What Happened?
Denny Hamlin held off teammate Chase Briscoe for two overtime restarts to win at Dover Motor Speedway on Sunday, July 20. Finishing behind them were Alex Bowman, Kyle Larson and Ty Gibbs to complete the top five.
It is Hamlin’s fourth win of 2025, which is already the most he’s earned in a single season since 2020.
What Really Happened?
After four weeks of brackets and tournaments, we finally have our two champion contenders that overcame all other challengers and claimed the right as the best of the best in the NASCAR Cup Series field. Truly, these two gladiators of motorsport have earned the right more than anyone to face off for one million dollars.
Wait, what?
Yes, it will indeed be a Battle of the Tys when the field goes to Indianapolis Motor Speedway next weekend to decide the winner of NASCAR’s inaugural In-Season Tournament Challenge, and quite literally nobody expected it would come down to two drivers that have never won a Cup race in their whole careers.
I don’t think NASCAR did, either.
That sounds harsh, and truly, seeing the underdog story come to fruition for both teams is pretty cool. It’s not often that Kaulig Racing gets in the headlines nowadays, especially if it’s not about AJ Allmendinger. Plus, watching Dillon’s underdog story survive week after week had me eyeing the battle for 21st in a race way more often than I probably ever have.
But having two drivers that have never won a race, have only one playoff berth between them and only a combined seven top-10 finishes this season face off for the tournament finale is probably not something NASCAR had in mind when making this challenge.
What they had in mind was a Duke vs. UConn finale moment. Instead, what they got is Norfolk State vs. Liberty.
Pardon my lack of college basketball knowledge, but I think you get my point.
It’s highlighted the unpredictability of NASCAR racing. While, yes, some teams are most certainly stronger than others, you can’t always rely on a particular driver outpacing the rest of the field for five straight weeks, regardless of how much star power they have. That’s not something a sport that is trying to promote its fantasy gaming is going to want to display.
And now the question is if that’s something that NASCAR wants to keep highlighting next year. After all, this whole idea came from Hamlin – someone that is not in NASCAR’s good graces at the moment.
Who Stood Out?
On Sunday, Chase Elliott put on a performance that we have not seen out of him since before the Next Gen era.
In fact, statistically, it was the second best of his career.
While winning stage one, Elliott paced the field for a whopping 238 circuits at the Delaware mile. In only one other race throughout his 342-race-long Cup Series career has he led more. It was at Martinsville Speedway in the fall of 2021 where he led a whole 289 laps.
Of course, that doesn’t account for the percentage of the many road course races he’s dominated, but hey, this is still a milestone statistic.
Like Martinsville, however, Elliott failed to capitalize on getting the win. Before the first rain caution, he pitted and got shuffled behind some of the leaders of the field. During the yellow, crew chief Alan Gustafson brought the No. 9 down to put on right-side tires only. The move gave him fresher tires than those ahead, but older tires than some that took four.
On the final restart, he had faded back to fifth position and couldn’t overcome the fresher tires of the drivers behind him.
After one of the most promising days of his career, the No. 9 team had to settle for a sixth-place result.
Who Fell Flat?
If there was anyone that could’ve challenged Elliott all day, it was likely Christopher Bell.
And nobody had more of a roller coaster day.
For the first half of the race, Elliott had a lights-out lead over the rest of the field. However, during a green flag pit stop cycle after the conclusion of stage one, the No. 9 pitted with Bell, who ran second, close behind. A slow stop for the Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet had him fall behind the No. 20.
Bell kept the lead for the rest of the stage and won the second segment.
Yet upon the restart immediately following, his lead literally went up on smoke.
It was a major setback for the Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Bell fell back to 22nd as a result and couldn’t make much ground up afterward.
But it still didn’t end there. Right before the first rain caution, Bell had retaken the lead during green flag pit stops. With perfect timing, the yellow flag waved trapping the field behind the No. 20. With that luck, Bell retook the lead and was back in contention of the race, completely recovering from his spin.
Teammate Hamlin retook the lead, but Bell stayed close behind him as the final laps clicked away.
After another caution that brought out a rain-caused red flag, Bell’s duel with Hamlin resumed with only eight laps to go.
But, once again, his restart lead battle didn’t last long.
The incident didn’t take him out of the race, but the Oklahoman had enough damage to take him out of contention for good.
After leading, spinning, leading again and spinning again, Bell’s wild Dover day ended with a thud in 18th.
Paint Scheme of the Race
As far as paint scheme weekends go, Dover’s had a mostly underwhelming assortment.
There were few new designs to appreciate on Sunday afternoon, and most of the ones that existed were still not very noteworthy.
However, John Hunter Nemechek‘s was at least setting a golden standard.
Black and white on its own is not a fascinating combination of colors if not done the right way. However, Nemechek’s No. 42 design had those golden secondary colors that made Hertz’ debut as a sponsor stand out from the others.
It fit the black and gold theme of Legacy Motor Club, and it felt pleasing to the eyes while doing it.
What’s Next?
NASCAR returns to the Brickyard.
The Cup Series will make its annual trip to the hallowed ground of Indianapolis Motor Speedway for its third crown jewel event of the season. The Brickyard 400 will be aired live on TNT and HBO Max with coverage beginning on Sunday, July 27 at 2 p.m. ET.
Dalton Hopkins began writing for Frontstretch in April 2021. Currently, he is the lead writer for the weekly Thinkin' Out Loud column, co-host of the Frontstretch Happy Hour podcast, and one of our lead reporters. Beforehand, he wrote for IMSA shortly after graduating from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 2019. Simultaneously, he also serves as a Captain in the US Army.
Follow Dalton on Twitter @PitLaneCPT