September 1, 2025

Denny Hamlin of Joe Gibbs Racing had to go through some attrition during Sunday night's Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. Hamlin started the race right from first, but lost the lead immediately to Chase Briscoe. Although Hamlin never regained the lead back, he ran in the top five for the rest of the stage outside of pit stops and ended up in third at the end, scoring eight stage points. During the second stage, Hamlin briefly held the lead until Briscoe passed him again for the lead, but continued to run competitively in the top five until a mid-race caution forced him to pit road. From here, Hamlin had a bad pit stop where his crew had issues changing tires, which sent him further back. Hamlin tried to use the rest of stage two to recover ground, but only made it back up to 15th, which is not good enough to earn further stage points. In the final stage, Hamlin finally returned to the top 10 and even held the lead for a bit once again during a round of pit stops. Ultimately, Hamlin and his team avoided further trouble on pit road, and as a result, he climbed back up to seventh, which is where he finished at the end of the race. This was Hamlin's 20th top-10 finish of his Cup career at Darlington, and he now sits 43 points above the playoff cut line with two races left in the Round of 16, which gives him a solid chance to advance to the next round on points.--Sean Engel - RotoBaller
Source: NASCAR.com