After multiple near misses in 2026 after race restarts, Denny Hamlin finally emerged victorious at Dover, and his boss Joe Gibbs, the owner of Joe Gibbs Racing, couldn't be any prouder.

Hamlin put his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota on pole on Saturday, and during Sunday’s main event, he stayed in the top 3 in the first two stages. In the final 200-lap stage, he took the lead of the race from his teammate Chase Briscoe with 29 laps to go and led a total of 103 laps during the event.

He took home the $1 million check after crossing the finish line 0.887 seconds ahead of Briscoe. During his appearance on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio, Joe Gibbs showered praise on Hamlin, saying, "It feels great to tell you the truth. So proud of Denny."

This marked Hamlin’s third consecutive and fourth overall race win (2021, 2024, 2025) at the ‘Monster Mile.' When asked about what makes him good at this track, Gibbs replied by saying:

"I think he is very patient when you watch him. I think he is very good with the car. He doesn't push things too hard. I thought there were a lot of wrecks and stuff going on. It's just really, really good when it comes to having saved something, and so I think he saved the car all day, and then when he got to go at the end, he goes."

This win marks Hamlin's second career win at the All-Star event. His first All-Star win was at Charlotte Motor Speedway in 2015, where he held off Kevin Harvick to take home the $1 million check. 

Denny Hamlin opens up about his only weakness at Dover

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver has been pretty open about his kryptonite, which is race restarts. Hamlin has missed out on potential race wins at Kansas and Texas due to his struggles with the race restarts.

In Texas, Denny Hamlin lost the race to Chase Elliott with just four laps to go after the restart. The JGR driver's Toyota was not as quick as his HMS rival's Chevy, which also had newer tires to work with off the restart.

At Dover, however, despite no points on the line, Hamlin did not want to risk his position and kept trying various placements during restarts. When asked about the same by the media in the post-race press conference said:

"Yeah, it was my weakness at Texas, too. It's the reason we didn't win Texas is restarts, also. It's something that I got to get better at. It's a gaping hole in my game right now."

For the three-time Daytona 500 winner, it was a sweet culmination of his efforts finally paying off. Moreover, he also won hearts by saying that he would give the $1 million payout to his mother.

You can read more on the Daytona Racing Digest!

Written by

Chionia Libania Colaco

Edited by

Yask Kotak