By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service
DOVER, Del. – Happy for himself and equally so, his Joe Gibbs Racing team, Denny Hamlin exuded an unmistakable sense of pride and confidence as he celebrated his victory Sunday afternoon in NASCAR’s annual All-Star Race at Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway.
Hamlin won the exhibition race from pole position and led the most laps, ultimately beating a driver – a Joe Gibbs Racing teammate no less – that is 14 years his junior.
And it’s all so typical of the veteran, who in recent years has proven himself NASCAR’s high bar to beat – both as a driver and an impressive new team owner.
Through the last two seasons alone, Hamlin is on the verge of eclipsing his win-total of the previous three years combined – he’s already got seven wins since 2025 (not counting the non-points All-Star victory on Sunday) and had eight total wins from 2022-24.
There is a notable competitive difference in the 45-year-old Virginian, not only in his consistent high-level success, but his approach to achieving it. He’s more philosophic, more inclined to lean on his hard-earned book of notes. The determination has never been more intense, the expectation never higher.
“I think my experience is carrying me more now than ever,” Hamlin said Sunday after his second NASCAR All-Star race win from pole position. “I’m fortunate to have run so many laps at these tracks and now won so many that it’s really easy for me to replicate the feeling I had last year here and then the year before that.
“That’s just all I search for. Doesn’t matter whether we have more horsepower, less downforce. I’m searching for a feel. If I’ve got it, I know that then we’re going to win.”
Hamlin absolutely dominated the 2025 Championship Race, leading a race best 208 of 319 laps only to lose out on his first career title trophy hoist in what was an excruciatingly close overtime loss to Hendrick Motorsport’s Kyle Larson.
Only twice in his previous 21 years did Hamlin lead more laps than last season (1,024) and that 2025 total comes after he missed a race due to injury. He won a career high single-season total five pole positions last year. And he did all this as a 44-year-old competing against a field largely a decade younger.
“Oddly enough, yes,” Hamlin said of feeling like he’s on top of his career arc now. “I mean, it’s very weird and unique at this point in my career that I’m in this place. But, like, if we’re going to a track that turns left, I expect to win every single week.”
Hamlin has already scored a victory this season – at Las Vegas – and celebrated another trip to Victory Lane Sunday in a race he dominated – leading a race best 103 of the 200 laps and beating his JGR teammate Chase Briscoe by almost a full second.
He has two other runner-up finishes this year (at Martinsville, Va. and Texas) and sits second in the NASCAR Cup Series championship standings as a driver. But in the ultimate competitive twist, he still leads the title run as a team owner. Five-time 2026 race winner Tyler Reddick – who drives for the 23XI Racing team co-owned by Hamlin and NBA legend Michael Jordan – holds a massive 129-point advantage on the field.
Hamlin’s only previous win at Charlotte Motor Speedway, where the series races Sunday in the annual Memorial Day Coca-Cola 600 (6 p.m. ET, Amazon Prime, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) came in 2022. He’s finished seventh or better – and led laps – in four of the last six Coke 600s.
As for the next three races on the schedule beyond Charlotte, Hamlin finished third at Nashville, won at Michigan and finished runner-up at Pocono a year ago.
“This is just very unique, especially in the era where all the cars are so similar, and I’m racing guys that have all my information, they see my setups, things like that, and still can get it done in the end,’’ Hamlin said of his ability to keep this pace.
“It’s very gratifying from my standpoint to still be competitive at my age.”
