By Luis Torres, Staff Writer/Photographer
It’s been a decade since Denny Hamlin last won at Martinsville Speedway, but Sunday’s Cook Out 400 showed the 44-year-old is still an unstoppable force at the paperclip-shaped Virginia circuit.
Recently, the races at Martinsville have been dominated by the likes of Ryan Blaney and Hendrick Motorsports drivers Kyle Larson and William Byron. This time around, it was Hamlin’s turn to dominate the race.
Since the spring race was shortened to 400 miles in 2022, no driver had led as many laps as Hamlin’s mark of 274 laps. While Hamlin described his car as being far from perfect, he still smoked the competition in the final 75-lap green flag run, beating his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Christopher Bell by 4.617 seconds.
Despite all the news of the ongoing lawsuit and working with new crew chief Chris Gayle, things clicked Sunday that brought the No. 11 Progressive Toyota into victory lane.
For Hamlin, it’s his sixth grandfather clock and Gayle’s first Cup win as a crew chief since Erik Jones in the 2019 Southern 500.
Above all, Hamlin got his 55th career NASCAR Cup Series win, tying him with Rusty Wallace for 11th on the all-time win list. Wallace’s final Cup win happened to take place at Martinsville 21 years ago when he won over JGR driver Bobby Labonte at the tender age of 47.
During Sunday’s post-race press conference, Hamlin’s victory was a focal point as the two men with 55 wins won at an age where several drivers either retire or struggle winning races.
Not once has the three-time Daytona 500 champion felt any doubt that wins aren’t coming around him any longer.
Safe to say, in his words, “the King of Irrational Confidence” knows that his No. 11 Toyota is still a car drivers should worry about as indicated with the “11 Against the World” flag, a nod to the College Football Playoff National Champions of Ohio State, who’ve backed up their claim of them against the world.
“I know that when I got the car to do it, I can be the best,” said Hamlin. “I haven’t felt like I’ve held back the car at any point. Certainly, I’m not immune to understanding that Father Time is undefeated.
“Everything that I need to be good to be a race car driver is still really sharp. I feel like it hasn’t happened yet. It will, but not yet.”
Despite the confidence, Hamlin knows that each win means a lot more as he’s getting up there in age as a race car driver. Back in his 30s, the mindset was the wins keep on coming that it’s expected to stay consistent.
However, there comes a time when it’ll stop becoming frequent and there’ll be times when his family may not be there to cherish it.
In Sunday’s victory, his longtime girlfriend — now fiancé — Jordan Fish and their two daughters with a third expected to arrive in June, cherished the victorious occasion. Notably, Taylor Hamlin, left her mark at the start/finish line by writing “Taylor Hamlin #11 win 2025” in the sea of other remarks fans traditionally leave before the start of the Cup race.
“When you’re just in your 30s or something, you got such a long runway ahead of you, you’re always thinking about, ‘We’ll go win next week, the week after that, the week after that,’” Hamlin explained.
“Certainly, however many races I’m going to win between now and the end, I’m going to value them just a little bit more just from perspective, from wisdom that you have, understanding the value of it, how hard it is to do. I don’t always have my kids here. I think it’s been a few years since they were in Victory Lane.
“Having it all come back at this track, where it was 10 years ago, 55, where Rusty Wallace got his 55th. I’ll have time to let all that stuff digest, but in the moment it’s really awesome. I won’t feel bad to break his 55 (win record) when I do.”
With age ultimately being a number at the end of the day, Joe Gibbs recalled having a conversation with Hamlin at Watkins Glen that highlighted Hamlin’s demeaner as a race car driver.
“A year and a half ago we’re at Watkins Glen. As everybody knows, Denny struggled with road racing for a while. I went to him at Watkins Glen,” said Gibbs.
“’I just want to tell you something. Where you are in your life, okay racing at your age, for you to set on three poles.’
