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Larry McClure, longtime NASCAR car owner with three Daytona 500 wins, dies at 81

Larry McClure, a Southwest Virginia businessman who won three Daytona 500s as the co-owner of a highly successful NASCAR Cup Series team in the 1990s, died Wednesday morning at Johnston Memorial Hospital in Abingdon, Va. He was 81. McClure was the co-owner of Morgan-McClure Motorsports alongside business partners Tim Morgan and Jerry McClure, which entered […]

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Larry McClure, a Southwest Virginia businessman who won three Daytona 500s as the co-owner of a highly successful NASCAR Cup Series team in the 1990s, died Wednesday morning at Johnston Memorial Hospital in Abingdon, Va. He was 81.

McClure was the co-owner of Morgan-McClure Motorsports alongside business partners Tim Morgan and Jerry McClure, which entered NASCAR in 1983 after purchasing the equipment of longtime independent driver G.C. Spencer. The team would establish themselves over the next few seasons, going through multiple drivers including a young Mark Martin, before truly gaining their identity when they gained sponsorship from the Eastman Kodak Company in 1986.

Morgan-McClure’s No. 4 Kodak Oldsmobile (later Chevrolet) quickly became one of the most recognizable cars on the Winston Cup tour, and the team grew gradually over the next several years before earning its first win at Bristol in 1990 with Ernie Irvan behind the wheel. However, Morgan-McClure’s greatest success would come at NASCAR’s biggest and fastest tracks, especially in the sport’s biggest race.

Between 1991 and 1995, Morgan-McClure won the Daytona 500 three times, first with Ernie Irvan in ’91 and then again with Sterling Marlin, who won The Great American Race back-to-back in 1994 and 1995. Morgan-McClure also won Daytona’s summertime race twice in 1992 and 1996, and won four times at Talladega as well. Morgan-McClure earned a total of 14 Cup wins between 1990 and 1998, with nine of them coming between Daytona and Talladega.

Following their final win with Bobby Hamilton at Martinsville in 1998, the Morgan-McClure team gradually declined, which hastened when Kodak left the team following the 2003 season. The team continued to race full-time until the end of the 2007 season, but with little success. The team sporadically attempted several races between 2008 and 2010, finishing 29th in their final start at Bristol in 2009 with Scott Wimmer behind the wheel.

McClure himself faced legal problems in the team’s final years, as in 2008 he pled guilty to federal income tax fraud for not reporting $269,000 he spent on cars raced in ARCA. McClure served an 18 month prison sentence stemming from those charges.

McClure is preceded in death by his nephew and former NASCAR driver Eric McClure, who made his way into the sport through the Morgan-McClure team and made 288 starts in a long Xfinity Series career. Eric McClure, who struggled with concussions throughout his career including after a terrible crash at Talladega in 2012, died in May 2021.

The passing of McClure also marks more sorrow for the racing community of Southern Virginia, as it comes just a week and a half after longtime NASCAR car owner Charlie Henderson died on June 14 at the age of 88. Henderson was the second-longest tenured team owner in NASCAR as owner of Henderson Motorsports, which continues to field a winning part-time team in the Craftsman Truck Series.





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Winners and losers from a rainy NASCAR Cup race at Dover

Motorsport photo The ‘Monster Mile’ didn’t eat that many cars this weekend, but it was the usual suspects battling for the race win. Joe Gibbs Racing and Hendrick Motorsports were the teams to beat, with Denny Hamlin ultimately earning an impressive victory in a mad dash to the finish.  Advertisement Mother Nature also interfered quite […]

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The ‘Monster Mile’ didn’t eat that many cars this weekend, but it was the usual suspects battling for the race win. Joe Gibbs Racing and Hendrick Motorsports were the teams to beat, with Denny Hamlin ultimately earning an impressive victory in a mad dash to the finish. 

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Mother Nature also interfered quite a bit, washing out both practice and qualifying for the Cup race. The Xfinity race ended up being shortened by rain, and more showers resulted in an hour-long delay with less than 15 laps to go in the Cup race. However, NASCAR waited out the weather and delivered a thrilling finish where teammates battled it out for the checkered flag.

Here’s a look at the biggest winners and losers from Dover:

WINNER: A defiant Denny Hamlin on the track and off

Watch: Hamlin ‘studied some of the greats’ to find Dover success

Hamlin entered the weekend at Dover with a cloud above him as the co-owner of 23XI Racing. The team, along with Front Row Motorsports, had recently lost their charters as the ongoing legal battle with NASCAR rolls on. But Hamlin was defiant in his comments to the media, and promised that the lawsuit won’t be a distraction from his job as a driver at Joe Gibbs Racing. On Sunday, he proved it, driving from 13th to 1st to earn his series-leading fourth win of the 2025 season.

