DOVER, Del. — Denny Hamlin called his shot ahead of Dover, guaranteeing a win on his podcast, then followed through on his bold boast, holding off Kyle Larson down the stretch to park his Toyota in Victory Lane.

Hamlin wiggled past lapped traffic and never let Larson squeak by him over the final laps in a showdown between two of NASCAR’s elite drivers and won the Cup Series race by about a quarter of a second Sunday at Dover Motor Speedway.

“You better win if you’re going to open your mouth, that’s for sure,” Hamlin said.

Hamlin has his Victory Lane celebration down pat this season. He celebrated last week at Talladega Superspeedway in his role as co-owner of 23XI Racing when Tyler Reddick took the checkered flag. Hamlin’s contribution was a bit overshadowed by his fellow team owner – Michael Jordan. For the first time since he became a NASCAR Cup team owner, Jordan was at the track to savor in person a victory by one of his drivers.

Hamlin took his turn in the spotlight this week with the Monster trophy as a driver for Joe Gibbs Racing at Dover.

“It is a little bit different when you win it yourself versus as a car owner,” Hamlin said.

Hamlin knew the win was coming. Or at least, publicly he was willing to say he did, predicting on his podcast that he would master the Monster Mile.

On his podcast “Actions Detrimental,” Hamlin said, “I’m going to call it now. We’re going to win Dover. Got it?”

Got it.

“Hopefully some listeners of ‘Actions Detrimental’ maybe cashed in today,” Hamlin said.

Hamlin led 136 of the 400 laps and won at Dover for the second time in his career.

Hamlin’s three wins this season tie him with William Byron for most in the series. Hamlin also picked up his 54th career victory, all with Joe Gibbs Racing. He’s tied with Lee Petty for 12th on the career list.

“I couldn’t hold Lee Petty’s helmet,” Hamlin said.

The tone for the season was set from the opener when Hamlin won the Clash at the Coliseum exhibition race.

Larson nipped at Hamlin’s bumper for most of the final 25 laps Sunday but couldn’t get his No. 5 Chevrolet past Hamlin’s car on the mile concrete track. Hamlin took the lead off a restart with 81 laps left and never let it go, repeatedly choking off Larson’s Chevy at the top of the track.

“I just couldn’t really do anything,” Larson said. “Nothing could generate enough speed to get close enough to do anything.”

Hamlin was soundly booed as he grabbed the checkered flag – boos louder than usual at the track because of the surprisingly full grandstands.

After rainouts forced Monday races each of the last two years, the sun came out Sunday – and so did the fans. The grandstands were packed and the track came close to its 54,000 capacity. While NASCAR tracks do not release attendance numbers, the crowd was easily the largest at Dover since before the pandemic.

Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch and Chase Elliott completed the top five.

THE BIG ONE

There was a multi-car wreck with 71 laps remaining that took out Christopher Bell, Bubba Wallace and William Byron.

Coming off a restart, Zane Smith appeared to get into the left rear of Wallace’s Toyota, which sent him into traffic and into Byron and Bell. Wallace was running 11th at the time of the wreck. Bell was 16th and Byron 18th.

ALL-STAR SUB

Kevin Harvick, the 2014 NASCAR champion who retired at the end of last season, will drive the No. 5 Chevrolet in place of Kyle Larson in practice and qualifying for the NASCAR All-Star race.

Larson will stay in Indianapolis on May 17 to practice for the Indianapolis 500 rather than travel to North Wilkesboro Speedway in North Carolina to practice and qualify for the NASCAR All-Star race. He will become the fifth driver in history to attempt to complete “The Double” and run 1,100 miles in one day, starting with the Indianapolis 500 and then flying to Charlotte to drive in the Coca-Cola 600, NASCAR’s longest race of the year.

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