“He worked his rear-end off. He’s probably in the simulator more than anybody. I think that says a lot about him.
“The one thing I’ve learned about athletes, the ones that really have it and are special, you better be careful about anything early. Let them go. We’re going to ride Denny for as long as we can here.”
For Gayle, who had worked with Ty Gibbs over the past few years, the victory meant a lot as he’d gone over five years without leading his driver into victory lane in the sport’s top level. In large part of working with Ty when he moved up to the Xfinity Series that resulted in 11 wins and a championship.
Gayle explained that even before working with Gibbs, he worked with Jones when he moved up to Cup in 2017. Working with Hamlin was similar in terms of working with someone new, but unlike the previously mentioned drivers, Hamlin is a long-established Cup driver. In that regard, Gayle’s pressure eased off but knew he was coming into a tight-knit group.
“t’s wildly different. Even if you go before Ty Gibbs, I had Erik Jones who was a rookie. Both of those instances, I’m going through it with them for the first time. They’ve never seen anything before there,” Gayle explained. “I’m trying to be the guy who reminds them of every possible scenario that can happen, looking at the data with them, trying to get them up to speed.
“Denny is so experienced that all those things I don’t necessarily have to worry about. They’re old hat for him. We still talk about things that maybe he views differently, or he’s learned in his experience.
“For me, it’s more of I’m able to lean on him as much as he’s able to ask questions and lean on me. More of a mutual back-and-forth conversation about it,” Gayle continued.
“He tells you he feels he does the best job just focusing on driving. He doesn’t want to be the crew chief, fix the setup. He will give you a lot of good detail about what he needs out of a car and why, how he’s going to drive it a certain way that helps you set up the car a lot better,” Gayle concluded.
To back up Gayle’s remarks, Hamlin explained how happy he is having him at the top of the pit box after being able to adapt with the team after working with young guns for so long. To the point that Hamlin commented about being the easiest driver Gayle has worked with.
“That is really hard to do,” said Hamlin. “It’s hard to put in what you know is the fastest thing, then expecting a rookie to go out there, someone that’s really young, to get the most out of that. Then having the race craft to manage it through the whole race. It’s really, really hard to do.
“I think him having someone probably as laid back as I am for the first time in his career is probably making his job a lot easier.
“He mentioned it to me last week. He was like, ‘This has been the easiest. You’re by far the easiest driver I’ve had to deal with.’
“I try to do that for him,” Hamlin continued. “I’m never going to second-guess your setup, your strategy or anything. All I’m going to do is focus on giving you the best behind the wheel and giving you the best information so you can go make the right decisions. Whatever you decide, I’m going to have your back 100%.
“That’s what you have to do when you have a new crew chief coming in there, is you’ve got to believe in him and let him be the leader that he is.”
Seven races into the 2025 Cup season, Hamlin currently sits sixth in the regular season standings, 41 markers behind points leader William Byron.
One thing that Gayle has noticed from Hamlin that Gibbs commented about in the press conference is the tenacity of his driver putting in the work at a driver his age.
“I’ve been surprised at how hard he does work. Like Coach (Gibbs) was talking about, we were texting last night late. He was watching 2022 SMT data from here,” Gayle on Hamlin. “I think that’s what he’ll tell you. As he’s gotten older, he’s had to almost ramp up the amount of work he’s done, where he may have gotten by earlier without doing that.
“I think he still has a drive and determination to win. It think it’s probably no secret. You’ve seen the wins. He wants to get beyond 60 wins. There’s still goals left for him at this age.
“It’s one thing to say that you want to get there and talk about it, but I’m starting to see the amount of effort he puts in.
“He’s with us in the simulator at least six to seven hours a week. He probably doesn’t have to. Some of the other guys don’t. He does it to be a part of the team, help grow the process completely. I think that just speaks to where his head is at this age.”
While age 47 is long ways to go for Hamlin, the goal will remain the same – believe in his No. 11 team and conquer the competition.
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