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Yahoo
12 minutes ago
- Yahoo
NASCAR: Denny Hamlin holds on for chaotic overtime win at Dover after hour-long rain delay with 14 scheduled laps to go
Denny Hamlin's victory on Sunday at Dover looked pretty safe with 14 laps to go. Ross Chastain's crash brought out a late caution flag and rain started to pour not long after the yellow was thrown. Hamlin was leading teammate Christopher Bell and likely thought he had his fourth win in the bag. Not so fast. With the heavy rain being fairly brief, NASCAR immediately worked to dry the track. Roughly an hour after the race was red-flagged, it resumed for eight scheduled green-flag laps. The actual number ended up being far fewer than that. Bell spun to trigger a multi-car crash while racing with Hamlin for the lead on the first restart, and then Hamlin had to hold on for two more restarts to get his Cup Series-leading fourth win of the season as he kept teammate Chase Briscoe at bay over the final two laps. It ended up being a stellar day for Hamlin on the track after a less than ideal week in the courtroom. Hamlin's 23XI Racing team lost its charters along with Front Row Motorsports as a federal judge refused to grant the teams a temporary restraining order to keep them. The ruling was part of the teams' months-long battle with NASCAR over the sanctioning body's franchising agreement. Both 23XI and FRM sued NASCAR, claiming that NASCAR was monopolistic as it gave its teams just hours to sign a new charter agreement in the fall of 2024. Sunday's race ended up going seven laps over its scheduled distance thanks to the two crashes after the rain delay. After Bell spun to start a crash that included Noah Gragson and William Byron, Zane Smith and Ryan Preece crashed after that restart. Briscoe, meanwhile, worked his way through the field after pitting for two fresh tires immediately after the rain delay. Hamlin, Bell and others at the front of the field opted to stay out on older tires knowing that passing was incredibly difficult all day at Dover thanks to the aerodynamic deficiencies of the current Cup Series car. The rain delay put NASCAR in a unique situation. In most instances, a red flag for rain with less than 20 laps to go equals an automatic end to the race. You can understand why. It's a lot of track drying work for little payoff. Eight laps of green-flag racing at Dover is less than four minutes. But the quickness of the rain — and the concrete track surface — gave NASCAR a reason to think it could finish the race. And sure enough, it ended on a mostly dry track. It was an eventful payoff for the fans who stuck around both at the track and on TNT. On a slow sports afternoon following Scottie Scheffler's dominant British Open victory, NASCAR didn't have much competition for viewers' attention. And restart highlights make for great social media clips. But you can also see the argument against restarting the race. Especially if you're a fan of Bell, Byron or anyone else who saw their days go south after the rain delay. It would have been surprising had a crash or two not happened over the final eight scheduled laps. Drivers know that restarts are their best chances to gain track position even when passing isn't as difficult as it was at Dover on Sunday. The myriad tire strategies only added to that likelihood as the speed discrepancies between drivers on older and newer tires can easily create contact. Crashes, of course, increase costs for teams. And this is a NASCAR that has cut track time in recent years in the name of cost savings for its competitors. Even as the sun quickly shined following the rain, cutting the race short by just 14 laps is an easily defensible situation. This is, after all, a regular-season race in the middle of the summer. It's not a playoff race. Had Chastain not crashed and the rain hit with less than 10 laps to go, it's very easy to see how NASCAR calls the race early. But the final 20-plus actual laps produced more action than the first 386 laps did combined to provide a notable end to what had been a snoozer of a race. Had someone like Briscoe, Kyle Larson or another driver who hardly led a lap all day ended up winning after the rain, the outcome might be hard to stomach. Instead, the guy who was winning when the rain fell ended up showing why he's a title contender yet again by getting the winner's trophy over an hour later than he might have expected.
Yahoo
12 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Denny Hamlin triumphs in double overtime at Dover
Denny Hamlin held off the field in two overtime restarts to win Sunday's rain-delayed Cup race at Dover Motor Speedway. It is Hamlin's series-high fourth win of the season and 58th of his career. This also was the second year in a row Hamlin has won at Dover. Hamlin seemed on the way to the victory before rain stopped the race 14 laps from the scheduled end at the 1-mile concrete track. That delayed the race 56 minutes. "It was tough," Hamlin told TNT. "Those guys gave me a run for it, no doubt about it." Hamlin led 67 of 407 laps. Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Chase Briscoe finished second. Alex Bowman placed third, Kyle Larson was fourth and Ty Gibbs completed the top five. Chase Elliott, who led a race-high 238 laps, finished sixth. The top six were either from Joe Gibbs Racing or Hendrick Motorsports. Bubba Wallace, who entered holding the final playoff spot, finished seventh. Gibbs finished ahead of Tyler Reddick (12th) to advance to next week's $1 million final at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Ty Dillon, the lowest seed in the 32-driver event, finished 20th and beat John Hunter Nemechek (21st) to advance to next week's final of the In-Season Challenge. Christopher Bell finished 18th Sunday after two spins, including one in overtime. On the first green-flag lap after the rain delay, Bell spun while racing Hamlin for the lead. Noah Gragson hit the wall and collected points leader William Byron. Byron finished 31st. Gragson placed 32nd. While racing side-by-side with Elliott for the lead off the restart at the beginning of the final stage, Bell spun in front of the field. No one hit him. "Underbody's fine," crew chief Adam Stevens told Bell. "We're better than all of these jokers here, so we're going to have about 134 more when we get it. We can get back up in there into the top five, not a problem. Nice and smooth. Take a deep breath." Bell caught a break in the final stage. With rain approaching, he stayed out during a green-flag cycle. The caution came out at Lap 337 for rain and Bell had yet to pit and was leading. Only seven cars were on the lead lap at the time of caution. Rain later stopped Bell. He was running second to Hamlin when rain came out and stopped the race after 386 laps. Stage 1 winner: Chase Elliott Stage 2 winner: Christopher Bell Next: The series races at 2 p.m. ET Sunday, July 27 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Yahoo
12 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Hamlin 'studied some of the greats' to find Dover success
Denny Hamlin describes what makes him so good at Dover after picking up win No. 4 of 2025 and his second straight on the 'Monster Mile' concrete.
