{"id":101783,"date":"2025-07-25T08:47:46","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T15:47:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=101783"},"modified":"2025-07-25T08:47:46","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T15:47:46","slug":"nascar-dover-recap-hamlin-hangs-on-for-his-fourth-win-of-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/nascar-dover-recap-hamlin-hangs-on-for-his-fourth-win-of-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR Dover Recap: Hamlin Hangs On For His Fourth Win of 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"NASCAR<\/h2>\n

You can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but Denny could make old tires do just about anything at Dover.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Denny Hamlin<\/strong> thrives under pressure.<\/p>\n

Coming into Dover last week, he was tied for the most wins this season with three. Regardless, it seems like the NASCAR media \u2013 both on and off the track \u2013 harp on his age and his lack of a championship. The fact is, though, he’s got a lot more on his plate. He’s a father and a team owner as well, and with a new baby boy at home and a multimillion dollar lawsuit against the very organization he races in, it would be understandable if his mid-season performance slipped a bit.<\/p>\n

But it didn’t. Hamlin controlled the race last weekend, staying out on old tires through a rain delay and two restarts, holding off Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Chase Briscoe<\/strong> to win his fourth race of the season and his 58th win overall. Not bad at all for a 44 year old \u2013 a senior citizen, if you listen to the talking heads of the sport. Dover was one of Hamlin’s worst tracks early in his career. With his current experience, though, it’s clear that he’s one of the best, and a threat to win every time the series visits Delaware.<\/p>\n

It’s easy enough to forget that, just 20 short years ago, NASCAR Cup Series drivers tended to be older. The way it worked was, you paid your dues in the Xfinity (then Busch) Series before moving up to Cup when you were ready, typically well into your twenties or even early thirties. The meteoric rise of young guns like Jeff Gordon<\/strong> changed the landscape of the sport forever. However, it’s easy to forget that Dale Earnhardt<\/strong> had finished second in points in 2000, and was running third in the Daytona 500 when he tragically lost his life at age 49. It’s not an exaggeration to think that he could have gone for an eighth championship in the early 2000s.<\/p>\n

NASCAR’s obsession with youth has its pros and cons. Lately, it seems to mean that older drivers who have fought hard for respect receive little. Danielle Trotta<\/strong> and Larry McReynolds<\/strong> caused a stir this week when they dismissed Mark Martin<\/strong>‘s vocal criticism of the playoff system by implying sour grapes due to his lack of a championship. McReynolds later clarified his comments<\/strong><\/a>, saying they weren’t actually directed at Martin.<\/p>\n

Like Hamlin, Martin is in the running for the best driver without a championship. He took his craft seriously and exercised to stay in the race car as long as possible, running his final Cup race at age 50. He was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2017 and was named as one of the sport’s 75 greatest drivers. In short, he deserves respect from the press. With a career spanning three decades at the highest level, it’s worth listening when he has something to say about the direction of a sport facing an ever-dwindling viewership and a disgruntled fanbase.<\/p>\n

Photo: Sean Gardner\/Getty Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but Denny could make old tires do just about anything at Dover.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":101784,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3470],"tags":[127,41],"class_list":["post-101783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-nascar","tag-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/dennydover.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-qtF","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101783"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101783\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101795,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101783\/revisions\/101795"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}