NASCAR
Denny Hamlin Wins Thrilling Overtime Finish at Dover Motor Speedway
By Holly Cain
NASCAR Wire Service
DOVER, DE (July 20, 2025) – Denny Hamlin prevailed in Sunday’s EchoPark AutoTrader 400 at Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway – a race that featured a 56-minute red flag for rain, late-race strategy decisions, and involved a pair of overtime restarts before the trophy was ultimately settled between a pair of Joe Gibbs Racing teammates.
But the veteran Hamlin got it all right when it mattered most, getting a jump on the field in both overtime restarts and in the end holding off his newest teammate Chase Briscoe who was even on fresher tires. It marks back-to-back wins at the Dover concrete-mile for Hamlin and a NASCAR Cup Series-best fourth victory of 2025.
“Things were going pretty well there before the rain and then obviously had to endure a few restarts there,’’ said a smiling Hamlin, 44, who collected his 58th career victory and first trophy since the birth of his son, Jameson last month. “It was tough, those guys gave me a run for it, no doubt about it.’’
“Winning here at Dover is super special to me,’’ he continued. “This is a place I had not been very good at the first half of my career and then to have back-to-back (wins) here the last couple years is amazing.’’
Briscoe certainly pushed Hamlin on that final two-lap sprint to the checkered flag. The two ran door-to-door on the white flag lap – their cars even making slight contact – before Hamlin’s No. 11 JGR Toyota Camry was able to pull around and clear Briscoe’s car, racing off to a .310-second victory and become only the 13th driver in track history to win consecutive races.
Hendrick Motorsports teammates Alex Bowman and Kyle Larson finished third and fourth with another JGR driver, Ty Gibbs rounding out the top five.
For most of the day, it looked as if Hendrick’s Chase Elliott would continue a summer hot streak and claim his second race win in the last four weeks. He led a race best 238 of the 407 laps – taking his first stage win of the season and overcoming an early pit road miscue. But he just wasn’t able to challenge Hamlin.
There was some consolation in Elliott’s sixth place finish, however, as it – combined with teammate William Byron’s accident with two laps remining in regulation – now gives Elliott a 17-point championship lead over Byron with five races remaining in the regular season. It’s the first time he’s led the championship this year.
Elliott led so many laps and essentially controlled race pace, but it was a cycle of pit stops that gave Hamlin opportunity out front. He cycled to the lead when Elliott pit for tires during a caution beating his JGR teammate Christopher Bell on a restart with 60 laps remaining. Hamlin held the lead position when the 56-minute red flag came out for rain with 15 laps to go.
And after all that had to hold off Briscoe on consecutive overtime restarts – ultimately leading the final 67 laps.
“I thought I did everything I needed to and thought I had it there for a second,’’ Briscoe said. “I was so close to clearing him and just couldn’t do it. Obviously racing a teammate, I wanted to make sure at least a JGR car won. Honestly it was a great day. We weren’t probably a second place race car, we were probably fifth to 10th place car. Glad we were able to make a good finish out of it.’’
Behind Elliott, Bubba Wallace, Ryan Blaney, Chris Buescher and Brad Keselowski rounded out the top 10.
While the top of the championship standings changed with Elliott taking the lead, the four drivers – Reddick, Bowman, Buescher and Wallace – still chasing a points-position in the 16-driver Playoff remained the same. Wallace’s seventh-place finish gives him a 16-point edge on Ryan Preece for that 16th and final transfer position. Kyle Busch, who finished 11th Sunday, is now 39 points behind Wallace.
The race also set the “In-Season Challenge” championship round next week at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with Gibbs and longshot Ty Dillon advancing to the title round.
Gibbs was paired against Tyler Reddick at Dover and Dillon had to beat John Hunter Nemechek in the other bracket to settle the final two positions for $1 million to-win grand finale of the inaugural incentive program presented by TNT.
In both head-to-head battles, the two drivers ran near each other all afternoon. Gibbs got around Reddick in the closing laps and Dillon benefitted from a “lucky dog” late race pass – he and Nemechek finished 20th and 21st.
