Last year, Valvoline Global, the official motor oil partner of Hendrick Motorsports, renewed and expanded its alliance with the 14-time NASCAR Cup Series champions team through 2029. Their relationship, first forged in 1993 during Jeff Gordon’s rise to his inaugural championship in 1995 and rekindled in 2014, has now entered its second decade of collaboration.

The expanded deal is ready to strengthen not only marketing and technical synergy but also drive engineering innovation and the creation of specialized solutions tailored to meet the unforgiving demands of competition in NASCAR.

While on one side, NASCAR gives the company enough exposure through championship and race wins, on the other side, as based in Lexington, Kentucky, Valvoline’s racing division employs 11 full-time engineers focused solely on performance.

HMS powertrain director Scott Maxim calls the exclusivity of this partnership a “secret weapon” for a team that already boasts a record 14 Cup Series titles.

NASCAR’s rules allow teams to choose their own oils and lubricants while standardizing Sunoco Green E15 98-octane fuel, a loophole that HMS and Valvoline have expertly leveraged to stay ahead of the curve.

Although some might call it cheating, given NASCAR’s tight regulations since the introduction of the Next Gen cars and the heightened parity that often makes passing nearly impossible on tracks for the drivers, Valvoline chief technical officer Roger England draws a clear line.

In his view, creatively interpreting the rules is part of winning, while using anything illegal crosses into cheating. He fully supports innovation within the rulebook but stands firmly against outright violations.

As part of its expanding presence, Valvoline continued as the primary sponsor for William Byron’s No. 24 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in eight Cup Series races in 2024 and six annually from 2025 to 2029.

It will also retain its role as the primary sponsor for three races on Kyle Larson’s No. 5 Chevrolet through 2029, while maintaining full-season associate sponsorship across HMS’s four-car fleet, which includes 2020 champion and No. 9 driver Chase Elliott as well as No. 48 driver Alex Bowman.

With five wins in 21 starts this season, HMS continues to deliver results, leaving partners like Valvoline Global with every reason to trust in their winning formula.

By Dan Gelston

The Associated Press

DOVER, Del. — Denny Hamlin has stood his ground that wins — enough of them to soon earn his place inside NASCAR’s career top-10 list — matter more to his legacy than a championship.

Easy to say, of course, with 58 race victories to zero titles.

The 44-year-old Hamlin, still driving the No. 11 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing as he’s done since his rookie season in 2006, is motivated to reach the top 10 this season over the final 15 races of the Cup season. Kevin Harvick is 10th on the career list with 60 and Kyle Busch, still active with Richard Childress Racing, is ninth with 63, giving Hamlin realistic numbers to shoot for the rest of the season.

Best to take advantage at tracks where he’s had success, such as Dover Motor Speedway, where he won Sunday for the second straight year and third time overall, compared with a track like this weekend’s race on the Indianapolis oval, where Hamlin is 0 for 16.

“I don’t think I’ve ever wanted to go back to back so bad,” Hamlin said of Dover. “(Indy’s) a track that I’ve just come so fricking close to winning. I just want to cross off all the major racetracks on our schedule.”

Hamlin is a driver who thrives in the chaos like few others — if any can — in the series. His win at Dover came days after the race team he owns with Michael Jordan suffered a setback in its court fight with NASCAR. He insisted ahead of the race that the legal issues never caused a distraction for him in the race car, then proved it on the mile concrete track with a series-best fourth win of the season.

Maybe more dark clouds — like the ones that opened up Sunday, causing a rain delay just laps ahead of the scheduled finish — can fuel Hamlin at Indy.

“All I can hope is that something happens this week that derails everything and then I’ll do better,” Hamlin said.

Hamlin then turned to a NASCAR employee and cracked, “Maybe it’ll come from them.”

Can Hamlin realistically get to 60 in 2025? He won eight times in 2010, six times in 2019 and seven in 2020, all totals that would get him to 60 this year.

“When you get him in a situation where he’s got the ball in his hands and it’s time to go win the race, he finds a way to do that most times,” crew chief Chris Gayle said.

It’s a fitting analogy for a race team owned by a former NFL coach.

At his pace, Hamlin remains a contender to cash in this November at Phoenix Raceway and win his first NASCAR championship — even if he lost out on the $1 million prize in the series’ first In-season challenge.

