Martinsville, Virginie – “It’s felt”, said Denny Hamlin about an hour after his light blue and white Toyota took the checkered flag at Martinsville Speedway, “like the old, old”.
The old man can mean so much around Hamlin, who, at 44, was the oldest winner of the oldest track in Nastcar since a Rusty Wallace, 47, won his cup career in 2004. In this case, Old was a good thing. It was a return to victory.
NASCAR: Cup practice and qualification
Denny Hamlin wins to end a drought without a 10 -year victory in Martinsville Speedway
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Joe Gibbs Racing Driver retains his teammate Christopher Bell for his sixth serial victory on the track.
While Sunday marked the sixth victory of the sixth Hamlin Cup on this historic half -mile track, it was his first here since March 2015 – a period of 3,654 days.
“Ten years ago today, I had never started in Nascar in my life,” said Christopher Bell, 30, who finished second behind Hamlin, his teammate by Joe Gibbs Racing.
Ten years ago, Chase Elliott made his cup debut in this race that Hamlin won. He finished fourth Sunday.
Hamlin returned to the driver on Sunday who challenged – and sometimes beaten – Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson on this track when they were the prevailing pilots.
Nascar: Nascar Cup Series Race in Martinsville
What the drivers said after the victory of the NASCAR Cup of Denny Hamlin in Martinsville Speedway
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It was an emotional victory for Denny Hamlin, which ended a drought without a 10 -year victory on his home track.
Hamlin led 274 of the 400 laps on Sunday. Only two other times he had led more towers to Martinsville.
Hamlin had been good in this song in recent years – he has had the first eight terminals here since 2019 – but he was not the best.
“It was just aggravating to be the next best of this track in the past five years, without ever” “, said Hamlin after his 55th career victory, which equaled Wallace for 11th on the list of all time.
“The” IT “is like the ability to control a race, run as fast as you have to take the race and remove when you wish. Today we have “that”.
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Just as planned by Chris Gabehart, who had been the Hamlin crew chief until it became director of the competition at Joe Gibbs Racing after last season.
Gabehart looked at the Hamlin car window and said to the driver for a few moments before the cars were shooting on the track on Sunday that he would win today.
“I got it today,” Gabehart said about this particular feeling. “It’s you.”
Nascar: Nascar Cup Series Race in Martinsville
Joe Gibbs Racing’s star is tied with Rusty Wallace with 55 cup career victories.
Hamlin said that when Gabehart would say that in the 2019-20 seasons, “I knew almost that he had a ball of a racing car he built and we were probably going to win this race”.
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But Hamlin was wary of Gabehart’s feelings in recent years because they had not always led to victories. While Hamlin felt good in his car after Saturday training, he knew there was more necessary work.
“We didn’t have the best car,” said Hamlin. “We didn’t do it. But I was just thinking of the direction we were going is the right way.”
This brought him back to Victory Lane, a place where he had not gone since April 2024 to Douvres. He had done 31 races without victory before Sunday.
Hamlin arrives at an age when drivers stop winning. Martin Truex Jr., who stopped participating in the full -time cup after last season, won for the last time in 2023 at the age of 43. Johnson, a champion of seven times, won a cup race for the last time in 2017 at the age of 41. Gordon, a quadruple champion won his last cup victory – who arrived in Martinsville in November 2015 – when he was 43 years old.
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Has Hamlin already fear that his winning days will be over?
“I am probably the king of irrational trust,” he said. “I mean, in general, I know that when I had the car to do it, I can be the best, so I did not feel like I have retained the car at any time. I am certainly not immune to understanding that the father’s time is undefeated.
“Everything I need to be good to be a racing car driver is always very clear. I have the impression that it has not yet happened. This will be, but not yet.”
