Sunday at Martinsville Speedway was the race to end all races as Denny Hamlin finally slashed his 31-race winless streak. He notched his 55th career win after leading for 274 of 400 laps, including three over-time restarts. On Sunday, he took the checkered flag at the Cook Out 400 by 4.617 seconds over teammate Christopher Bell.
Bell had a strong run initially, leading the first 20 laps, but was no match for Hamlin. Over the last decade, Hamlin has been unable to secure a win at Martinsville Speedway, but it seems he’s finally managed to crack the code. His last win at the 0.526-mile short track was in 2015, so it was a bittersweet moment for him and one he won’t soon forget.
A Blast From the Past for Denny Hamlin
As Denny Hamlin stood atop the podium in victory lane at Martinsville Speedway, he could be seen grinning from ear to ear. He was beaming with pride as Martinsville Speedway president Clay Campbell awarded him a sixth grandfather clock trophy. In a post-race interview, Hamlin provided a snapshot of what it was like to win after being stagnant for nearly a decade. “Certainly felt like the old days,” Hamlin told reporters.
He thanked his crew chief Chris Gayle and team for their upstanding maintenance and care of his Toyota Camry XSE. The No. 11 was inarguably the strongest car on the track Sunday, and Denny Hamlin definitely capitalized on it. “I mean, just they did such a great job with the car, and we spoke about trying to do something a little different this time around to try and get better. We’ve just kind of been stuck in a rut really over the last three years or so,” he said. He later added that the last time he had this much strength at Martinsville was in 2022.
The Fall of 2022 is the last kind of dominant car I thought I had at this racetrack. Since then, just been kind of hanging around third to fifth, and we were always the next best behind Ryan Blaney and then a couple of Hendrick cars,” Hamlin said.
“Chris Gayle, all the engineers, the pit crew, everybody really just deciding they were going to come here with a different approach than the last few years,” Hamlin said. “It was just amazing. It did everything I needed it to do. Just so happy to win with Chris. Gosh, I love winning here.”
The Martinsville Master
Christopher Bell, who lost to teammate Denny Hamlin at the Cook Out 400 at Martinsville over the weekend, is trying to decipher what went wrong. Despite starting strong from the pole position and leading for approximately 20 laps, Bell could not hold off Hamlin. The upset was a hard pill for the No. 20 driver, who met a similar fate there last year. Bell finished in P18 after loosening 23XL driver Bubba Wallace (P19) and sending him careening into the wall on the final lap.
He was later penalized for riding the outside wall and stripped from the championship race the following week. The finish on Sunday almost seemed like Deja Vu all over again for Bell, who finished P2, and Wallace in P3. He believes he finished the race as runner-up due to moving too loosely. “We were back and forth on balance a little bit. I asked to be freer throughout the whole race. That last run, I just went a little bit too loose and lost my drive off,” Bell told reporters post-race.
Even so, he capitalized on the fact that it was a good day overall for Joe Gibbs Racing and praised Denny Hamlin and his teammates. He humbly explained that he was happy to be back out front but expressed his happiness for Hamlin, referring to him as the “Martinsville Master.” He was also candid that being the runner-up wasn’t as bad as he thought. “Really happy for Denny. He’s the Martinsville master. Second is not that bad,” he added of the shocking finish at Martinsville. Is there a chance for a similar finish next week?
Final Thoughts
After breaking a 31-race winless streak and earning his 55th career victory, Denny Hamlin is holding out hope for future races. He contends that at this point in his career, he’ll take any win he can get. 44-year-old Denny Hamlin now ties Team Penske veteran and Hall of Famer Rusty Wallace for the driver with the most career wins in the history of NASCAR. Perhaps he’ll knock Wallace out of this spot by adding another victory to his resume in Darlington this weekend. Stay tuned.