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Christopher Bell spins, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

Christopher Bell spins, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

Christopher Bell spins, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

Christopher Bell had one of, if not the fastest car at Dover this weekend. He could cut through the pack with ease, he earned 19 of a possible 20 stage points, but he also couldn’t stop spinning out. At the start of the final stage, he spun from the lead on the opening lap of the restart, and somehow the entire field avoided him. He made his way back forward, catching a well-timed yellow to put himself back in contention for the race win. And once he got alongside teammate Hamlin for the lead, neither driver was going to lift. That proved consequential for Bell, who spun out once again. While cars crashed all around him, Bell’s No. 20 remained undamaged, but there was no time left to rebound this time. He finished a disappointing 18th.

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WINNER: NASCAR Cup drivers named ‘Ty’

GettyImages-2224390954

GettyImages-2224390954

Well, we now know the names of the two drivers advancing into the finals for NASCAR’s $1 million in-season bracket challenge, and they’re both named Ty! Ty Gibbs, driving the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, defeated Tyler Reddick in his battle. But the real story is Ty Dillon, the ultimate underdog who entered this competition as the bottom seed, and yet, he has bested drivers from Joe Gibbs Racing, Hendrick Motorsports, RFK Racing, and now John Hunter Nemechek of Legacy Motor Club. This competition has been one of the best things that has ever happened to the younger Dillon brother, who now has just one driver between himself and the big prize at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

LOSER: Trackhouse gets crushed by Miles the Monster

Daniel Suarez, Trackhouse Chevrolet

Daniel Suarez, Trackhouse Chevrolet

Daniel Suarez, Trackhouse Chevrolet

Dover was not a good race for Trackhouse Racing, which just won back-to-back races, thanks to Shane van Gisbergen. At the very start of the race, SVG had to pit with a right-front tire issue. He fell almost five laps down in the process, which was a hole that he was never able to get out of. Daniel Suarez only made the highlights when he was fighting the leaders to stay on the lead lap, but he ended up being the highest-finishing Trackhouse driver in 26th. But what about Ross Chastain? He ran between 10th and 15th for most of the race, but that’s a far cry from his usual pace at Dover. And with 17 laps to go, the car snapped around on him, and he crashed out of the event. SVG ended up finishing 30th, while Chastain was relegated to 33rd.

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WINNER: Chase Briscoe’s late charge almost ends in victory

Watch: Briscoe laments runner-up finish: ‘Wish back of car was about three inches shorter’

When crew chief James Small called Chase Briscoe to pit road with just a handful of laps to go at Dover, it was a bold move that risked a solid top-ten day. With fresh right-side tires, Briscoe restarted tenth for the final eight laps of racing. He then made all the right moves, rocketed forward and got all the way to the race leader. He slammed doors with Hamlin at the white flag in the battle for the win, but he didn’t go so far as to wreck himself or his teammate. In the end, JGR got a 1-2 with one of Briscoe’s most impressive drives of the 2025 season.

LOSER: Noah Gragson because he just didn’t want to wreck

Noah Gragson, Front Row Motorsports Ford

Noah Gragson, Front Row Motorsports Ford

Noah Gragson, Front Row Motorsports Ford

During the one-hour rain delay before NASCAR could finish the Cup race at Dover, Noah Gragson told TNT Sports that he just didn’t want to wreck in the closing laps. He was running in a decent position, sitting 14th in the running order. And after the race returned to yellow-flag conditions, he stayed out, putting himself inside the top ten. However, it did not last as he did the one thing he didn’t want to do — wreck. When Bell went spinning, Gragson did as well after a tap from behind. He slammed the inside wall, resulting in a DNF that left him with a 32nd-place finish.

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WINNER: Bubba Wallace builds a margin over cut-line

Bubba Wallace, 23XI Racing Toyota

Bubba Wallace, 23XI Racing Toyota

Bubba Wallace, 23XI Racing Toyota

Bubba Wallace entered Dover on the hot seat, sitting on the bubble with just a couple of points between himself and Ryan Preece in the battle to make the playoffs. Wallace was among those who pitted for fresh tires near the end of the race at Dover, and like Briscoe, he had an impressive restart that vaulted him deep inside the top ten. He ultimately finished seventh, increasing his buffer to 16 points. It may not seem like much, but every point matters with just five races left until the regular season ends.

