Denny Hamlin survived old tires, new tires, the weather and some very fast Joe Gibbs Racing teammates to win the AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 NASCAR Cup Series race on July 20 at Dover Motor Speedway.
It was as impressive a victory for Hamlin in recent memory. Hamlin had older tires for the last 60 laps but held off Christopher Bell, Kyle Larson and Chase Briscoe on several separate restarts to earn his fourth victory of the season.
Weather forced a caution with 65 laps to go, then a red flag with 14 laps to go. But Hamlin stayed out and did not let any of the other leaders get an edge despite every one of them having significantly newer tires.
The other big player was Chase Elliott, who led for 238 laps but got shuffled via pit strategy late. Elliott did take the lead in the regular-season points standings by 17 points over William Byron.
Here are the winners and losers from the NASCAR Dover race on July 20:
NASCAR Dover winners and losers: Denny Hamlin
Two differing strategies turned the race into a 1-2 finish for Joe Gibbs Racing.
No doubt that the JGR stable had good speed all race long, with Hamlin, Bell, Briscoe and Ty Gibbs running in the top 10 for most of the day. Bell’s day had soured with 140 laps to go after spinning while battling for the lead with Elliott, but Bell stayed out longer than the leaders and flipped track position with a caution for rain with 60 laps to go.
The rain was not hard enough to force a red flag, so that necessitated a pit road decision for the six cars on the lead lap: Bell, Elliott, Hamlin, Larson, Austin Dillon and Alex Bowman. Bell and Dillon were on 75-lap tires and had to pit, while Elliott, Bowman and Larson pitted for tires. Hamlin stayed out and inherited the lead on about 15-lap old tires, with Bell restarting in second.
Hamlin and Bell cleared the other leaders, and Hamlin held off Bell until another caution with 17 laps to go.
After a 58-minute red flag, the two stayed out and restarted up front with nine laps to go. Bell again spun while battling for the lead, leaving Hamlin up front. Someone who didn’t stay out? Briscoe, who surged into the top 10 before the Bell spin and up to second before the final restart with two laps to go.
One would assume a 60-lap difference would be enough for Briscoe to run away with the win. But Hamlin never allowed him to get clear, then got past the No. 19 at the white flag.
Not everyone at JGR will be thrilled with the ending (Gibbs did finish fifth and advanced to the in-season challenge finals), but the pit strategy resulted in a 1-2 finish for the group, even if it was maybe not the combo one would have thought.
Bowman grew his points buffer to the playoff cutline (and to 15th place Chris Buescher, too) with a third-place finish.
Bowman started outside the top 15 with qualifying rained out, but drove into the top 10 in the first stage and stayed among the leaders for the rest of the race.
The No. 48 Chevrolet never got to the front row on a restart at a track where track position was valuable to race for the lead, but he will take five more runs just like that in the remainder of the regular season.
Bowman is now 63 points ahead of the cutline heading to Indianapolis.
All in all, Bell had a fine points day at Dover. He earned 38 points overall (finishing 18th) as well as a playoff point via the Stage 2 win.
But Bell certainly could have been battling for the lead to the end.
He spun twice while battling for the lead in the final 150 miles. The first instance happened on a restart alongside Elliott with 140 laps to go, with aerodynamics forcing Bell around without contact next to Elliott in Turn 3.
Bell stayed out later than the leaders for the final green flag stop and ended up among the top five after a timely caution for rain. He stalked Hamlin for about 45 laps until a Ross Chastain crash and more rain forced a red flag.
Then came another restart after the red flag delay, and Bell spun coming off Turn 4 on the first lap following the restart alongside Hamlin.
Bell showed good speed and resilience, but the late spin was too much to overcome.
Nashville native Josh Berry and the Wood Brothers Racing team had an excellent start to the season, winning at Las Vegas, recording a top-five at Phoenix and showing good speed at tracks as diverse as Texas and Martinsville.
But since that Vegas win, Berry’s results have not been there. He has just one top-10 finish in the past 16 races, and too many races lately have been non-competitive — like the race at Dover, where Berry finished in 28th, three laps down.
He will make the playoffs via the Vegas win, but it has been months since the No. 21 has shown anything close to a playoff-worthy performance. That will have to change soon.
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