Sunday’s Cook Out 400 made one thing certain for fans: Denny Hamlin’s here to stay. And what better way to announce it by breaking a ten-year drought at Martinsville? Hamlin did everything right. Fought off his teammate without taking him out of the race, stayed in the lead for a significant time, it was a near perfect run. But did it come easily? Let’s hear from Hamlin himself.

“Our car was great. It did everything I needed to do. Just so happy to win with Chris and get 55. It’s awesome. He’s been such a soldier to come in here to this 11 team and learn our style and over the last few weeks putting his final touches on it. It’s been a great mesh and relationship,” he explained after the race. The man used to winning regularly in the Cup Series had found himself on something of a winless streak since last season.

Now, Hamlin thinks he’s found a reason why racing has gotten tougher in the last few years

He said, on the Actions Detrimental Podcast,” I have to work a lot harder now to, you know, continue to be on top of my game. It’s so close that the margins are so small, especially in the Next-Gen era. I used to say that winning 10-12 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 and um you know obviously the minute, kind of, SMT came out and all of our proprietary information and data, all the drivers got to see it they got to see what these guys were doing and then we’ve just morphed our style into that, into where everyone’s driving really similar now and they’re all driving really similar cars. So, it’s the margins are small, you just look at the lap times, right? From 1st to 25th, I mean it’s we’re all within a tenth or so, I mean it’s just not much and so where are you going to find the edges?” 

Throughout the years, Gordon and Johnson managed to deliver iconic finishes alongside Hamlin. Whenever their names are put together, fans go back to the Martinsville Speedway itself. During the 2009 Tums Fast Relief 500, Hamlin held a 206-lap lead against Johnson for his second career Martinsville win. Going to 2008 at the same track and fans witnessed a desperate dash to the finish against Jeff Gordon at the Goody’s Cool Orange 500. It was here that Hamlin took his first Martinsville victory with a 0.398-second margin.

Cut to 2025 and the Next-Gen era, Hamlin’s struggles are clear. Before the Next-Gen era, Hamlin was a consistent front-runner, winning multiple races each season. Between 2019 and 2021, he racked up 17 victories, including three in the playoffs each year. But since 2022, his win count has dropped significantly. He managed just two victories in the inaugural Next-Gen season and three in 2023. While 2024 was considerably better, the lack of victories in the second half of the season became concerning.

But it’s not just Hamlin. The Next-Gen car’s search for parity has bunched up the entire field. Take Martinsville, for example. Todd Gilliland, who qualified 25th, had a time of 19.904. On the other hand, the pole-sitter, Christopher Bell, had a qualifying time of 19.718. This is less than two-tenths faster than Gilliland. Even Kyle Larson felt how equal the cars were. “I feel like everyone’s cars are really equal. The No. 11 (Denny Hamlin), I’m sure his car is equal, as well, but he’s just a really good short-track racer. He can keep the tires on it and get through track position really well. It’s so hard to pass here.”

In such a scenario, what does Hamlin do? Well, he revealed his secret. “Every fall, I spend weeks and weeks studying the spring Martinsville race to figure out, ‘Man, why did I get beat again? I keep picking up little things and really worked with the team this week to say, ‘Here’s what I think I need. Can we fix that? Might not be the right direction, but I think this is what it needs. It feels gratifying to see it pay out on the racetrack that way.” 

Perhaps after winning at Martinsville after ages, Hamlin has realised it was perhaps easier to fight off 11-time Cup Series championship winners than it is to win a race today. Then again, it’s not the first time Hamlin has made such a claim.

Denny Hamlin’s claim against the Earnhardt family had similar implications

Along with Hamlin’s struggles in the Next-Gen era, his disdain for modern-day short-track racing is well-known. Cars want to follow their OEM allies. It’s why Parker Retzlaff came under question for pushing Harrison Burton instead of Kyle Busch at Daytona last year. This style of sticking to your OEM teammate doesn’t sit well with Hamlin, and it was the reason why he felt neither Dale Earnhardt Sr. nor Junior could make it big in today’s superspeedway racing.

“Dale Jr. and Dale Earnhardt would have never survived in today’s superspeedway racing,” he had explained in an episode of his Actions Detrimental podcast. What Hamlin didn’t expect was that a huge wave of online hate was about to wash over him. Now Hamlin isn’t unfamiliar of being someone the fans don’t like. He thrives on it and it’s what he’s been known for. But in this case, he had a very simple explanation. “I’m basically saying they would HATE today’s style of drafting and would not be as successful as they were.”

Even then, one fan commented, “Jesus Hamlin is either ridiculously stupid or has severe memory loss. Jr’s best drafting partner was Stewart who raced for JGR. Jr didn’t care who he raced with if it meant getting to the front…” another user came to Hamlin’s defense. They commented, “That is his point.. he is saying that the way Jr. drafted doesn’t exist anymore,” with Hamlin rounding it out with a simple, “Exactly.”

In the larger picture, these forms of drafting and racing only emerged because of Next-Gen parity, with a twist in showing support to your manufacturers. What do you think? Let us know in the comments below!