Hamlin, who won last fall’s Bristol Night Race, found himself in a much different scenario in Sunday’s race, which was the first spring Bristol event held on the asphalt since 2020. The race has been run on dirt for the past three years.
It became clear early that the race would turn into a battle of tricky tire management and strategy.
Although Goodyear brought the same tire combination to this race as was used last fall, for some reason the tire fall-off laid no rubber on the track, which resulted in excessive tire wear.
Midway through the race, NASCAR allowed Goodyear to provide teams with one additional set of tires but with many teams only able to go between 47-50 laps before developing problems, that forced teams to greatly alter the pace of the race.
Hamlin’s No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team proved to adapt best as he led 13 times for a race-high 163 of 500 laps.
Hamlin emerged from an uncharacteristic round of green-flag pit stops with the lead and then held off a challenge from his teammate Martin Truex Jr. in the final 20 laps as the two battled lapped traffic. He edged Tryex by 1.083 seconds in the end as only five cars finished on the lead lap.
Watch: Denny Hamlin: ‘Great car, great team’ key to claim Bristol victory
“That’s what I grew up here doing in the short tracks in the Mid Atlantic, South Boston, Martinsville. Once it became a tire management race, I really liked our chances,” Hamlin said. “Obviously the veteran in Martin, he knew how to do it as well.
“We just had a great car, great team. The pit crew just did a phenomenal job all day. Can’t say enough about them. Man, it feels so good to win in Bristol.”
Brad Keselowski ended up third, Alex Bowman fourth and Kyle Larson rebounded from a pit road penalty to finish fifth.
Completing the top 10 were John Hunter Nemechek, Chris Buescher, Chase Elliott, Ty Gibbs and Christopher Bell.
The race set a record with 54 lead changes among 16 different drivers.
Stage 1
Gibbs claimed the Stage 1 win over Larson under caution when Kyle Busch spun in Turns 1 and 2 in the final laps. Buescher was third, Keselowski fourth and Nemechek rounded out the top five.
William Byron was knocked out of contention early when he hit the wall in the opening 25 laps and broke the toe link in the No. 24 Chevrolet.
Stage 2
Gibbs passed Joey Logano with two of 125 laps remaining and held off Keselowski by 0.431 seconds to take the Stage 2 win. Logano ended up third, Nemechek fourth and Bell was fifth.
During the stage, NASCAR announced it would release one extra set of new tires per team due to excessive tire wear, but that is all that was available on site.
Stage 3
Following the break between Stages 2 and 3, the lead-lap cars all elected to pit with Gibbs the first off pit road and in the lead when the race returned to green with 236 laps remaining.
Josh Berry spun around off Turn 2 to bring out the eighth caution of the race and sent the field down pit road for new tires. Hamlin was the first off pit road and led the way when the race returned to green.
Gibbs quickly got around Hamlin on the restart to reclaim the lead – the 41st of the race, which set a new record at the track.
About to be lapped by leader Hamlin, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Austin Cindric split Todd Gilliland and then collided with each other to bring out the ninth caution.
The lead-lap cars all pit with Hamlin again first off pit road. Larson was penalized for equipment interference and had to restart from the rear of the field. Hamlin led Bell and Gibbs on the restart with 121 laps remaining.
With 75 laps to go, Hamlin had lost and then reclaimed the lead from Gibbs and then saw Truex move in contention to challenge him for the top spot.
The lead-lap cars – Ryan Blaney, Berry, Chase Briscoe and Bell were among the first – were all forced to pit under green with less than 60 laps to go for new tires and lost several laps in the process.
Once the cycle of stops was completed, Hamlin returned to the lead with 47 laps to go.
With less than 20 laps to go, Hamlin and Truex traded the lead as the two navigated lapped traffic.