LOSER: William Byron loses the points lead

William Byron, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

William Byron, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

William Byron, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

Since winning the Daytona 500, William Byron’s season has been an odd one. The No. 24 has been fast, leading hundreds of laps, and yet, he hasn’t returned to Victory Lane. And in recent weeks, Byron has been bleeding points to his rivals. He has five finished of 27th or worse in the last seven races, costing him the regular season points lead. Before this bad stretch, he had nearly a 50-point buffer to play with. Hendrick Motorsports looked strong across the board at Dover, and Byron could have finished inside the top five, but he was swept up in a late-race wreck at the Monster Mile.

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Read Also:

NASCAR updates rule book to ensure 23XI and FRM can’t miss a race

Christopher Bell “disappointed in myself” after spinning in battle for the win

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

Denny Hamlin wins dramatic Dover NASCAR Cup race in double overtime

To read more Motorsport.com articles visit our website.



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NASCAR makes surprise rule change after stripping charters from 23XI, FRM amid court battle

While 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports have no charters, NASCAR has made a rule change regarding future races. It is unclear why NASCAR would make this rule change now, but it might be a bit of goodwill from the series amid the ongoing lawsuit. Jeff Gluck of The Athletic reported on the rule change. […]

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While 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports have no charters, NASCAR has made a rule change regarding future races. It is unclear why NASCAR would make this rule change now, but it might be a bit of goodwill from the series amid the ongoing lawsuit.

Jeff Gluck of The Athletic reported on the rule change. An update shows that NASCAR is now able to limit entries to a particular race to only 40 cars. The rule, if enacted, would also lock in Open Teams based on Team Owner Points standings.

“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 the Team Owner Points standings.”

In other words, NASCAR can now limit the field to prevent 23XI and FRM from missing races. There is also an update that says, “Up to six Open Teams will be eligible for starting grid positions based on the highest ranked Team Owner Points standings.”

There is also an update to he Open Exemption Provisional. NASCAR has made a rule change there but by elimnating wording rather than adding anything in. It essentially clears up the language used in one section to make the wording fit the new additions.

This is a move that will possibly help NASCAR in their argument against 23XI and FRM, at least, when it comes to the latest request of the preliminary injunction. They can now show that there is no threat of the teams losing out on a race due to not qualifying. So, it reduces the possible harm that is being done to the teams.

It is another reminder that officials can more or less change the rules at will. Most of the rules include a provision that states NASCAR has the discretion to do as they please.

NASCAR rule change could keep 23XI, FRM unchartered

Due to a ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals, 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports lost charter status last week ahead of Dover. A preliminary injunction from last December had granted the teams charter status and made NASCAR approve the sale of charters from Stewart-Haas Racing to each team.

So, now that those injunctions are voided, there are questions about the charters. Do 23XI and FRM even own the two charters they each had in the 2024 season? The old injunction granted them charter status, not actual charters. At least, that’s the argument NASCAR is making. As for the Stewart-Haas charters, those are likely more complicated to deal with.

We will likely see a ruling this week on the newly requested injunction. Could NASCAR’s rule change sway the court to not grant the injunction? This case continues to be headed for trial later this year.





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Playoff Push Heats Up: Elliott grabs points lead as NASCAR roars into Indianapolis – Speedway Digest

Five NASCAR Cup Series regular season races remain, four drivers are currently Playoff eligible based on points and three more are within striking distance. And there’s a new championship leader. That’s the situation as the series moves to the iconic Indianapolis Motor Speedway this weekend for the annual Brickyard 400 summer classic (Sunday, 2 p.m. […]

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Five NASCAR Cup Series regular season races remain, four drivers are currently Playoff eligible based on points and three more are within striking distance. And there’s a new championship leader.

That’s the situation as the series moves to the iconic Indianapolis Motor Speedway this weekend for the annual Brickyard 400 summer classic (Sunday, 2 p.m. ET on TNT, HBO Max, IMS Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

A thrilling 400-miler at Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway on Sunday only heightened the dramatic expectations of the five remaining races – at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, at the .875-mile Iowa Speedway, the Watkins Glen, N.Y. road course, the traditional Richmond short track and the grand Daytona International Speedway big track.

Currently last year’s regular season champ, 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick is tops in points among those without a win – a full 156-points up on the 16th place cutoff line. Hendrick Motorsports’ Alex Bowman, RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher and Reddick’s teammate Bubba Wallace round out the fortunate four above the Playoff cutoff line heading to Indianapolis.

