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Denny Hamlin wins Cook Out 400 at Martinsville, moves up all-time wins list

JHby:Jonathan Howard•03/30/25•

Jondean25

Denny Hamlin Martinsville
Mandatory Credit: Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images

Back to victory lane for the first time in 2025 for Denny Hamlin and his team. He dominated the second half of this Martinsville race. For the first time since 2015, Hamlin is a winner at the Paperclip in the NASCAR Cup Series.

This is a big deal for Denny Hamlin and the 11 team. Crew chief Chris Gayle came over from the 54 team of Ty Gibbs. Now, he’s given Hamlin his 55th career win. He is now tied for 11th all-time with Rusty Wallace.

After the win, Hamli almost pulled off a full lap burnout. You think he’s happy to win another grandfather clock?

On top of the win, Denny Hamlin recorded the Xfinity Fastest Lap. So, that’s another point onto his total for the day. Most importantly, he earned the checkered flag and a spot in the playoffs.

I’m not going to lie; I was worried about Hamlin for a bit. His first six races were nothing to write home about. Then, he barely lost at Phoenix to Christopher Bell. At his age as a driver, you never know when the last one is going to come. Well, he still had one more in him.

After watching him control the second half of the race today, I think he has more wins in him, too. Darlington and Bristol will both be tracks that Hamlin will once again have a good chance to win at and it wouldn’t surprise me if he did pick up his second win in the next two weeks.

Denny Hamlin runs away from Christopher Bell, Bubba Wallace

This race was only going to be won by Denny Hamlin, barring any late drama. Christopher Bell and Bubba Wallace did their best to track Hamlin down, but the 11 car was too good and too fast today to match.

Chase Elliott had a good showing in this race. He was fourth overall and just behind Wallace in that chase group. Could he be on the verge of another win soon in the Cup Series?

Ryan Preece pulled off a P7 finish, he was solid all day. Joey Logano rallied from a late spin courtesy of Ross Chastain to finish P8. Chase Briscoe battled to P9 and Todd Gilliland was P10. Ford was really good in this race but just didn’t show it in the final results outside of a few cars at the end of the top-10.

The big takeaways from today, the Cup Series didn’t get nearly as petty and messy as the Truck and Xfinity Series. That’s good. And Denny Hamlin won. Is this team going to build off the momentum from here? Joe Gibbs Racing has four wins in the first seven races.