Denny Hamlin reveals the strategic shift in technique leading to Martinsville's triumph

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin dominated the Cook Out 400 held on Sunday, March 30, 2025, at Martinsville Speedway and secured his first win of the 2025 season. Hamlin opened up about his strategy shift for his triumph at the 0.562-mile track.

Hamlin's teammate Christopher Bell secured the pole position, and the #11 Toyota Camry XSE driver qualified fifth for the 400-lap race with a best time of 19.76 seconds and a top speed of 95.84 mph. Despite starting 0.04 seconds behind, he secured the win.

Hamlin's teammate, Christopher Bell, secured the pole position, and the #11 Toyota Camry XSE driver qualified fifth for the 400-lap race with a best time of 19.76 seconds and a top speed of 95.84 mph. Despite starting 0.04 seconds behind, he secured the win.

During the podcast "Actions Detrimental," The 44-year-old revealed that he has to "work a lot harder" to continue to be on top of his game. He further claimed that the "margins are so small" in the NextGen era and compared the racing to while racing with Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Burton. Hamlin explained the difference and stated,

"I used to say that you know winning, you know, 10 or 12 years ago when I was racing Jimmy and Jeff, was so much easier than what it is now. A lot of it is because our technique was just better than everyone else's, and I saw it when I was driving around everyone else; we would approach the racetrack a little differently." [05:48 onwards]

"And um, you know, obviously the minute that kind of SMT came out and all of our proprietary information and data started to, you know, all the drivers got to see it; they got to see what these guys were doing, and then we've just morphed our style, uh, into that, into where everyone's driving similar now and they're all driving really similar cars, and so um, the margins are small; you just look at the lap times, right?" he added.

Denny Hamlin wrapped up and pointed out that the top 25 drivers are within a tenth of a second behind the pole sitter. Even in the Martinsville race, the 13th-place holder, Ty Gibbs, was 0.10 seconds behind Christopher Bell, and P25 sitter Todd Gilliand was 0.19 seconds behind.

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Denny Hamlin's team praised all drivers for a remarkable performance at Martinsville

Denny Hamlin led 274 laps in the 400-lap race at the 0.526-mile track and secured his first win at Martinsville Speedway since 2015. His teammate Christopher Bell secured the runner-up position, followed by Martin Truex Jr.'s replacement Chase Briscoe in ninth place and Ty Gibbs in 13th.

Reflecting upon the JGR's solid performance at the Martinsville Speedway, Joe Gibbs mentioned it as the return of the classic #11 form. Gibbs also praised his drivers for landing a spot in the top ten. Only Ty Gibbs was outside of the top ten due to a collision with Tyler Reddick. During a Dirty Mo Media podcast, JGR owner Gibbs stated:

“Denny bounced back today. I told him, ‘That’s the old Denny.’ Leading all throughout the race and winning the race. Christopher did a good job. Chase — really good — a top 10. Ty was just outside of it and got turned. Big day for us. Just appreciate everyone here and what this means. This means a lot. Progressive—new sponsor — huge deal for us.” [00:24]

Denny Hamlin secured the 55th victory of his Cup Series career and won the race with an impressive margin of 4.617 seconds. He ranks sixth on the Cup Series driver's points table with 218 points. He secured one win, three top-five, and four top-ten finishes in seven starts.

Additionally, the #11 Toyota Camry XSE driver locked a spot in the playoffs among teammate Christopher Bell, Wood Brothers Racing's Josh Berry, Hendrick Motorsports' William Byron, and Kyle Larson.