MARTINSVILLE, Va. — “It felt,” Denny Hamlin was saying about an hour after his light blue-and-white Toyota took the checkered flag at Martinsville Speedway, “like the old, old days.”
Old can mean so much around Hamlin, who at age 44 was the oldest winner at NASCAR’s oldest track since a 47-year-old Rusty Wallace won for the final time in his Cup career in 2004. In this case, old was a good thing. It was a return to winning.
While Sunday marked Hamlin's sixth Cup victory at this historic half-mile track, it was his first here since March 2015 — a span of 3,654 days.
“Ten years ago today, I had never made a NASCAR start in my life,’’ said 30-year-old Christopher Bell, who finished second to Hamlin, his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate.
Ten years ago, Chase Elliott was making his Cup debut in that race Hamlin won. He finished fourth Sunday.
Hamlin returned Sunday to the driver who challenged — and sometimes beat — Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson at this track when they were the dominant drivers.