$1 million is on the line

The idea for the challenge was largely championed by Hamlin, a three-time Daytona 500 winner who floated the idea of a midseason tournament on his “Actions Detrimental” podcast. When NASCAR bought into the idea and announced the creation of the tournament last year, Hamlin called the tournament on social media “such a win for our sport and drivers.” He jokingly added, “I will collect my 1M royalty next season.”

Hamlin earned the No. 1 seed — and was promptly eliminated in the first race by Ty Dillon, the No. 32 seed.

Dillon faces Ty Gibbs next week at Indianapolis to decide the first winner of the tournament.

Was the In-season challenge a success?

Hamlin said the five-race, bracket-style tournament overall was a success — but not without a few kinks. Some of the seeding was off, such as Shane van Gisbergen not qualifying for the field, then ripping off consecutive wins on the Chicago street race and Sonoma Raceway during the tournament races.

And sure, everyone loves a Cinderella in March. But two in July isn’t necessarily making the tournament the NASCAR story of the summer.

“I think it has been unfortunate, right, you probably had a lot of the top seeds get knocked out pretty early in it, but overall, I thought the implementation of it has been good,” Hamlin said.

The other side of the argument is this: Would any fan or media outlet really care about a pair of winless drivers such as Gibbs (the sixth seed) or Dillon at this point of the season without $1 million at stake?

“For a team like us, at this point in the season, we’re not exactly where we want to be yet, but we’re trending in a good direction,” Dillon said on TNT. “Our story doesn’t get told in years past. It’s mainly the guys trying to fight for the points position. It’s the guys running up front, trying to win the race. But our story and our growth in the year stops getting told. I’m grateful we’ve been able to show our personality as a team.”

Unlike the All-Star race where the winner pockets $1 million, the driver with the best finish earns the cash prize, a ring, jackets and a trophy.

Originally Published: July 21, 2025 at 5:42 PM EDT

DOVER, Del. (AP) — Denny Hamlin has stood his ground that wins — enough of them to soon earn his place inside NASCAR’s career top-10 list — matter more to his legacy than a championship.

Easy to say, of course, with 58 race victories to zero titles.

The 44-year-old Hamlin, still driving the No. 11 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing as he’s done since his rookie season in 2006, is motivated to reach the top 10 this season over the final 15 races of the Cup season. Kevin Harvick is 10th on the career list with 60 and Kyle Busch, still active with Richard Childress Racing, is ninth with 63, giving Hamlin realistic numbers to shoot for the rest of the season.

Best to take advantage at tracks where he’s had success, such as Dover Motor Speedway, where he won Sunday for the second straight year and third time overall, compared with a track like this weekend’s race on the Indianapolis oval, where Hamlin is 0 for 16.

“I don’t think I’ve ever wanted to go back to back so bad,” Hamlin said of Dover. “(Indy’s) a track that I’ve just come so fricking close to winning. I just want to cross off all the major racetracks on our schedule.”

Hamlin is a driver who thrives in the chaos like few others — if any can — in the series. His win at Dover came days after the race team he owns with Michael Jordan suffered a setback in its court fight with NASCAR. He insisted ahead of the race that the legal issues never caused a distraction for him in the race car, then proved it on the mile concrete track with a series-best fourth win of the season.

Maybe more dark clouds — like the ones that opened up Sunday, causing a rain delay just laps ahead of the scheduled finish — can fuel Hamlin at Indy.

“All I can hope is that something happens this week that derails everything and then I’ll do better,” Hamlin said.

Hamlin then turned to a NASCAR employee and cracked, “Maybe it’ll come from them.”

Can Hamlin realistically get to 60 in 2025? He won eight times in 2010, six times in 2019 and seven in 2020, all totals that would get him to 60 this year.

“When you get him in a situation where he’s got the ball in his hands and it’s time to go win the race, he finds a way to do that most times,” crew chief Chris Gayle said.

It’s a fitting analogy for a race team owned by a former NFL coach.

At his pace, Hamlin remains a contender to cash in this November at Phoenix Raceway and win his first NASCAR championship — even if he lost out on the $1 million prize in the series’ first In-season challenge.

The idea for the challenge was largely championed by Hamlin, a three-time Daytona 500 winner who floated the idea of a midseason tournament on his “Actions Detrimental” podcast. When NASCAR bought into the idea and announced the creation of the tournament last year, Hamlin called the tournament on social media “such a win for our sport and drivers.” He jokingly added, “I will collect my 1M royalty next season.”

