Denny Hamlin wins Wurth 400 over Kyle Larson at Dover, third win of the season
Another chapter in the Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson rivalry, and once again, Hamlin is the driver walking away with the trophy. These two have put on some great shows in the last two NASCAR seasons.
Denny Hamlin called it on his Actions Detrimental podcast that he was going to win. He just went out and did it, folks. Like Babe Ruth pointing to the wall, Hamlin pointed to the checkered flag and claimed it for himself.
Hamlin really came on in the second half of this race. Once again his pit crew got him the lead going into a restart late in the race and Hamlin finished the job. Once again, aero was huge in this race and ultimately let Hamlin get the win.
400 miles of racing at the Monster Mile and Denny Hamlin gets the job done. It wasn’t the most exciting race. There is still a lot to work on with the Next Gen car. Hamlin was able to let Larson get within half a second of him, and just kept the 5 car in dirty air until he got to the line.
This season has been and will continue to be defined by pit crews. Whoever has the best pit crew is going to win, and I think that is why we are seeing the big teams dominate this year. Even if the Next Gen cars are more equal than any car before, the pit crews are not equal.
Martin Truex Jr. almost did it again
In Stage 1, it looked like we were going to see Martin Truex Jr. march to another dominating win. Kyle Busch led the race to green as the pole-sitter. He was soon passed by Truex and others.
Busch had more speed in his car than he has had in the past two months, but still not winning speed. That continues to be a story going into Kansas. The RCR organization is just not hitting on all cylinders. Busch did go on to finish P4, and his pit crew executed all day.
Truex Jr. was strong and made his way to the Stage 1 win fairly easily. During this stage Todd Gilliland provided us with an early caution while racing Austin Dillon for position. He spun out and went down multiple laps as the safety crew tried to tow his car. His team was not happy about it at all.
The first stage was indicative of how the rest of the day would go. A lot of single-file racing and a few caution flags sprinkled throughout. Not nearly enough, though.
Kyle Larson catches fire in the second stage
Thanks to the few cautions and the pit cycles, this race did have a little bit of a shakeup. It wasn’t from passes on the track necessarily, but there were comers and goers in a sense. Had the temperature been cooler as it was on Saturday we would have had a similar situation to Bristol.
That wasn’t the case though. The warm temps allowed rubber to get put into the track. Kyle Larson is always great at finding grip before anyone else, the dirt racer that he is. He made his way to the front and then when he had control in lapped traffic, he was gone.
Late in the second stage, Alex Bowman caught a ton of speed. He ran high off the corners and it let him get great runs. Bowman made a shot at Larson for the stage win, but was unable to pass for the lead. It was frustrating for the 48 driver who got chewed out by his spotter.
Larson took the sixth stage win of the season for his team. Then the pit cycle allowed Denny Hamlin to get back into the race.
Denny Hamlin takes control on late restart, wins at Dover
The most consequential caution flags were in the final stage. As they should be. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. got put into the inside wall coming off of pit road. The transition was just not clean and he bounced off a Stewart-Haas car.
That set up another restart. As they say, cautions breed cautions. Denny Hamlin lined up P2 on the restart when Zane Smith spun Bubba Wallace out and sent him into William Byron and Christopher Bell. The 23, 24, and 20 were all knocked out of the race.
By the time the wreck happened, Hamlin had grabbed the lead. On the following restart, he kept the lead, put distance on his rivals, and methodically weaved through lapped traffic.
Kyle Larson was able to get within less than half a second of Denny Hamlin. Air blocking and defensive driving once again won out in the end. Larson never got a clean look to make a move at the end and Hamlin goes on to win.
54 wins for Hamlin ties him with Lee Petty for 12th all-time in the NASCAR Cup Series. The confidence this 11 team has right now should scare the rest of the field.