Denny Hamlin secured yet another short track win this season, but this one didn’t come easy.
After building up a lead in the middle of Stage 3, Kyle Larson reeled him in with twenty laps to go and got to his bumper with ten to go. Hamlin then pulled off a masterful defense, changing his line to block Larson’s air and negotiate persistent lapped traffic. In the end, he got to the checkered flag .256 seconds ahead of Larson.
“Just a great team,” Hamlin credited the win. “This whole Mavis Tires and Brakes team did a great job. All the guys on the wall right here, they’re the ones that make it happen. Thank you to them. Chris Gabehart, the whole team for just giving me great cars.
“Man, I love winning!”
After starting sixth, Hamlin steadily climbed through the field, finishing Stage 1 in sixth and Stage 2 in third. He got to the lead in Stage 3 but lost out to Kyle Larson during green-flag pitstops. When the caution immediately flew for Ricky Stenhouse spinning on the backstretch, Hamlin was able to get right back by Larson and never gave up the lead even when the caution flew again almost immediately.
“I think the key moment really was, Kyle did a great job executing on that green-flag pitstop. Then we were able to get the lead on the restart, which allowed us with a cation to control the restart. That was the key moment for us.
The win is his 54th in his career, which puts Hamlin tied for 12th with Lee Petty on the all-time wins list. It completes an all-but sweep of the short tracks this season: Hamlin has won at the LA Coliseum, Bristol Motor Speedway, Richmond Raceway, and now Dover Motor Speedway with the season just twelve races in.
Kyle Larson ended up an unhappy second, but he could at least take comfort in knowing that there was nothing he could’ve done differently.
“Not in the last ten,” Larson acknowledged. “It’s so easy to aero-block. Not that he was doing anything dirty or anything like that. It’s so easy as the leader, especially at a place like this, to shut off the air on the guys behind you.
“I knew when I got within three car lengths, he was going to start moving around. 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.”
Larson acknowledged that the Next-Gen car has made passing difficult on the short tracks, but he explained that Dover is something of an exception if a driver can get his car in position.
“It is a little bit easier to pass here than some of the others,” Larson said. “It’s just as hard to pass the leader for sure… It’s just a product of the car and all that. We did what we could.”
Like Hamlin, Larson felt that the restart after green-flag pitstops in Stage 3 was what decided the race.
“Just losing the lead when I got the restart as a leader,” he said when asked. “I went late in the [restart] zone. Martin [Truex] was trying to time it behind me. He hit me right when I wanted to go. Screwed up, got a lot of wheelspin.
For Truex, who ended up third at his home track, it was a frustrating end. Despite incurring some damage on that restart, he had the fastest car in the closing laps but could do nothing to gain on the leaders after getting passed by the No. 5 of Larson in Stage 3.
“In the middle of the race, losing the lead was the difference-maker. Just lost the lead to the 5 there,” he explained.
“Once I got too close to him, tried to start moving around, I got a little too tight,” Truex explained the restart. “He was backing up. I just didn’t quite have what I needed to get by him. They all pounced on us and we lost control of the race. Then I got nose damage.
“Feel like we let one get away today,” he acknowledged. “You can’t lose control of these races mid-stage like that.”
Polesitter Kyle Busch ended up fourth. He’s admitted that his No. 8 Richard Childress Racing team has struggled to find speed, especially on the short tracks, so the top-five finish is a good result.
“Good day for the 8 car. Good solid points day,” Busch appraised it. “This is a normal day. I would love to have a lot more normal days. We just can’t seem to get any.
“Definitely had a third-place car today. Having to come from eighth to fourth on the final run was tough. That’s all we had.”
Noah Gragson in sixth was the best-running Ford in a strong run for Stewart-Haas Racing. Ryan Blaney was the only other Blue Oval to score a top ten at Dover.
Legacy Motor Club provided a couple of storylines at Dover, one scheduled and one more temporary.
As planned, Jimmie Johnson got back behind the wheel at the track he’s been so successful at, driving the No. 84 Toyota Camry. Johnson ended up 28th.
“Tough day. We certainly had higher expectations for our performance today for our Dollar Tree, Family Dollar Camry,” Johnson admitted. “It was nice to get another race under my belt and get a better understanding of the car. We will just go back to the shop and get after it.”
Following a hard crash at Talladega, Erik Jones, the usual driver of the No. 43 car, suffered a compression fracture in his back, forcing him out of the car to recover for the foreseeable future. Legacy Motor Club’s test and reserve driver Corey Heim, the Truck Series standout, was called up to fill in.
Heim finished 25th in his Cup Series debut. The race was a chance for him to get up to speed in the Next Gen car, and of all tracks, Dover has to be a trial by fire.
“It was definitely a lot different,” Heim said of the transition from the Truck to the Cup Series car. “I’ve been saying it all weekend: a big change from what I’m used to.
“Really from the beginning to middle of the race, I felt like we had a ton of speed. We kind of got messed up on the cycle there when the leaders pitted. I pitted a lap later and the caution came out right away, which pinned us an extra lap down. We were beating the guys that finished 15th through 20th, so I think that’s kind of where we were supposed to end up, but that is part of racing.”
Heim explained just how much it meant to him to make his Cup Series debut.
“I really felt emotional, I feel like I’ve worked so hard for this moment,” he said. “To finish where I ended up is unfortunate. I feel like I worked my butt off to be there. It’s a really cool moment for me.”
The race featured five cautions, four of which were for cause.
Todd Gilliland spun by himself on lap 40 under Austin Dillon. His tires went flat in the process and he ends up stuck on the transition between the concrete banking and the apron.
Brad Keselowski spins with three laps to go in Stage 1. He subsequently got a flat in Stage 2, sending his car into the wall and destroying the No. 6.
During green flag pitstops in Stage 3, Ricky Stenhouse spun on the backstretch. Wallace, Bell, Byron, Logano come together on the restart , which took Byron and Bell out of the race. It’s the first DNF for Byron this season after strong performance elsewhere.
“We were rolling on the bottom and something happened up top,” Byron explained. The No. 23 [Wallace] got spun across the track, and we were there.”
The Cup Series returns at Kansas Speedway on May 5th for a mile-and-a-half.
RESULTS
