Denny Hamlin has always known how to keep a NASCAR conversation going. Sometimes it’s with a win. Sometimes it’s with a sarcastic comment that gets the entire garage laughing. Dover gave him both.
A few hours after Hamlin pocketed $1 million by winning the NASCAR All-Star Race at Dover Motor Speedway, social media started running with a bizarre rumor. An AI-generated post claimed teammate Chase Briscoe had supposedly gone to NASCAR officials with “video evidence,” requesting a special inspection after spotting a “mysterious device” on Denny Hamlin’s car before the race. Hamlin saw it and immediately turned it into a joke.
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“I knew we would eventually get caught,” he posted on X. “Just didn’t think it would be a teammate that ratted us out.”
The funny part is that Hamlin’s car did go through inspection after the race. Every winning car does. NASCAR rolls the winner into the garage, checks the body, engine, ride heights, fuel system, and a long list of standardized parts before officially confirming the result. Hamlin’s Toyota passed without a single issue. Nothing got flagged. Nothing got hauled off to the R&D Center.
Briscoe, too, shut all the rumors down pretty quickly, writing, “AI post are out of control 😂.”
Honestly, though, the rumor only worked because of who it involved. Joe Gibbs Racing has often walked NASCAR’s technical tightrope. Fans remember the 2022 Pocono disqualification when Denny Hamlin lost a win after officials found illegal aerodynamic modifications under the wrap. They remember the 2024 engine teardown penalty, too. Even Briscoe got dragged into inspection last year after his Daytona 500 pole-winning car failed spoiler inspection before JGR appealed the penalty.
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So when Hamlin shows up at Dover, dominates the race, and then heads into post-race inspection, people naturally start assuming – especially if the driver absolutely dominated.
He won the pole, led 103 laps, survived a rebuilt car after smacking the wall in practice, and still outran the field when it mattered. The late battle with Briscoe was the best part of the race. Briscoe grabbed the lead briefly after a restart and looked like he might steal the million-dollar prize from his teammate. Hamlin hunted him back down with 29 laps left and never gave the spot back.
Behind them, the rest of the Joe Gibbs Racing camp looked like in survival mode. Christopher Bell got wiped out in a multi-car crash. Ty Gibbs blew a tire and slammed into the wall. Hamlin was basically the only JGR driver left standing by the end.
Still, while the cheating joke aged well, wins at events like All-Star don’t really follow the same.
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Hamlin’s admission reveals what exactly he is chasing in his final seasons
Sunday basically marked the 67th time Hamlin has won a race in the NASCAR Cup Series, as his official tally remains 61. The gap holds four Clash/Shootout victories and now two All-Star Race wins. And while these exhibitions pay like points races, they don’t count like them, making Hamlin acutely aware of every single one with the empty backdrop of a Championship win.
“This one doesn’t count,” Hamlin said after his win. “It’s bulls—. That’s my career, all the wins that really matter don’t count.”
Well, the sentence hits because Hamlin has been the best driver of his generation without a title to show for it, which is what follows him everywhere. And the retirement question also came up after Dover, as it always does now.
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“I mean, I want to finish like this. I do. I do not want to go through the regression. My ego will not allow me to be mediocre. So, I mean, I’m going to have to leave some on the table at some point, right? In order to know that you can win your last race, you’re going to have to go into the next year saying, ‘I’m not doing it, but I could have.’”
At an age where Jeff Gordon had already retired, where Harvick had tapered off, and Tony Stewart had long since traded his helmet for a team owner’s headset, Hamlin is still the guy everyone else is trying to figure out how to beat. That is exactly how Hamlins wishes to leave – at the top of his game. So, a championship is what he’s chasing, and that is perhaps why he turned the cheating rumor into a joke the moment he saw it.
He’s got bigger things to be frustrated about and work for.
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