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Denny Hamlin Looks To Follow Up Martinsville Win With Another Victory At Darlington Raceway

by racerx55 April 5, 2025 0 comments

By Matthew Thomerson

DARLINGTON, S.C. – Denny Hamlin and the Joe Gibbs Racing No.11 Sport Clips Haircuts Toyota team have made a turnaround over the last few weeks, and he is looking to continue that momentum on Sunday in the Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway. 

Hamlin started the season off on a less-than-consistent note through the first few races of the season, with a few great runs. He finished sixth at Atlanta Motor Speedway and second at Phoenix Raceway. Contrary to that, he has accumulated finishes outside the top-10 in the other three races to start the season, but the last few weeks have seen a swing in momentum.

At Homestead-Miami Speedway, Hamlin had a great outing, running in the top-five much of the day after starting 23^rd and was able to win Stage 2. He managed his tires and strategy to get a fifth-place finish at the end of the 267 laps, earning his first top-five of the season. 

Then, the NASCAR Cup Series was off to the Martinsville Speedway, where Hamlin was the dominant driver throughout the day, leading the most laps with 274 laps led and winning the race. The win was the 55^th of his career, tying Rusty Wallace for 11^th on the all-time NASCAR Cup Series wins list. 

Now, the series enters Darlington Raceway, which is statistically one of the best racetracks for Hamlin. He has the best average finish amongst all full-time Cup Series drivers and has a total of four Cup Series wins (also most amongst full-time drivers) at the egg-shaped oval. There is no doubt that Hamlin knows how to navigate the track, Too Tough To Tame and that may give him an upper-hand over some of the younger, less experienced drivers. 

“This sport is so week-to-week, it’s hard to say that but you can’t argue with the results I would say that, certainly, it lends itself to the best drivers, best teams, all those things, right,” Hamlin said. “I think it’s a great combination of you got to have everything.

“You have to have good mechanical grip here; you have to have good aerodynamics and the driver has to be really good with his craft. I talked about just understanding when to push, when to not. Understanding the length of the race is. Even though this is a 400 (mile race), it’s still grueling. I think Darlington is by far one of the most grueling race tracks that you go to simply because it’s going to be a warm one this weekend.”

Confidence is a key to having momentum at a place like Darlington, especially for a veteran driver like Hamlin. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver certainly doesn’t seem to lack confidence, and that confidence may continue this weekend. Another strong finish Sunday could be just what Hamlin and his team need to assert themselves as true contenders in 2025. 

“Confidence is a great thing and it’s very beneficial, but there’s times you need to question whether you should do things different or evolve your craft. I think it’s important to getting better,” Hamlin said.

On Saturday, Hamlin qualified third for the Goodyear 400, so he’ll be starting up front, just behind polesitter William Byron and Ryan Preece.

The Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway will broadcast live on FS1 at 3 p.m. ET on Sunday.

Photo Credit: Hunter Thomas/TheFourthTurn.com