However, only a slight 16-points separates Wallace in that 16th and final Playoff position from RFK Racing’s Ryan Preece. Two-time series champion, Richard Childress Racing’s Kyle Busch is 39 points off the cutline and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ty Gibbs is a more distant 52 points off the pace.

The outstanding news for fans and all the drivers is that these final five venues that will ultimately firm up the 16 Playoff drivers are as unpredictable as they are diverse. Outside of road course ace Shane Van Gisbergen possibly working his magic at the famed Watkins Glen course, there are no absolute odds-on favorite to win at any of the upcoming tracks.

Among the four drivers in the Playoff field on points, only Bowman and Buescher have NASCAR Cup Series wins at any of these upcoming five tracks. Bowman won at Richmond in Spring, 2021. And Buescher has a Daytona victory in Fall, 2023, a Richmond trophy in 2022 and is the defending race winner at Watkins Glen.

Buescher finished ninth on Sunday at Dover, his fifth top-10 in the last seven races, which included a runner-up finish at Michigan in June.

“We got a decent finish out here today with this No. 17 Trimble Mustang and I’m proud of everyone for that,” said Buescher, who was encouraged by his pace at Dover. “We stayed with it all the way until the end. We were really great at the end of the day.”

As for the closest contenders to that Playoff line, Preece and Gibbs are still racing for their first career NASCAR Cup Series victory. The two-time former champ Busch, however, has Cup Series wins at four of the next five tracks; claiming, back-to-back Indianapolis Motor Speedway trophies in 2015-16, the 2013 victory at Watkins Glen, six Richmond wins and a big victory at the 2008 summer race at Daytona.

Precedence also bodes well for a group of drivers farther back in the championship standings needing a race win, a championship Hail Mary of-sorts. HYAK Racing’s Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon, for example, have both won the Daytona 500 and a summer race at the big track.

RFK team owner-driver Brad Keselowski has won at Indianapolis, Richmond and Daytona. Spire Motorsports teammates Michael McDowell and Justin Haley both have Daytona victories.

Not to be overshadowed in all the Playoff eligibility drama at the bottom of the eligibility rankings is who will win the hotly contested regular season championship trophy.

Hendrick Motorsports is certainly poised for a big trophy hoist, it’s just a question of who’s hoisting. Chase Elliott’s summer resurgence coupled with his teammate William Byron’s summer slump have created more drama atop the standings.

Elliott’s sixth-place finish on Sunday at Dover – he also led more than 200 laps – coupled with his teammate Byron’s 31st-place finish gave Elliott the championship lead (by 17-points) for the first time this season.

Elliott, driver of the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, has finished sixth or better in five of the last six races including a win at Atlanta, while Byron has three DNFs in the last four races and only a pair of top-20 finishes in the last seven.

Elliott’s only two wins at the remaining regular season tracks, however, came at Watkins Glen, where he earned his first career NASCAR Cup Series in 2018 and answered with another the next year. Byron also won at Watkins Glen in 2023, and scored his career first series win at Daytona in the summer race in 2020. He is the reigning and two-time defending Daytona 500 champion (2024-25).

Their teammate, 2021 series champion Larson – who is ranked third, 38 points off Elliott – has had a similarly disappointing summer stretch. His fourth place at Dover marks only his second top-10 in the last six races. As with Byron, however, he has a strong resume at the remaining five tracks with a pair of wins at Richmond and Watkins Glen and he goes into this weekend as the defending Indianapolis Motor Speedway race winner.

“It’s good to get a top-five finish and get back on the horse there,” Larson said of his work at Dover, “Hopefully we can string together some good runs now.”

Not to be lost in all the championship talk is the In-Season Challenge $1 million-to-win championship this week pitting Ty Gibbs and Ty  Dillon – grandsons of team owners (Joe Gibbs and Richard Childress, respectively). Whoever finishes higher at Indy claims the big check.

It all makes for a compelling run for Playoff contention. No matter where you are in the championship standings there is plenty still to be decided.



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Everything About Hendrick Motorsports’ Pivotal Partnership With Valvoline

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. […]

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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.



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Denny Hamlin continues climb in NASCAR’s career wins list; with 60 in sight, how far can he go? – News-Herald

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, […]

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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.

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Denny Hamlin continues climb in NASCAR’s career wins list. With 60 in sight, how far can he go?

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 […]

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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.”

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



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