Hamlin earned the No. 1 seed — and was promptly eliminated in the first race by Ty Dillon, the No. 32 seed.

Dillon faces Ty Gibbs next week at Indianapolis to decide the first winner of the tournament.

Hamlin said the five-race, bracket-style tournament overall was a success — but not without a few kinks. Some of the seeding was off, such as Shane van Gisbergen not qualifying for the field, then ripping off consecutive wins on the Chicago street race and Sonoma Raceway during the tournament races.

And sure, everyone loves a Cinderella in March. But two in July isn’t necessarily making the tournament the NASCAR story of the summer.

“I think it has been unfortunate, right, you probably had a lot of the top seeds get knocked out pretty early in it, but overall, I thought the implementation of it has been good,” Hamlin said.

The other side of the argument is this: Would any fan or media outlet really care about a pair of winless drivers such as Gibbs (the sixth seed) or Dillon at this point of the season without $1 million at stake?

“For a team like us, at this point in the season, we’re not exactly where we want to be yet, but we’re trending in a good direction,” Dillon said on TNT. “Our story doesn’t get told in years past. It’s mainly the guys trying to fight for the points position. It’s the guys running up front, trying to win the race. But our story and our growth in the year stops getting told. I’m grateful we’ve been able to show our personality as a team.”

Unlike the All-Star race where the winner pockets $1 million, the driver with the best finish earns the cash prize, a ring, jackets and a trophy.

Dillon had luck on his side during his run, with his lone top-10 finish coming in the first race in Atlanta. He advanced in that race after Hamlin crashed out and finished 31st. Dillon twice has finished 20th, including at Dover. He has a best finish of 13th in five career races on the Indy oval.

Gibbs, the grandson of team owner and football and NASCAR Hall of Famer Joe Gibbs, and Dillon have failed to win in a combined 374 Cup races. Dillon has only two career top-five finishes in a career that dates to 2014. The 22-year-old Gibbs has a much better pedigree, winning the 2022 Xfinity Series title, a series in which he was a 12-time winner. He has six top 10s already this season and could make NASCAR’s playoffs on points.

Gibbs has three straight top 10s in the tournament, including a fifth-place finish at Dover. Gibbs finished 23rd on the Indy oval last season.

He’s done enough to impress his grandfather.

“There’s some people there that we got off to a terrible start, it was awful, (but) I had people on that group that came to me encouraging me, ideas for me, after it. I think they care for Ty. It just was a huge deal,” the 84-year-old Gibbs said. “This sport will really measure you. But those guys have fought back.”

___

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

When the courts declined to issue a temporary restraining order (TRO) that would have prevented NASCAR from taking charters away from 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports, they didn’t slam the door shut on the idea.

The judge noted that if a situation arose where the teams were in danger of missing a race due to field size, they may still issue the TRO as that could fit the definition of irreparable harm. Likely to prevent this from happening, NASCAR has updated their rule book.

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“NASCAR, at its sole discretion, may elect to limit the number of entries for a race to 40. In such instances, open teams will be determined based on team owner points standings,” the rule now says.

The reasoning behind it

Todd Gilliland, Front Row Motorsports Ford

By preventing 23XI and FRM from missing any races, NASCAR ensures the courts don’t have a reason to grant a TRO that would give them their charters back. Without charters, the two teams are only earning about 1/3rd of what they could be earning every race weekend.

The teams previously benefitted from a preliminary injunction issued last December, which allowed them to race as chartered teams while suing NASCAR over the terms of the 2025 Charter Agreement. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has since revoked that injunction.

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The trial date for this lawsuit is set for December 1st, with 23XI co-owner Denny Hamlin recently saying “all will be exposed” there.

Read Also:

Denny Hamlin wins dramatic Dover NASCAR Cup race in double overtime

Ty Dillon will face Ty Gibbs in $1 million challenge final at Indianapolis

Defiant Denny Hamlin says “all will be exposed” at trial after losing NASCAR charters

To read more Motorsport.com articles visit our website.

In an effort to host more baseball games in more unique locations, the Cincinnati Reds and Atlanta Braves are set to play a game at Bristol Motor Speedway, the legendary auto racing track in Bristol, Tennessee, on August 2nd.