AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400: Denny Hamlin holds off Chase Briscoe for Dover win

DOVER, Del. — Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin earned his fourth victory of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season after holding off his hard-charging teammate Chase Briscoe in the final few restarts of the AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 at Dover Motor Speedway.

The driver of the No. 11 Progressive Toyota finished in third in both stages and led 67 laps en route to his 58th career Cup Series win and his third at the “Monster Mile.” He also earned the Xfinity Fastest Lap (23.09 seconds) on the final lap of the race.

“It is awesome,” Hamlin said. “That is what is so gratifying, is you struggle at it, and you put in work and you see results from it. That is what motivates me every day, but it wouldn’t be possible without our great partners — Progressive, Toyota, Sport Clips, National Debt Relief, King’s Hawaiian, Bob’s Discount Furniture, Coca-Cola, Jordan Brand, Shady Rays and Logitech G.

“It is so hard. I had to hold off those tires from C. Bell (Christopher Bell) and others. We definitely had the oldest tires in the field on those last few restarts, but got good restarts. The last one — Chase (Briscoe) actually did an amazing job, holding right there with me. Made me really nervous that he was going to clear me off of Turn 2, but man we fought back. I love that we didn’t let this one slip away. This one would have hurt.”

Hamlin also became the first driver to win back-to-back races at Dover since Jimmie Johnson in 2013 and 2014.

Briscoe started second and finished second for the second straight week, as the JGR driver continues to have the best year of his Cup Series career.

“Yeah, honestly, I thought I was going to win the race,” Briscoe said. “I was able to stay just beside him into (Turn) 1. I thought we were going to have a good shot coming into (Turns) 1 and 2. I didn’t think he was going to be able to do that. I almost cleared him off of (Turn) 2. I thought I timed it right, so I was going to clear him going into (Turn) 3, just because I had the lane you typically want to be in. He was able to hang right there — another two or three inches and I thought I was going to win the race.

“He did a great job, obviously there is a reason that guy has won nearly 60-something Cup races. Glad that we were able to have a good finish. Obviously would have loved to win the race, but we had a fifth-to-10th place car and we ended up second, so a lot to be proud of with our Bass Pro Shops Toyota. I’m looking forward to going home next week.”

Hendrick Motorsports’ Alex Bowman earned a third-place finish at Dover. This marks his seventh top 10 at the “Monster Mile” in his last eight races at the Delaware track.

“I feel like we were better than where we ended up, but with a poor day at Sonoma (Raceway), I had to start deep in the field,” Bowman said. “I couldn’t get clean air, and then we got shuffled around a little bit on some of the short runs. But overall, we had a really good No. 48 Ally Chevrolet all day. Proud of everyone at Hendrick Motorsports. I’ve been a little bit sick and my cool shirt decided it wanted a Sunday off, so I’m really hot and really tire, but certainly, it was a really good day for our team.”

Bowman now has the lowest average finish in the Next Gen era (5.33).

Results from the AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 at Dover Motor Speedway are listed below:

Other Race Facts

After a red flag came out for rain with 14 laps to go, NASCAR was adamant about getting back to racing. The red flag took 56 minutes and 23 seconds, as the entire race took a total of three hours, 40 minutes and 18 seconds.

Denny Hamlin became the 10th driver in Cup Series history to win a race after making his 700th career start.

As a team, Hendrick Motorsports had a successful day. Alex Bowman finished third, followed by Kyle Larson in fourth and Chase Elliott in sixth. William Byron was running inside the top 10 before a late-race incident caused him to finish 31st.

Elliott’s No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet was the most dominant car throughout the race until a pit-road error put the team behind, and they were unable to recover. The Hendrick driver started on pole because qualifying was rained out on Saturday; he won Stage 1 and led a race-high 238 laps to earn a sixth top-six finish (sixth) in the last six races.

Hamlin’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Christopher Bell, was one of the most consistent drivers on track until he went out of contention late in the race. After leading 67 laps and having to go to the back of the pack, Bell used strategy and speed to make his way back up to second until he spun out for a second time. Bell ultimately finished 18th.

“It is refreshing to have speed again in our Rheem Camry,” Bell said. “We haven’t had pace, but today we were able to lead laps and get stage points and we won a stage. That is something that I’m super excited about, even though I made mistakes and I spun out when I probably shouldn’t have spun out. We were going for the win, and if we keep bringing speed like that to the race track, then we are going to be just fine. It has been a long time coming. I haven’t scored stage points in a long time, let alone won a stage.”

This race marked the first race that 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports had to run as open entries during the ongoing charter lawsuit between the aforementioned teams and NASCAR. Bubba Wallace led the way for the open entrants with a seventh-place finish, his first career top-10 finish at Dover Motor Speedway in his 11th start. Dover is also the track where Wallace had made the most starts in his career without a top 10.

The final round of the In-Season Challenge will be decided between Kaulig Racing’s Ty Dillon (No. 32 seed) and JGR’s Ty Gibbs (No. 6 seed). The highest finisher in next Sunday’s Brickyard 400 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway will win $1 million. Dillon was the lowest-ranked driver heading into the In-Season Challenge.

“It feels good,” Dillon said. “You know, I have been the underdog for a long time now, just battling my way to try to get opportunity. Eventually, you get comfortable in fighting from behind and people underestimating you. It’s hard to say that we lucked into it this far in, and I am proud of the way we have run. We haven’t been a dominating car, but we have been a pain to everyone around us. That is all we can do — put pressure on them and execute at the right time and that is what we have done.”

GRID RANKING

The top four in the NASCAR GRID Rating remain the same as Denny Hamlin opened up his gap on Kyle Larson. Christopher Bell and William Byron were both involved in incidents after running well, which caused them to fall in the ranking. Chase Briscoe’s consistency has helped him make it into the GRID Ranking for the first time in his Cup Series career.

The next race on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Brickyard 400 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday, July 27. Coverage will be at 2 p.m. ET on TNT.

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