Denny Hamlin’s victory on Sunday at Dover looked pretty safe with 14 laps to go.
Ross Chastain’s crash brought out a late caution flag and rain started to pour not long after the yellow was thrown. Hamlin was leading teammate Christopher Bell and likely thought he had his fourth win in the bag.
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Not so fast.
With the heavy rain being fairly brief, NASCAR immediately worked to dry the track. Roughly an hour after the race was red-flagged, it resumed for eight scheduled green-flag laps.
The actual number ended up being far fewer than that. Bell spun to trigger a multi-car crash while racing with Hamlin for the lead on the first restart, and then Hamlin had to hold on for two more restarts to get his Cup Series-leading fourth win of the season as he kept teammate Chase Briscoe at bay over the final two laps.
It ended up being a stellar day for Hamlin on the track after a less than ideal week in the courtroom. Hamlin’s 23XI Racing team lost its charters along with Front Row Motorsports as a federal judge refused to grant the teams a temporary restraining order to keep them. The ruling was part of the teams’ months-long battle with NASCAR over the sanctioning body’s franchising agreement. Both 23XI and FRM sued NASCAR, claiming that NASCAR was monopolistic as it gave its teams just hours to sign a new charter agreement in the fall of 2024.
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Sunday’s race ended up going seven laps over its scheduled distance thanks to the two crashes after the rain delay. After Bell spun to start a crash that included Noah Gragson and William Byron, Zane Smith and Ryan Preece crashed after that restart.
Briscoe, meanwhile, worked his way through the field after pitting for two fresh tires immediately after the rain delay. Hamlin, Bell and others at the front of the field opted to stay out on older tires knowing that passing was incredibly difficult all day at Dover thanks to the aerodynamic deficiencies of the current Cup Series car.
The rain delay put NASCAR in a unique situation. In most instances, a red flag for rain with less than 20 laps to go equals an automatic end to the race. You can understand why. It’s a lot of track drying work for little payoff. Eight laps of green-flag racing at Dover is less than four minutes.
But the quickness of the rain — and the concrete track surface — gave NASCAR a reason to think it could finish the race. And sure enough, it ended on a mostly dry track.
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It was an eventful payoff for the fans who stuck around both at the track and on TNT. On a slow sports afternoon following Scottie Scheffler’s dominant British Open victory, NASCAR didn’t have much competition for viewers’ attention. And restart highlights make for great social media clips.
But you can also see the argument against restarting the race. Especially if you’re a fan of Bell, Byron or anyone else who saw their days go south after the rain delay.
It would have been surprising had a crash or two not happened over the final eight scheduled laps. Drivers know that restarts are their best chances to gain track position even when passing isn’t as difficult as it was at Dover on Sunday. The myriad tire strategies only added to that likelihood as the speed discrepancies between drivers on older and newer tires can easily create contact.
Crashes, of course, increase costs for teams. And this is a NASCAR that has cut track time in recent years in the name of cost savings for its competitors. Even as the sun quickly shined following the rain, cutting the race short by just 14 laps is an easily defensible situation.
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This is, after all, a regular-season race in the middle of the summer. It’s not a playoff race. Had Chastain not crashed and the rain hit with less than 10 laps to go, it’s very easy to see how NASCAR calls the race early.
But the final 20-plus actual laps produced more action than the first 386 laps did combined to provide a notable end to what had been a snoozer of a race. Had someone like Briscoe, Kyle Larson or another driver who hardly led a lap all day ended up winning after the rain, the outcome might be hard to stomach.
Instead, the guy who was winning when the rain fell ended up showing why he’s a title contender yet again by getting the winner’s trophy over an hour later than he might have expected.
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