“Super cool today, I really appreciate my team.” Gibbs said smiling.
Dillon, who drives the No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet was similarly ecstatic for the opportunity. He was seeded 32nd among the 32 drivers to qualify for the In-Season Tournament and had to race past drivers like Hamlin in earlier rounds.
“All respect to John Hunter we ran next to each other all day,’’ a thrilled Dillon said. “Just so grateful to have this opportunity and this is one of the greatest things to happen in my career.”
The NASCAR Cup Series moves to one of its premier showcases, the historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway for next Sunday’s Brickyard 400 (2 p.m. ET, TNT, HBO Max, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Larson is the defending race winner.
By Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service
JOLIET, IL (July 4, 2026) — Stealing the lead from Chase Elliott on the final restart, Brandon Jones celebrated NASCAR’s return to Chicagoland Speedway with a dramatic victory in Saturday night’s rain-delayed Cuervo 300.
In the first NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race to require overtime this season, Jones’ No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota stayed side-by-side with Elliott’s No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet through the first two corners on the decisive Lap 200 restart.
Jones took control in Turn 3 on the white-flag lap. Elliott made a determined run at the top of the track on the final circuit, but Jones blocked the lane and crossed the finish line 0.171 seconds ahead of the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series champion.
“It’s been an up-and-down year,” Jones said after climbing from his car. “We had some success early on. We’ve been in a little rut the last couple weeks, so it’s just nice to do it like we did today. We had to earn that one.”
The victory was Jones’ first at Chicagoland (which hosted its first race since 2019), his first of the season and the eighth of his career, and he achieved it by outrunning an elite Cup Series driver.
“I think it says a lot about how resilient we are and how hard we’re working out there,” Jones said. “Chase made it really difficult on me. He’s one of the best in the sport. We were on old tires, and that was a blast, sliding around and dueling it out like that.”
Elliott chose the top lane for the final restart and didn’t get the push he needed from third-place finisher Jesse Love, the culprit being well-worn tires.
“I don’t think that was why we lost by any means,” Elliott said. “I know he was planning on giving me a good push… We ended up kind of having the momentum going the wrong way into Turn 3. I tried to drive in way hard and got myself super tight…
“Credit to Brandon. He did a good job. He had a good restart, stayed side-by-side through 1 and 2 and had the momentum going his way into Turn 3. I got myself in a bad spot and paid the price.”
Austin Hill finished fifth behind Love and rookie Brent Crews.
For JGR teammates Crews and Tayor Gray, the race was eminently productive in the battle for positions in the postseason Chase. Gray led 55 laps—second only to Elliott’s 78—and ended the evening seventh in the race and 11th in the standings with a 52-point cushion above the current Chase cut line.
Crews is 12th, the final Chase-eligible position, with a 44-point margin over teammate William Sawalich, the first driver below the current cutoff.
But Sawalich was seething after contact from Crews’ front bumper sent him spinning through the infield grass on Lap 165 of a planned 200 to cause the fifth of seven cautions. Sawalich finished 29th and faces an uphill battle with only four races left before the Chase field is set.
With qualifying canceled in favor of practice after rain wiped out O’Reilly Auto Parts Series practice on Friday, Connor Zilisch started on the pole on metrics after a rain delay of more than four hours and led the first stage wire-to-wire, finishing 4.935 seconds ahead of second-place Love.
Under caution, however, Zilisch’s No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet ran out of fuel and had to be pushed to pit road. Zilisch restarted Stage 2 in 26th place and climbed to ninth by the end of the stage on Lap 90.
Elliott was first of pit road during the first stage break and held the top spot through the end of Stage 2.
Zilisch’s rotten luck continued after the break. He cut a tire after contact with the outside wall and started from the back once again, only to spin on Lap 156 and repeat the process. For a third time, he climbed through the field to finish 10th.
Justin Allgaier, Zilisch’s JR Motorsports teammate, had a similarly adventurous night. Allgaier started 17th and charged to fourth by the end of Stage 2. But a safety violation on pit road for an improperly uniformed crew member sent him the rear for a restart on Lap 100.
