Denny Hamlin tames Dover’s “Monster Mile”

The pilot of the Toyota #11 won ahead of Kyle Larson (Hendrick) and his teammate Martin Truex Jr. The race was mainly decided with 72 laps to go, on a restart where Larson led the peloton. Hamlin managed to resist from the inside, and emerge from Turn 2 in the lead. Behind, Bubba Wallace (23XI) was sent into a spin, and the accident notably involved Christopher Bell (Joe Gibbs) and William Byron (Hendrick).

Starting again in the lead, Hamlin left no chance to Larson, who had nevertheless managed to catch up in the final laps of the event. This is Denny Hamlin's 54th career victory, which now places him 12th, tied with Lee Petty, in the winners' standings in NASCAR Cup Series

“When you open your mouth, you have to win, that’s for sure”, he explained after his victory. The 43-year-old driver was referring to the latest episode of his podcast “Actions Detrimental,” where he announced he would win this weekend. “I have a great team, who have done a very good job. All the guys on the pit wall made this victory happen. The key moment was certainly when we managed to regain the lead at the restart, then the yellow flag came out, allowing us to control the rest. »

Although he led 136 of the 400 laps of the event, Hamlin did not appear to be the strong man of the race in the first part. His teammate Martin Truex Jr. won the first segment and led 69 laps, before dropping back following a slower pit stop midway through the race. The Gibbs driver managed to recover at the end of the race, but contact at the restart with Kyle Larson, who had won the second segment, made his task more difficult.

Kyle Larson victim of turbulence

Larson lamented after the race the strategy adopted by Hamlin. The latter in fact positioned his car to remove as much air as possible from the front of the No. 5 Chevrolet, and thus make the game more difficult for Kyle Larson. A strategy that he himself used in Las Vegas to win against Tyler Reddick (23XI), and which has become common with the new generation of cars in the Cup Series.

“I knew that by getting closer to less than three lengths, he was going to change his trajectory. I could not do anything. I tried all sorts of angles and different speeds of input, that sort of thing. Nothing could generate enough speed to get me close enough, I guess. It was really a shame. »

Denny Hamlin's victory allows him to move up to fourth place in the championship standings, 49 points behind Kyle Larson, still in the lead. Next meeting on Sunday, May 5, at Kansas Speedway!

Dover – Results

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