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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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.

In the middle of a legal firestorm and a  $1 million prize about to be handed out to either Ty Dillon or Ty Gibbs at the Brickyard 400, NASCAR has quietly dropped a rulebook change that could reshape the Cup Series season for 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports.

On Monday morning, NASCAR insiders with access to the sport’s closely guarded Cup Series rulebook leaked alleged screenshots showing two significant amendments related to the sport’s controversial charter system. The midseason changes come following 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports’s antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR, which resulted in both teams losing charter status.

Both teams claimed that the governing body monopolized team access and disadvantaged open teams. NASCAR’s updated “Open Exemption Provisional Policy” preserves its right to limit the race field to 40 cars, and reconfigures how non-chartered teams qualify when that happens.

The new language grants NASCAR sole discretion to cap the field at 40 and states that in such cases, open team entry will be determined based on the Team Owner Points standings, not solely on qualifying speed. It also introduces a new clause that up to six non-chartered teams will be eligible for grid positions based on those same standings.

The “Open Exemption Provisional” clause, previously a last-resort entry route for open teams, has now been struck from the rulebook entirely. The move was suspected of giving NASCAR plausible deniability in court.

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If the sport can limit fields and define entry rules based on owner points, it minimizes the chance of a high-profile open team like 23XI or Front Row missing the grid altogether. That directly contradicts the lawsuit’s “irreparable harm” claim, which warned that removing charter status could block teams from racing and financially destabilize operations.

Chartered NASCAR teams receive a portion of NASCAR’s media revenue, which is valued at $7.7 billion per year. Open teams do not receive the same privilege and often struggle to find sponsorship partners because they cannot be certain if they will qualify for the next race.

Tyler Reddick’s 23XI Racing is ranked fifth in the Owner Championship standings, while teammate Bubba Wallace sits 13th. Both are staying competitive despite losing the courtroom battle, which made their first non-charted test come at Dover.

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Ironically, the race was won by Denny Hamlin, co-owner of 23XI, who chose not to comment when asked about the ruling. Reddick also declined to make a statement, while Wallace previously suggested that he might consider leaving the organization entirely if its charter status is revoked.

The broader implications may not be felt until the end of the season or inside the courtroom. NASCAR’s 2025 teams without a charter outside of 23XI and Front Row are Rick Ware Racing, Kaulig Racing, Richard Childress Racing, JR Motorsports, and more.

Both Reddick and Wallace are currently above NASCAR’s projected cutline as the season progresses toward the playoffs, which will determine the Cup Series championship. Zane Smith is the leading driver for Front Row this season, with three top-ten finishes and a 24th-place finish in the standings.

The NASCAR schedule for the 2026 season is still being finalized, but the Chicago Street Race will not return next year. With an opening on the schedule and a desire to add another street course race, NASCAR is heading to San Diego next season, with a specific location already selected.

Kelly Crandall of Racer.com will race on the Coronado Naval Base in San Diego, California, in the summer of 2026. The official race plans are expected to be announced this week, marking NASCAR’s return to Southern California.

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Read More: Winners, Losers from Sunday’s NASCAR race at Dover

The Athletic‘s Jordan Bianchi reported in June that NASCAR was working to finalize a deal for a street course race in the San Diego area next season. It would mark the return to Southern California after a multi-year absence, but league officials still needed to finalize details with the city.

Now, according to Crandall, NASCAR is poised to make the announcement official on Wednesday. The expectation is that the race will take the place of the Chicago Street Race in the summer, which has occurred on the Fourth of July weekend in the last three years.

Naval Base Coronado is based in Coronado, California, and is located right alongside the Pacific Ocean and San Diego Bay. It serves as one of the major naval bases in the United States, including use for Navy SEAL training.

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A street course race at the Naval Coronado Base will require significant investment from the city. The first-ever Chicago Street Race cost the city at least $3.5 million, but costs dipped in the following years. NASCAR also paid the city approximately $2.5 million to help host the race in 2025 and the Chicago Street Race had a $128 million total economic impact in 2024.

While Chicago will not be involved with NASCAR racing in 2026, Bianchi said on Sunday night’s episode of The Teardown that racing could return to the streets of Chicago as early as 2027.

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