DOVER, Del. — Denny Hamlin held off a hard-charging Kyle Larson over the final, thrilling laps and wiggled through lapped traffic to win the NASCAR Cup race by about a quarter of a second Sunday at Dover Motor Speedway.
Hamlin’s third win of the season tied William Byron for most this season in the series. Hamlin also picked up his 54th career Cup win, all with Joe Gibbs Racing. He’s tied with Lee Petty for 12th on the career Cup list.
“It’s just fantastic,” Hamlin said. “I couldn’t hold Lee Petty’s helmet.”
Larson finished second and nipped at Hamlin’s bumper for most of the final 25 laps and seemed on the brink of passing the Toyota. Larson’s No. 5 Chevrolet just couldn’t close the deal on the mile concrete track. Hamlin took the lead off a restart with about 79 laps left and never let it go, repeatedly closing off Larson at the top of the track.
“I just couldn’t really do anything,” Larson said. “Nothing could generate enough speed to get close enough to do anything.”
Hamlin was soundly booed as he grabbed the checkered flag — boos louder than usual at the track because of a big crowd. He led 136 of the 400 laps.
After rainouts forced Monday races each of the last two years, the sun came out Sunday — and so did the fans. The track came close to its 54,000 capacity.
Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch and Chase Elliott completed the top five.
All-Star sub
Kevin Harvick, the 2014 NASCAR champion who retired at the end of last season, will drive the No. 5 Chevrolet in place of Kyle Larson in practice and qualifying for the NASCAR All-Star race.
Larson will stay in Indianapolis on May 17 to practice for the Indianapolis 500. He will become the fifth driver in history to attempt to complete “ The Double, ” starting with the Indianapolis 500 and then Charlotte for the Coca-Cola 600, NASCAR’s longest race.
Up next
Kansas Speedway where Denny Hamlin is the defending race winner.
