DENNY DOUBLES DOWN IN DOVER

DOVER, Del. – Denny Hamlin tamed the high banks of Dover Motor Speedway for the second year in a row following a weather impacted final stage and several Overtime restarts.

Hamlin held off the field for his 58th Cup win and fourth of the season, driving on the oldest set of Goodyear tires. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver fended off a fierce charge from teammate Chase Briscoe during the second Overtime attempt with both banging doors coming to take white flag. 

“It was tough, those guys gave me a run for it,” Hamlin said after delivering Coach Gibbs a 12th Dover win as an owner. Hamlin described winning at Dover as a super special accomplishment.

A caution for Ross Chastain with 17 to, shook up the running order prior to a rain delay. Each driver except Hamlin pitted, positioning him as the leader on tires last changed on lap 328.

“It's a place that I've not been very good at, the first half of my career,” Hamlin said. “You learn from the greats and you and you change your game to match it, and you have success like this.”

When asked if Hamlin could reach 60 wins in Cup, Hamlin said, “We got a lot of left.” Hamlin sits only two wins away from tying 2014 Champion Kevin Harvick for 10th in all-time victories.

A 56-minute red flag for rain with 14 laps left changed the race dynamic, flipping the field’s tire strategy. On the restart, Christopher Bell spun out while racing for the lead, setting up Overtime.

Briscoe opted to bolt on fresh tires on the restart and charged to fourth before Bell wrecked. In the first Overtime Briscoe jumped to second, lining him up in second during the final attempt.

“I was so close to clearing him, I just couldn't do it ,” Briscoe said following a second-straight runner-up finish. “I thought we were close, I was two, three inches short,” Briscoe said.

"It's a dream come true,” Briscoe said about being a regular contender. The Mitchell, Indiana native looks forward to going home next with a shot to win in one of NASCAR’s crown jewels.

The final two for the In-Season Tournament were set, with Ty Gibbs and No. 32 seed Ty Dillon advancing. Gibbs defeated Tyler Reddick while Dillon got the better of John Hunter Nemecheck.

Gibbs outran Reddick for most of the race, earning 39 points on the day. Dillon was trapped a lap down but battled back in Overtime, earning the free pass back onto the lead lap and advancing.

Dillon said, “I just had this sense of ease the last couple laps, like something's going to go our way.” Dillon heads to Indianapolis, where he has won an Xfinity race, as the ‘Cinderella story’.

Chase Elliott led the field to the green, controlling 238 of the 400 laps, but fell back to sixth after the final restarts. This was the 25th straight race in which the polesitter failed to win at Dover.

However, Elliott takes over the regular season points lead due to teammate William Byron getting taken out in the Bell incident. This was Byron’s third DNF in the past four races.

The next stop for the NASCAR Cup Series is at the historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the 31st annual Brickyard 400. Drivers are set to tackle 160 laps around the 2.5-mile track.

TNT Sports and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network provide race coverage at 2 p.m. ET. This race also crowns the winner of $1 million in the inaugural In-Season Tournament.