Hamlin relishes recapturing 'it-factor' at Martinsville
03/31/2025 12:04 PM
Denny Hamlin accomplished two things in winning Sunday at Martinsville Speedway but one means more than the other.
It starts with the win itself, in which Hamlin and the No. 11 Progressive team broke a winless drought in the Cup Series. Hamlin had not won since April 29, 2024 at Dover Motor Speedway. It had been 31 races going into Sunday's event at Martinsville, which Hamlin had recently two weeks ago felt like "an eternity."
The victory, however, also broke a drought at half-mile for Hamlin. His last win at the track had been in the spring of 2015, which was also his fifth win at Martinsville Speedway in 19 starts.
And so, while winning is great, it's the latter that will mean the most for Hamlin as the victory continues to soak in over the coming days. Martinsville is a special place to the Joe Gibbs Racing driver and not being successful there has weighed on him over the years.
"I'm telling you, I scratch my head, and I study this racetrack more now than I ever have in my career," Hamlin said. "It was way easier to win 10 years ago, 12 years ago when it was me, Jimmie , and Jeff . I knew it was going to be the three of us. Our cars were good. We had the feeling we just were better than everyone else and it was easy. I didn't have to put in all the work that I do now."
Amid all that effort, there were many races where Hamlin had the best car and did not win at Martinsville Speedway. In the 19 races at the track since his 2015 win, and excluding Sunday's performance, Hamlin earned 10 top-five finishes and led 1,136 laps. The laps led were accumulated in 14 of those 19 races, and in five of them, Hamlin led 100 or more laps.
A bulk of those laps at the front have come in the last five years (going back to 2021). Hamlin led 840 laps in the eight races before Sunday afternoon.
Furthermore, in the last four fall races, Hamlin has finished outside the top five just once. The blemish came from the race Hamlin was spun from the lead by Alex Bowman with seven laps to go.
"It was aggravating to be the next best at this track for the last five years — just never having it," Hamlin said. "The 'it' is the ability to control a race, run as fast as you need to lead the race, and pull away when you want. And today, we had 'it.' So, that's what feels good, knowing that now we've got something that I'm not going to have to chase my tail in the fall trying to download and figure out, 'OK, why am I running third again? I need to win this race.'
"Sure, when you run in the top five, you'll have some wins fall your way, but I want to dominate. I'll take any win I can get, but I want to have days like this where I'm in complete control. It's going to feel good coming here in the fall and knowing, ‘OK, we don't have to chase our tail, we know what we need to build a race-winning car.’"
The fall race at Martinsville Speedway sets the Championship 4. Hamlin has not earned a berth in the Championship 4 since the 2021 season.
