Hamlin holds off teammate Briscoe for NASCAR Cup Series win at Dover
Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images
DOVER, Del.—Denny Hamlin prevailed in Sunday’s EchoPark AutoTrader 400 at Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway – a race that featured a 56-minute red flag for rain, late-race strategy decisions, and involved a pair of overtime restarts before the trophy was ultimately settled between a pair of Joe Gibbs Racing teammates.
But the veteran Hamlin got it all right when it mattered most, getting a jump on the field in both overtime restarts and in the end holding off his newest teammate Chase Briscoe who was even on fresher tires. It marks back-to-back wins at the Dover concrete-mile for Hamlin and a NASCAR Cup Series-best fourth victory of 2025.
“Things were going pretty well there before the rain and then obviously had to endure a few restarts there,’’ said a smiling Hamlin, 44, who collected his 58th career victory and first trophy since the birth of his son, Jameson last month. “It was tough, those guys gave me a run for it, no doubt about it.’’
“Winning here at Dover is super special to me,’’ he continued. “This is a place I had not been very good at the first half of my career and then to have back-to-back (wins) here the last couple years is amazing.’’
Briscoe certainly pushed Hamlin on that final two-lap sprint to the checkered flag. The two ran door-to-door on the white flag lap – their cars even making slight contact – before Hamlin’s No. 11 JGR Toyota Camry was able to pull around and clear Briscoe’s car, racing off to a .310-second victory and become only the 13th driver in track history to win consecutive races.
Hendrick Motorsports teammates Alex Bowman and Kyle Larson finished third and fourth with another JGR driver, Ty Gibbs rounding out the top five.
For most of the day, it looked as if Hendrick’s Chase Elliott would continue a summer hot streak and claim his second race win in the last four weeks. He led a race best 238 of the 407 laps – taking his first stage win of the season and overcoming an early pit road miscue. But he just wasn’t able to challenge Hamlin.
There was some consolation in Elliott’s sixth place finish, however, as it – combined with teammate William Byron’s accident with two laps remining in regulation – now gives Elliott a 17-point championship lead over Byron with five races remaining in the regular season. It’s the first time he’s led the championship this year.
Elliott led so many laps and essentially controlled race pace, but it was a cycle of pit stops that gave Hamlin opportunity out front. He cycled to the lead when Elliott pit for tires during a caution beating his JGR teammate Christopher Bell on a restart with 60 laps remaining. Hamlin held the lead position when the 56-minute red flag came out for rain with 15 laps to go.
And after all that had to hold off Briscoe on consecutive overtime restarts – ultimately leading the final 67 laps.
“I thought I did everything I needed to and thought I had it there for a second,’’ Briscoe said. “I was so close to clearing him and just couldn’t do it. Obviously racing a teammate, I wanted to make sure at least a JGR car won. Honestly it was a great day. We weren’t probably a second place race car, we were probably fifth to 10th place car. Glad we were able to make a good finish out of it.’’
Behind Elliott, Bubba Wallace, Ryan Blaney, Chris Buescher and Brad Keselowski rounded out the top 10.
While the top of the championship standings changed with Elliott taking the lead, the four drivers – Reddick, Bowman, Buescher and Wallace – still chasing a points-position in the 16-driver Playoff remained the same. Wallace’s seventh-place finish gives him a 16-point edge on Ryan Preece for that 16th and final transfer position. Kyle Busch, who finished 11th Sunday, is now 39 points behind Wallace.
The race also set the “In-Season Challenge” championship round next week at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with Gibbs and longshot Ty Dillon advancing to the title round.
Gibbs was paired against Tyler Reddick at Dover and Dillon had to beat John Hunter Nemechek in the other bracket to settle the final two positions for $1 million to-win grand finale of the inaugural incentive program presented by TNT.
In both head-to-head battles, the two drivers ran near each other all afternoon. Gibbs got around Reddick in the closing laps and Dillon benefitted from a “lucky dog” late race pass – he and Nemechek finished 20th and 21st.
“Super cool today, I really appreciate my team.” Gibbs said smiling.
Dillon, who drives the No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet was similarly ecstatic for the opportunity. He was seeded 32nd among the 32 drivers to qualify for the In-Season Tournament and had to race past drivers like Hamlin in earlier rounds.
