By Andy Walter

DOVER — Minutes after winning the Wurth 400 on Sunday, a TV reporter told Denny Hamlin that he had reached another career milestone.

With his 54th career NASCAR Cup Series win, this one at Dover Motor Speedway, Hamlin tied Lee Petty for 12th on the all-time list.

“I couldn’t hold Lee Petty’s helmet but I’ve been blessed with a great race team,” Hamlin answered. “I’m the lucky one who gets to drive it.”

Down the stretch on Sunday, Hamlin left little doubt that he had the car to beat as the 43-year-old Florida native brought home his second career victory on the Monster Mile.

Hamlin took the lead on a crucial pit stop before staying out front for the final 71 laps and leading for a race-high 136 laps all together. Second-place Kyle Larson, who also had one of the best cars in the race, finished just a quarter-second behind.

Sunday’s victory was Hamlin’s third of the season and continued what’s already been a good season for him.

Last week, Tyler Reddick won at Talladega. Hamlin, along with former NBA star Michael Jordan, is co-owner of 23XI team that Reddick races for.

“It is different when you win it yourself versus when you’re a car owner,” said Hamlin. “It just feels different. Certainly we’re on a good run.

“It feels good,” he said. “(We’re) In the groove right now for sure. You certainly feel like you want to celebrate these because you just never know if it’s your last or anything like that. I’m just so focused this season on getting a lot of wins, trying to move that tally up as high as I can.”

Larson knows he wasn’t that far from being in Victory Lane himself on Sunday.

He led for 34 laps himself in the race and had just gotten back to the front with 75 laps remaining. But Hamlin beating back out on the crucial re-start changed everything.

“I knew when I got within three car lengths, he was going to start moving around,” said Larson. “I couldn’t really do anything. I was trying all sorts of different angles and speeds, all that. Nothing could generate enough speed to get close enough, I guess, to do anything. That was a bummer.”

Larson said Hamlin being in front allowed him to cut off his clean air. It’s a strategy that’s hard to combat for anybody that’s not in the lead.

“I could pace it, get closer to him at the end of the runs,” said Larson. “It’s so easy to air block. Not that he was doing anything dirty or anything like that. It’s so easy as the leader, especially at a place like this, to shut off the air on the guys behind you.”

“I was certainly nervous,” said Hamlin. “But I also knew that as long as I just did my job, hit my marks, didn’t have any major blowup laps ... then I was going to be able to hold him off.

“He certainly made it more interesting than what I really wanted.”

Despite finishing runnerup, Larson is still the Cup points leader. It was his 12th top-10 finish in 16 races at Dover and his fifth top-10 finish in 2024.

Larson leads second-place Martin Truex, Jr. by 15 points in the season standings. Larson also owns a series-leading six stage wins this season.

Hamlin is in fourth place in points but, right now, he feels pretty good about being able to contend for a win week-in and week-out.

As for his place in NASCAR history, Hamlin admits it still feels strange to see his name mentioned among the greatest drivers of all time.

He’s posted his 54 victories in 661 career starts. His first start came in 2005.

“It doesn’t seem right,” said Hamlin. “If you put all the names on the list in the order of the wins that they have, I don’t know, I see my name as just an outlier — one that sticks out like it doesn’t really belong there.

“I’ve been doing it a long time. You take for granted all the wins that you’ve had. .. It’s my personal goal, in my career I want to get to a number that puts me well inside that top 10 of race winners. I think that will speak for itself and the résumé.”

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