The fact that Denny Hamlin has three wins on the season and yet is ranked in 4th place in driver points goes to show you just how poorly he has been performing when he isn’t winning.
At Dover, Hamlin led the most laps (136) and had to hold off a hard charging Kyle Larson to seal the win. Larson, with just one win and the points leader, led 39 laps and won Stage 2 but a terrific pit crew gave Hamlin the narrow lead that he needed to beat Larson.
Martin Truex, Jr. has to be wondering what he has to do to get into victory lake this year. Truex won Stage 1 and led 69 laps on his way to a third-place finish. He is still, amazingly, in second place overall with 6 Top 10 finishes and ZERO DNFs. That’s right, nada. Zilch. The big goose egg. In the meantime, every other Top 10 driver except for Ty Gibbs has a DNF. That’s what consistency will get you.
And speaking of consistency, there are some drivers struggling with that. Bubba Wallace had the misfortune of not being in the lead and got caught up in another driver’s error. That mess caught started with Christopher Bell and then William Byron before collecting Wallace. That gives him 2 DNFs and he sits 15th in points after a promising start to the year.
Brad Keselowksi was looking to build on his Talladega rush but that wasn’t to be. His P30 finish dropped him to 16th in points and he also has 2 DNFs. With just two races left before the All-Star break, these two teams have a lot of ground to make up if they want to make the playoffs.
Dover was a momentum builder for a few teams. Kyle Busch (P4) started on the pole and led 34 laps. Something to build on for Kansas and Darlington. Chase Elliott (P5) didn’t lead any laps, but this was a decent race as he heads to Kansas where he is rated 5th among active drivers since 2021.
Noah Gragson (P6) did manage to build on his Talladega finish and Daniel Hemric finished P9 and Ty Gibbs rounded out the Top 10 with another decent run.
Corey Lajoie may be showing off for a ride in 2025 while he led 33 laps in a “hope a caution comes out” strategy that didn’t work in his favor, but he got lots of screen time for his effort.
Tyler Reddick won the last race at Kansas and Hamlin won the last spring race. Other recent winners are Bubba Wallace (fall 2022), Kyle Larson (fall 2021) and Kyle Busch (spring 2021). Hamlin is the top-rated driver since 2021 and Kyle Larson is second and the undisputed lap leader at Kansas. Both also lead with the most Top 5 finishes at Kansas, Hamlin (5) and Larson (4).
This could boil down to another battle between Larson and Hamlin or we could get a surprise winner like Busch, MTJ or Wallace.
Enjoy the race and keep the shiny side up!
(Photo by Logan Riely/Getty Images/NASCAR Media)