“All respect to John Hunter we ran next to each other all day,’’ a thrilled Dillon said. “Just so grateful to have this opportunity and this is one of the greatest things to happen in my career.”
The NASCAR Cup Series moves to one of its premier showcases, the historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway for next Sunday’s Brickyard 400 (2 p.m. ET, TNT, HBO Max, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Larson is the defending race winner.
NASCAR Cup Series Race Number 21
Race Results for the Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400 - Sunday, July 20, 2025
Dover Motor Speedway - Dover, DE - 1. - Mile Concrete
Total Race Length - 407 Laps - 407. Miles
Provided by NASCAR Statistics - Sunday, 7/20/2025 @ 07:28 PM Eastern
Fin Str Car Driver Team Laps Stage 1 Pos Stage 2 Pos Pts Status Tms Laps Playoff Pts
1 13 11 Denny Hamlin Progressive Toyota 407 3 3 57 Running 1 67 5
2 2 19 Chase Briscoe Bass Pro Shops Toyota 407 6 7 44 Running 1 13
3 16 48 Alex Bowman Ally Chevrolet 407 5 2 49 Running 1 1
4 25 5 Kyle Larson HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 407 10 5 40 Running
5 9 54 Ty Gibbs Monster Energy Toyota 407 7 8 39 Running 1 1
6 1 9 Chase Elliott NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet 407 1 4 48 Running 2 238 1
7 22 23 * Bubba Wallace Space Force/Leidos Toyota 407 10 31 Running 1 3
8 31 12 Ryan Blaney Menards/Libman Ford 407 9 31 Running
9 12 17 Chris Buescher Trimble Ford 407 28 Running
10 15 6 Brad Keselowski BuildSubmarines.com Ford 407 27 Running
11 10 8 Kyle Busch Cheddar's Patriotic Chevrolet 407 8 29 Running
12 4 45 * Tyler Reddick SiriusXM Toyota 407 25 Running
13 7 71 Michael McDowell Delaware Life Chevrolet 407 24 Running
14 8 22 Joey Logano Shell Pennzoil Ford 407 9 25 Running
15 23 3 Austin Dillon Breztri Chevrolet 407 22 Running
16 26 2 Austin Cindric Autotrader Ford 407 21 Running
17 20 7 Justin Haley Gainbridge Chevrolet 407 20 Running
18 3 20 Christopher Bell Rheem Toyota 407 2 1 38 Running 3 67 1
19 11 60 Ryan Preece Castrol Ford 407 18 Running
20 21 10 Ty Dillon Sea Best Chevrolet 407 17 Running
21 28 42 John Hunter Nemechek Hertz Toyota 406 16 Running
22 30 38 * Zane Smith Horizon Hobby Ford 406 15 Running
23 34 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Fun Pops Chevrolet 405 14 Running
24 32 35 * Riley Herbst # Tree Top Toyota 405 13 Running
25 24 34 * Todd Gilliland Love's Travel Stops Ford 405 12 Running
26 18 99 Daniel Suarez Jockey Infinite Cool Underwear Chevrolet 404 11 Running 1 6
27 27 43 Erik Jones Dollar Tree Toyota 404 10 Running
28 14 21 Josh Berry Advance Auto Parts Ford 404 9 Running
29 29 41 Cole Custer HaasTooling.com Ford 403 8 Running
30 6 88 Shane Van Gisbergen # Safety Culture Chevrolet 400 7 Running
31 5 24 William Byron Raptor Chevrolet 393 4 6 18 Accident
32 36 4 * Noah Gragson MillerTech Ford 393 5 Accident 1 3
33 19 1 Ross Chastain Moose Fraternity Chevrolet 382 4 Accident
34 37 44 * JJ Yeley(i) Ultimate Tailgating RV Chevrolet 369 0 Fatigue
35 33 77 Carson Hocevar Miner Docks Doors and More Chevrolet 302 2 Handling 1 8
36 35 51 Cody Ware Mighty Fire Breaker Ford 232 1 Handling
37 17 16 AJ Allmendinger Campers Inn RV Chevrolet 221 1 Suspension
Fastest Lap Bonus: # lap 407 / 23.088
11
Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 40 Mins, 18 Secs. Average Speed: 110.849 MPH Margin of Victory: .310 Seconds
Stage 1 Top 10: 9, 20, 11, 24, 48, 19, 54, 8, 22, 5
Stage 2 Top 10: 20, 48, 11, 9, 5, 24, 19, 54, 12, 23
Race Comments: Denny Hamlin won the 56th running of the Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400 at Dover Motor Speedway, his 58th victory in the NASCAR Cup Series. Prior to the start of the race, the following cars dropped to the rear of the field under penalty for the reasons indicated: None.
