NASCAR veteran Denny Hamlin opened up about his long winless streak in the NASCAR Cup Series. His last victory came at Dover Motor Speedway on April 28, 2024. With a 25th-place finish at the Pennzoil 400 in Las Vegas, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver is now facing a 29-race dry spell.
Denny Hamlin Grapples With Cup Series Dry Spell
Speaking to NASCAR journalist Kelly Crandall about the No. 11 team’s struggles, Hamlin said, “It does, just like, it’s been a really long time. It sucks. You know, we lost some speed at the end of last year, and now we certainly came back to this racetrack where we’ll start to gauge where we’re at. As far as this season’s concerned, it feels like an eternity.”
Denny Hamlin last won a Cup Series race on April 28, 2024, at Dover. It's been 29 races since then. Hamlin on losing speed some last year and how "it feels like an eternity" since the 11 team last won: pic.twitter.com/zcv8OrzleQ
— Kelly Crandall (@KellyCrandall) March 16, 2025
So far in the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season, Hamlin’s closest chance at victory came at Phoenix, but his JGR teammate Christopher Bell stood in his way. As the teammates raced side by side, Bell ultimately took the checkered flag, with Hamlin finishing 0.049 seconds behind. It was one of the closest finishes in the track’s history.
In an interview with Fox Sports after the Phoenix race, Hamlin said, “Yeah, great job out of this Sport Clips team. Got better and better as it went. Pit crew did a phenomenal job to keep us in the game when we had a bad stop in the middle. They made up for it at the end.
“First time, we were able to get some clean air all day. Obviously, our car was really fast. Really kind of wanted it to stay green there ’cause I thought in the long runs is really where we were going to be able to excel, especially on these tires.”
Despite the race not turning green to the end, Hamlin was in a very good position to win. But Bell just ended up having the better night.
“(Larson) really gave me a great push on the frontstretch on the restart, down the backstretch. I had kind of position on (Bell); I knew he was going to ship it in there. He had to use me. He could. Obviously, we just kind of ran out of racetrack there. Great finish. Great job by the whole Joe Gibbs team to give us some fast cars.”
In other races this season, Hamlin finished sixth at Atlanta, but he also grabbed two finishes outside the top 20 — 24th at Daytona and 21st at Circuit of the Americas. Hamlin was penalized for speeding on pit road early in Las Vegas and finished 25th in the race.