Allgaier rallied to finish sixth and leaves Chicagoland with a 195-point series lead over second-place Love.
Behind Allgaier and Gray, Sam Mayer, Cole Custer and Zilisch completed the top 10. With Elliott, Allgaier and Zilisch in the top 10, JR Motorsports extended its streak of placing at least one car in the top 10 to 77 consecutive races, two short of RFK Racing’s series record, set from 2008 through 2010.
The O’Reilly Auto Parts Series moves to EchoPark Speedway near Atlanta for next Saturday’s Focused Health 250 (7 p.m. ET on CW, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
By Holly Cain
NASCAR Wire Service
LONG POND, PA (June 13. 2026) It’s been a recurring theme in the NASCAR Cup Series in recent weeks. Denny Hamlin is out front.
The veteran driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota claimed his fourth Busch Light Pole position of the season Saturday afternoon at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway and will lead the field to green in Sunday’s Great American Getaway 400 presented by VISITPA (1 p.m. ET on Prime Video, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Of note, with poor weather expected later Sunday afternoon, the green flag start time (1 p.m.) has been moved up two hours earlier than its originally scheduled time.
This marks the 51st pole position of Hamlin’s career and comes as the popular veteran is attempting to win three consecutive races for the first time in his celebrated career after victories the last two weeks in Nashville and Michigan.
He was the last driver to take to the track in Saturday’s qualifying session and just nudged Hendrick Motorsports’ driver Kyle Larson from the top position in the final minutes – Hamlin’s lap of 173.250 mph around the 2.5-mile triangular-shaped Pocono track was .057-second quicker than Larson’s best.
“Certainly had the grip, this whole team just did a great job with adjustments, making it a little better from practice, I didn’t execute a very good lap there in Turn 2, but overall I thought I hit [turns] three and one pretty decent – just good enough,” Hamlin said.
He acknowledged he and the team are certainly on a hot streak at the moment with wins in the non-points paying All-Star Race four weeks ago plus the two victories in the last two weeks. The effort has helped Hamlin cut 23XI Racing driver Tyler Reddick’s 100-plus point advantage over him atop the standings to only 51 points heading into Pocono, a place Hamlin has won a record seven times.
“It’s certainly going well and confidence is up with these guys [on the team] that every time I enter a corner at about 200, I know they’ve built me a car that’s going to stick,” Hamlin said, acknowledging his three-in-a-row opportunity.
“This is the best shot for sure, we’ve got a little work to do on the car overnight to get it to be a race winner, but I feel like we’re in that box where we need to be and we’ll fine tune it from here.”
Starting behind Hamlin and Larson are Daniel Suarez in the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet and Hamlin’s JGR teammates Ty Gibbs (No. 54 Toyota) and defending race winner Chase Briscoe (No. 19 Toyota).
Chris Buescher, who won his first career NASCAR Cup Series race at Pocono in 2016, qualified sixth – his No. 17 Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing Ford the first Ford on the grid. Legacy Motor Club teammates Erik Jones and John Hunter Nemechek will start their Toyotas seventh and eighth. Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron (No. 24 Chevrolet) and Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney (No. 12 Ford) – who also earned his first career series win at Pocono in 2017 – round out the top-10 on the grid.
Of note, 23XI Racing’s Reddick will roll of 15th and his teammate, Bubba Wallace, will start from the rear of the field after a qualifying session accident. RFK owner-driver Brad Keselowski had engine trouble in the session and will start alongside Wallace on the last row.
By Holly Cain
NASCAR Wire Service
LONG POND, PA (June 13, 2026) – NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series’ MillerTech Battery 250 at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway Saturday featured a record 18 lead changes and a record 10 cautions – including a seven-minute red flag period – but in the end, it was a very familiar scenario in Victory Lane: championship leader Justin Allgaier and the No. 7 JR Motorsports team celebrating an inspired drive.