Failed to Qualify: None.
Caution Flags: 8 for 50 laps; Laps: 37-42 (Competition Caution [51]); 122-128 (Stage 1 Conclusion [99]); 252-259 (Stage 2 Conclusion [3]); 261-265 (No. 20 Spin Turn 3 [7]); 338-343 (Rain [24]); 385-392 (No. 1 Incident Backstretch / Rain [Red Flag: 00:56:23] [22]); 395-399 (No. 4, 20, 24 Incident Frontstretch [7]); 401-405 (No. 38, 60 Incident Backstretch [10]).
Lead Changes: 13 among 10 drivers; C. Elliott 0; C. Briscoe 1-13; C. Elliott 14-184; T. Gibbs 185; C. Hocevar 186-193; D. Suarez 194-199; C. Bell 200-253; A. Bowman 254; C. Bell 255-259; C. Elliott 260-326; *. Wallace 327-329; *. Gragson 330-332; C. Bell 333-340; D. Hamlin 341-407.
(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series
Next Race: July 27, 2025 - Indianapolis Motor Speedway
NASCAR Integrated Marketing Communications @ P.O. Box 2875, Daytona Beach, FL 32120-2875
CURRENT PLAYOFF PICTURE
POS NO. DRIVER MFR +/-
1 11 Denny Hamlin 4 WINS
2 5 Kyle Larson 3 WINS
3 20 Christopher Bell 3 WINS
4 88 Shane Van Gisbergen 3 WINS
5 24 William Byron 1 WIN
6 12 Ryan Blaney 1 WIN
7 2 Austin Cindric 1 WIN
8 22 Joey Logano 1 WIN
9 9 Chase Elliott 1 WIN
10 19 Chase Briscoe 1 WIN
11 1 Ross Chastain 1 WIN
12 21 Josh Berry 1 WIN
13 45 Tyler Reddick +156
14 48 Alex Bowman +63
15 17 Chris Buescher +44
16 23 Bubba Wallace +16
On The Bubble
17 60 Ryan Preece -16
18 8 Kyle Busch -39
19 54 Ty Gibbs -52
20 71Michael McDowell -77
CURRENT NASCAR CUP SERIES REGULAR SEADON STANDINGS
Points Report
Dover Motor Speedway
Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400
UNOFFICIAL Provided by NASCAR Statistics - Sunday, 7/20/2025 @ 08:27 PM Eastern UNOFFICIAL
Rank Driver Car Starts GL Points Ldr Nxt Race Wins Stage Wins Playoff Pts
1. Chase Elliott 9 21 -1 702 0 0 1 1 6
2. William Byron 24 21 1 686 -16 16 1 7 12
3. Kyle Larson 5 21 0 664 -38 22 3 8 23
4. Denny Hamlin 11 20 -1 663 -39 1 4 4 24
5. * Tyler Reddick 45 21 1 640 -62 23 0 1 1
6. Christopher Bell 20 21 0 635 -67 5 3 2 17
7. Ryan Blaney 12 21 0 576 -126 59 1 4 9
8. Chase Briscoe 19 21 0 570 -132 6 1 1 6
9. Alex Bowman 48 21 -3 547 -155 23 0 0 0
10. Chris Buescher 17 21 0 528 -174 19 0 1 -4
11. Joey Logano 22 21 0 524 -178 4 1 2 7
12. Ross Chastain 1 21 3 517 -185 7 1 1 6
13. * Bubba Wallace 23 21 0 500 -202 17 0 2 2
14. Ryan Preece 60 21 0 484 -218 16 0 2 2
15. Kyle Busch 8 21 0 461 -241 23 0 0 0
16. Ty Gibbs 54 21 -1 448 -254 13 0 0 0
17. Michael McDowell 71 21 -2 423 -279 25 0 1 1
18. AJ Allmendinger 16 21 2 420 -282 3 0 0 0
19. Austin Cindric 2 21 -1 417 -285 3 1 3 8
20. Erik Jones 43 21 2 411 -291 6 0 0
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