After a decade, Denny Hamlin has reclaimed his Martinsville dominion. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver, once an untouchable force at NASCAR’s oldest and most temperamental short track, had five wins here, including a ruthless three-race streak between 2009 and 2010. On Sunday, he added a sixth—one that served as a reminder that, despite the changing tides of the Next Gen era, Hamlin remains a master of the paperclip.
Leading a race-high 274 laps, Hamlin dominated in a way we (and Hamlin) haven’t seen since the dawn of this Next Gen car. He didn’t just win—he made it look easy. Christopher Bell, his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, threw everything he had at him after the 10th and final caution with 75 laps to go. But Hamlin, ever the artist of tire conservation, had Bell chewing through his rubber in pursuit, only to fall short by 4.6 seconds.
Bubba Wallace finished third, a strong showing for the 23XI Racing driver, while Chase Elliott, who led 42 laps, came home fourth. Kyle Larson rounded out the top five, completing a day that saw plenty of speed from Hendrick Motorsports but little to show for it at the checkered flag.
For Hamlin, Sunday’s win was a product of experience and outright defiance. Before the weekend, he told his team that whatever setup they had been lugging to Martinsville in recent years needed to be scrapped. A bold move, but one that paid off. By the time he won Stage 2, it was clear: this was his race to lose. Bell kept him honest for a while, forcing Hamlin to claw his way back into the lead on lap 327, but once he was there, he was gone.
After the race, Hamlin reflected on his resurgence at Martinsville:
“You know, Chris Gayle, all the engineers, the pit crew, everybody really on that wall right there, just deciding they were going to come here with a different approach than what we’ve been over the last few years. It was just amazing. The car was great. It did everything I needed it to do. Just so happy to win with Chris, get 55.”
Switching crew chiefs is never easy, but Hamlin has adjusted well to working with Chris Gayle after years with Chris Gabehart.
“Yeah, I mean, he’s been such a soldier to come in here to this 11 team, kind of learn our style,” Hamlin said. “Over the last few weeks, just putting his final touches on it. It’s really been a great mesh. Our relationship is getting better. Man, really happy to get a win with him. Obviously back here in Martinsville where I spent so many years racing late models and whatnot. Gosh, I love winning here.”
Hamlin also made a statement by waving a flag that read “11 against the world.”
“My buddies, my Ohio State fans that I hung out with at the end of last year, we always had the ‘Ohio State against the world.’ So now it’s ’11 against the world.'”
Behind the top five, however, things were anything but civilized.
Logano’s Long-Awaited Top 10 Comes with a Side of Fury at Chastain
After a chaotic Truck and Xfinity weekend, NASCAR’s Senior Vice President of Competition, Elton Sawyer, had one simple request for the Cup Series drivers in Sunday’s pre-race meeting: “My key word for today is ‘respect.’”
Naturally, they ignored him.
Martinsville was its usual feisty self, dishing out ten cautions—the most at the track since 2021. The list of casualties read like a who’s who of drivers who had the audacity to try and make a move. Chris Buescher got spun by Carson Hocevar on lap 72. Riley Herbst was sent packing after a tangle with Austin Cindric on lap 207. Shane van Gisbergen lost a tire after a pit stop on lap 276, which, while unfortunate, did provide the world with yet another example of NASCAR’s ever-growing fascination with wheels that refuse to stay attached. Then there was lap 299, where Ty Gibbs, Zane Smith, and Tyler Reddick all got caught up in a mess that was as inevitable as it was unnecessary.
Noah Gragson and Chris Buescher had a disagreement on lap 310, which Gragson settled in the time-honored fashion of door-slamming Buescher under caution. Joey Logano, meanwhile, looked set for his first top-10 finish of the season until Chase Briscoe, caught in a Ross Chastain-induced squeeze, bounced off the inside curb and sent Logano spinning from sixth place on lap 318.
Logano, however, does not go down quietly. Restarting 25th with the freshest tires in the field, he tore through the pack to finish eighth—an inspired comeback. Briscoe followed him home in ninth, just ahead of Todd Gilliland. Chastain? He finished sixth, no doubt leaving Martinsville as popular as ever.
Next up is Darlington Raceway a track almost as old as Martinsville. Maybe the sounds of Aretha Franklin singing her famous song will be playing on the PA will be drifting across the infield on race day.
RACE RESULTS
Photos: NASCAR at Martinsville Speedway Sunday March 30, 2025
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.