Allgaier led a race best 35 of the 100 laps – ultimately taking the lead for good on a restart with two laps remaining. Haas Factory teammates Sam Mayer – who was Allgaier’s greatest challenge on the day – and Sheldon Creed created a three-wide push for the lead on the final restart but ultimately slid backwards as Allgaier’s JR Motorsports teammate William Byron was able to push Allgaier’s No. 7 Chevrolet forward to create a gap on the field.
The advantage was all Allgaier needed to race off to a .607-second win over Joe Gibbs Racing’s Brent Crews – who passed Byron on the last corner of the last lap for second place.
The victory was the 2024 series champion Allgaier’s first at the historic Pocono 2.5-mile triangle-shaped track giving him wins now at 21 different venues. And it marked the fifth win of the year for Allgaier, tying his previous high season win total.
“First of all, I’ve got to say thank you to William Byron because without his shove at the end of the race, it was probably game over,” Allgaier said before thanking the fans for filling the grandstands.
“This season has been special with [crew chief] Andrew Overstreet and this whole number seven team and this pit crew right here,” he said, adding with a grin, “We’re going to go celebrate this one for sure.”
Slowed by all the caution flags – four in the opening 25-lap stage alone – the early part of the race never allowed for one driver to establish a rhythm and truly set a pace among all the starting and stopping.
Polesitter Taylor Gray led 24 laps and won the opening stage and Crews claimed the stage two win. But the final half of the race was really a duel between Allgaier and Mayer, who led 14 laps and exchanged the lead with Allgaier frequently in the race’s closing laps – sometimes on the same lap. They started side-by-side out front on the three final restarts and Mayer looked like his No. 41 Haas Factory Team Chevrolet would at least keep Allgaier honest. In the end, Mayer and Creed finished fourth and fifth.
“It was either the double zero [Creed] was trying to make a block, or just a push gone wrong a little bit,” Mayer said, of the unsuccessful three-wide move on that last restart. “Just really unfortunate circumstance. We actually had a really good launch.
“At the end of these races, you’re not going to not take a run so I don’t blame my teammate for pulling out of line like that, but obviously it put me in a bad spot,” Mayer continued. “The middle [lane] was okay if I had people with me. … obviously today we executed really, really well, so lots to be proud about, but obviously I’m very devastated right now because I just want a shot at it and don’t feel like I haven’t gotten a really true shot at it when the white flag flew.
“We were close today executed really good and really proud of everybody. One day it’s going to be my turn, and I can’t wait.”
Incredibly, Allgaier’s effort – the 33rd victory of his career – now puts him an unbelievable 250 points up on second place, Richard Childress Racing driver Jesse Love in the series championship standings with seven regular season races remaining. Love only completed a single lap after being collected in the first of 10 yellow-flag incidents on the day.
“Just frustrated obviously, thought our Camaro was going to be good today,” Love said, adding, “Only got one lap to feel it out but I was happy with that one corner, wish we had gotten a few more.”
Anthony Alfredo, Rajah Caruth, Brandon Jones, the defending Pocono race winner Connor Zilisch and Carson Kvapil rounded out the top-10.
Jeremy Clements led a lap and finished 16th in a historical day for his career and the series. The 41-year-old South Carolinian tied Kenny Wallace for the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series most all-time starts – 547 races. Wallace set the record in 2011 and last raced in 2015. Clements will claim the mark for himself when he takes next week’s green flag at San Diego.
The series heads to Southern California for next Saturday’s inaugural United Rentals Driven to Serve 250 (5:30 p.m. ET on The CW, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) on the Coronado Naval Base.
Macri Holds Off Dietz for Smith Memorial Score
Brandon Jones grabs overtime victory in Chicagoland return
Say it ain’t so Scott – Dixon leaving Chip Ganassi Racing
Macri Romps At Hagerstown
Dietz and Shultz Get Dramatic Wins at Port Royal
Say it ain’t so Scott – Dixon leaving Chip Ganassi Racing
Denny Hamlin grabs the NASCAR Cup pole at Pocono Raceway
Justin Allgaier captures first Pocono victory after wild late-race restart
