NASCAR at Martinsville results: Denny Hamlin earns first win of 2025, victory No. 55 of his Cup Series career

Hamlin ties Rusty Wallace on NASCAR's all-time wins list by breaking a 10-year Martinsville drought

By Steven Taranto

Mar 30, 2025 at 7:58 pm ET • 3 min read

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In a renewal of his mastery of one of NASCAR's original racetracks, Denny Hamlin dominated the Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway to earn his first win of the 2025 season and win No. 55 of his NASCAR Cup Series career. Hamlin earns his sixth win at Martinsville and his first in 10 years, and in the process moved into a tie for 11th on NASCAR's all-time wins list with Hall of Famer Rusty Wallace.

Hamlin seldom relinquished the lead after making his way to the front, leading 274 of 400 laps, including the final 74. Despite a challenge from Christopher Bell, Hamlin pulled away over the final long run to win by over 4.5 seconds -- saving just enough tire to do a burnout the entire length of his Polish Victory Lap.

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Steven Taranto

Despite excelling throughout his career at Martinsville, Hamlin had not won and earned another grandfather clock for his collection since the spring of 2015. After the race, Hamlin credited new crew chief Chris Gayle and his crew's approach to the performance put on by the No. 11 team.

"Chris Gayle, all the engineers, the pit crew, everybody ... Just decided that they were gonna come here with a different approach than what we've been over the last few years. And it was just amazing," Hamlin told Fox Sports. "The car was great, it did everything I needed it to do. Just so happy to win with Chris and get (win No.) 55. It's awesome."

After his victory burnout, Hamlin unveiled a new victory flag reading "11 against the world" and held it to the Martinsville crowd. When asked about the flag, Hamlin credited the national championship-winning Ohio State Buckeyes football team with providing the inspiration.

"My buddy's an Ohio State fan that I hung out with at the end of last year," Hamlin explained. "We always had the 'Ohio State against the world,' so now it's the 11 against the world."

Hamlin would lead a Toyota 1-2-3 sweep at the front of the field, with Christopher Bell running second and Bubba Wallace coming home third. Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson rounded out the top five, followed by Ross Chastain, Ryan Preece, Joey Logano, Chase Briscoe and Todd Gilliland in the top 10.

Logano headlined a group of drivers who got off the schneid on Sunday, as the reigning Cup Series champion finally earned a top-10 finish in the seventh race of the year, breaking what had been the longest streak of any reigning champion without a top 10 to start a season. Ryan Blaney also snapped a streak of three straight DNFs with an 11th-place finish, while Ty Gibbs -- despite a mid-race spin off the bumper of Tyler Reddick -- ran 13th to earn his first top-15 finish since Talladega last fall.

Cup Series veteran Casey Mears, making his first start since 2019 and his second since 2016, finished 36th in his return from a long hiatus. Bowman Gray star Burt Myers, making his first official Cup start for Team AmeriVet, finished 37th.

Erik Jones, who originally finished 24th, was disqualfied after his car failed to meet minimum weight requirements in post-race inspection.