Who… should you be talking about after the race?
Winning at Dover Motor Speedway is all about managing the competition. That was what Denny Hamlin did when he took the lead over Kyle Larson coming out of the pits with 71 to go. Hamlin held on through one more restart to win the 2024 Würth 400 by .256 seconds over Larson.
It was Hamlin’s third win in the last three races on concrete and earned him yet another cucumber from the stands.
Hamlin’s win had its detractors; Larson’s car was clearly faster but Hamlin was able to shut down any attempt at passing by “air blocking,” moving around the track not to physically block others but to take the air off their cars, which took away the opportunity to pass.
Hamlin did what was necessary to win, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but it left a sour taste for many fans and drivers because of the aerodynamic-dependent nature of racing at Dover.
And don’t forget Daniel Hemric. Hemric’s 2024 season got off to a dismal start, with just three finishes higher than 20th and a best finish of 16th in the first nine races. On Sunday (April 28), Hemric finished a quiet ninth, his second straight top-10 finish, a career first. He also led five laps on the day, the third time he’s led a race this year. Sometimes it takes baby steps to turn a season around, and Hemric made a few on Sunday.
What… is the big question leaving this race in the rearview?
As aero-dependent as the racing at Dover has become, it looks like a no-brainer to let the track go the way of the dinosaur.
But it isn’t. The one thing Dover has going for it is that it’s a unique track, the only high-banked, one-mile oval out there right now. Is there even a Cup-ready track that could replace it? As much as intermediate tracks have improved with the new car, adding more of them isn’t appealing. Kentucky Speedway is dormant but not without reason. Texas Motor Speedway certainly doesn’t need another race. NASCAR seems to have little interest in resurrecting Chicagoland Speedway. The intermediates that have had good racing already have two dates.
The best track dropped…
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