Denny Hamlin has had a pretty good last few weeks, wouldn’t you say?

The Chesterfield, VA native secured an 18-race sponsorship deal with Progressive Insurance to fill that gnarly white space on that hauler. In just their second race with the #11 team, they found themselves in victory lane with Denny Hamlin, who locked himself in the playoffs.

“Back here in Martinsville, where I ran so many late model races. It’s just so special, man,” said Hamlin after the race.

Hamlin was poised for a good day as he started in fifth to begin the 400 lapper, but getting the victory didn’t come without some old fashioned hard racing.

Hendrick Motorsports put their four Chevrolets in the top ten very quickly in stage one, with Chase Elliott leading the charge, passing Christopher Bell and finding himself leading his first laps since the Daytona 500 early on.

It wouldn’t last long, as a debris caution brought out the yellow and flipped part of the field off of pit strategy. Josh Berry led laps through the stage, the most from a Wood Brothers driver at the track since 1973. He suffered a power issue after colliding with the #23 on pit road during the yellow, ending their day prematurely.

His Ford running mate Joey Logano took advantage of his misfortune, securing the stage one victory in what’s been a rather average start to the season for Ford.

Hamlin stayed up front all day, lurking and plotting his moment to strike. One such case came on lap 132, where Hamlin and his TRD teammate Bubba Wallace stayed out and started one two, taking advantage of the pit cycles.

On older tires, the two drivers completely took control of the race, setting the pace for the second stage. Chase Elliott slowly pulled Wallace in, capturing second place, but it wasn’t enough to catch the leader as Hamlin won his second stage of 2025.

As the race crept on in the third stage, it started to look as if yesterday’s Xfinity Series third stage debacle reared its ugly head in the premier series. Herbst spun (shocker), SVG lost a wheel coming off of pit road, so on and so forth.

Through it all, Hamlin remained brutish in the lead, restarting phenomenally and holding off a hungry Elliott and Wallace. As the race waned on, it was Bell who muscled his way into 2nd past Wallace and looked to have something for the veteran Hamlin.

With 90 laps to go, a Noah Gragson spin brought out the 9th caution, the most in the history of the 400 lap race.

Bell, who previously won three races in a row in the early part of the spring swing, held strong in second place, but had nothing for his JGR teammate in lapped traffic. In a stage that saw early issues and cautions galore, it went green from lap 326 to lap 400. Hamlin remained steady through lap traffic, building his lead up slowly second by second.

The TRD veteran coasted to victory lane by almost five seconds ahead of Bell and Wallace, getting a head start on yet another go at the championship by punching his playoff ticket.

Hamlin held up an “11 against the world” flag upon coming out of his car and celebrating, crediting it to Ohio State’s slogan of the same vein. The win puts Hamlin at sixth in the points standings.

For Christopher Bell, the season of dominance has seemed to continue to get back on track for the 20 team. The second place finish cements Bell in fourth in the regular season standings.

Wallace and new crew chief Charles Denike are putting on a heater with his second consecutive third place finish. The 23 team has never been this consistent early on in the season, and it’s a fantastic sign as the season rapidly approaches the summer swing.

Tech inspections bit Legacy MC after the race, deeming Erik Jones #43 too light, failing to meet minimum race weight. The rest of the field was clean.

With the first race at Martinsville done, it certainly wasn’t as bad as it’s been in this car, but it wasn’t the best. There was a lot of strategy at play which was nice, but the short track passing can be improved further.

Luckily, the drivers head to South Carolina for the track too tough to tame for throwback weekend. We have lots of coverage planned for race week, so stay tuned here at The Wave Around.

The green flag for the Goodyear 400 waves at 12:00 PM PST.