts, Preece has a best finish of 16th and an average of 27.3. He’s also in better equipment now, which should boost his confidence. Bowman has an average finish of 33rd, lowest among all drivers with five or more starts. He’s had some speed lately, but will have to overcome his past struggles at the track.
How… did this race stack up?
Moving Dover’s lone race to midsummer was a good idea in theory, making the concrete mile the toughest it can be, though the consistency of the concrete surface didn’t make much difference in practice.
The heat and humidity may have made the drivers feel like the race was twice as long as it was, even with the late red flag, but in the end, it was the same old Dover. Track position was king, and the driver who got the best jump on the final restart was going to be the race winner.
The pair of late restarts breathed a little life into the race, but overall, except for Hamlin fans, it won’t make the list of the year’s best races.
Amy is an 20-year veteran NASCAR writer and a six-time National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) writing award winner, including first place awards for both columns and race coverage. As well as serving as Photo Editor, Amy writes The Big 6 (Mondays) after every NASCAR Cup Series race. She can also be found working on her bi-weekly columns Holding A Pretty Wheel (Tuesdays) and Only Yesterday (Wednesdays). A New Hampshire native whose heart is in North Carolina, Amy’s work credits have extended everywhere from driver Kenny Wallace’s website to Athlon Sports. She can also be heard weekly as a panelist on the Hard Left Turn podcast that can be found on AccessWDUN.com's Around the Track page.