Denny Hamlin won his sixth race of 2020 on Saturday when he took the checkered flag in the first race of a Drydene 311 NASCAR Cup Series doubleheader weekend at Dover International Speedway. With the win, the 43rd Cup Series win of his career, Hamlin tied Kevin Harvick for most wins in the first 24 races of the season. Saturday’s win also was Hamlin’s 11th top-two finish, so far, this year.
Hamlin’s latest win, though, was his first-career win at Dover.
“People always ask what your least favorite track is, and I say Dover, just because I’m not that good,” Hamlin said. “I love the track. I just haven’t been very good here. We just have unbelievable cars right now. It seems like we’re coming to the race track prepared. I’m putting the work in, and we’re getting results out of it.”
After taking the lead from Joe Gibbs racing teammate Martin Truex Jr. with eight laps remaining in the 311-lap race, Hamlin led a one-two-three finish for JGR. Truex took runner-up honors, and teammate Kyle Busch finished in the third position.
“Top-three – the Interstate Batteries Camry was strong, there,” Busch said. “I was following Truex Jr., there, for a little while on that last restart, and we kept fading. Kept fading loose, and then, we came in for our final pit stop, and the damn car went four numbers tight. Just crazy. The flip-flop of balance that we had, it was so bad. I don’t think we changed a whole lot. I have to get with Adam [Stevens, crew chief] on that, but overall, we got really good, there, the previous time we put tires on under green, and I was driving through a few people and getting to the front. I was optimistic about putting tires on it and going, but then, it just went stupid tight. I don’t know. Thanks to Interstate Batteries, M&Ms; it’s good to get a solid top-three. Hopefully, we can make a few changes tonight. We were close. We had some speed, so try to work on it.”
Kevin Harvick and pole sitter Chase Elliott rounded out the top-five.
“I wasn’t very good all day,” Havick said. ”Overall, our Mobil 1 Mustang just never would turn, and then, we got it so it wouldn’t turn and too loose. We had trouble on pit road and had to come back in at one point, but everybody kept battling and doing everything that they could and wound up with a top-five.”
Hamlin also won stages at lap 70 and lap 185. After taking his first lead from Austin Dillon on lap 59, Hamlin and Truex combined to lead most of the remaining laps of the race. Truex was second to Hamlin off pit road after the first stage, and the two teammates rand first and second for most of the 115-lap second stage.
Hamlin first gave up his lead to pit under green on lap 137. After a lengthy cycle of stops, he was back to the lead and Truex in second on lap 161. After the second stage, Busch joined his teammates by being third off pit road to Truex, the new race leader, and Hamlin.
“I’ve been running down the leaders these last few weeks, but I haven’t been able to get there,” Hamlin said. “We just didn’t control that restart, there, and we just had to battle back. We had to go back and get it. I was able to work the top line, there, a little bit to get the momentum. It looked like our car was just a little bit better at moving around to different lines. Proud of this whole FedEx Office team. This Camry was fast today. It was just unbelievable how good it was. The pit crew did an amazing job. Have to thank all the partners – Toyota, Coca-Cola, the Jordan Brand, FedEx and all the employees, I appreciate them. Win 43, this is pretty awesome.”
Another green-flag cycle of stops began just past lap 251 and was extended by Brad Keselowski and, then, Austin Dillon staying out longer, hoping for a caution that never came. Dillon, finally, made his final pit stop after Truex passed him for the lead on lap 280.
Truex, Hamlin and Busch ran in the top-three for the remainder of the race. By the checkered flag, Hamlin led a race-high 115 laps, and Truex ran up front for 88 laps.
“I know we can definitely make it better,” Truex said. “I hate to say we can’t. It was pretty far off from what all I hear. We’ll keep working on it, but overall, a solid day again.”
Elliott led the first 27 laps before getting mired in traffic due, at least in part, to pit strategies during a lap-25 competition caution. Dillon took the lead by staying out during the caution, along with Matt Kenseth, Ryan Newman and Christopher Bell. Newman and Bell already had pitted during a lap seven caution that came after Kurt Busch spun and hit the inside wall as a result of contact from Erik Jones, who received contact from Alex Bowman.
The yellow flag for Kurt Busch’s wreck was the only caution of the race for an on-track incident.
Elliott also lost positions on pit road to Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney and Aric Almirola, who took only two tires during the competition caution. Mired in traffic, Elliott sustained damage to his car, and as a result, he spent extra time on pit road for repairs later in the race.
“I think we had a decent Mountain Dew Chevrolet,” Elliott said. “We were off, there, to start and, then, had to take some extra time on pit road. Luckily, we got it close after we messed with it a good bit and made some adjustments, which helped. I was proud to be able to drive from the back, back to the front. We had some really good pit stops that put us in a decent position, there, too. I think we just needed a little more to run with Denny, Kevin and those guys, so we will try to get a little better for tomorrow.”
Despite running on older tires, Dillon maintained his lead until he was passed by Hamlin.
Clint Bowyer finished sixth, Jimmie Johnson was seventh, Joey Logano eighth, Keselowski ninth, and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finished 10th.
“It was a decent day,” Keselowski said. ”Nothing to write home about, but not bad. We kind of ran solidly in the top-10 all day. We had a really good restart, there, in the first stage and got us third in stage one and, then, was just kind of okay from there. We took a little shot at running long in stage two, hoping for a yellow and didn’t get it. Part of the deal, just trying and ended up ninth. There’s not a lot to say other than that. The Gibbs cars were pretty much lights-out faster than everybody, and we did the best we could to get what we had out of our day.”
Meanwhile, with a 20th-place finish, Matt DiBenedetto claimed the pole for Sunday’s race, also monikered the Drydene 311, because of a top-20 inversion.
