Chase Elliott had the car to beat in Sunday’s race at Dover Motor Speedway. Starting from the pole, Elliott led a race-high 238 laps. But in Stage 3, Elliott and his team made a strategy call that backfired.

Chase Elliott took advantage of heavy rain at Dover Motor Speedway to earn the pole for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race.

Denny Hamlin scored his series-best fourth win of the Cup season Sunday at Dover in double overtime. Joe Gibbs Racing went first and second with Chase Briscoe placing second. Alex Bowman finished third and Kyle Larson placed fourth for Hendrick Motorsports. Ty Gibbs completed the top five.

Through July 21

Dale Earnhardt Jr. seems to have a lot of thoughts about the NASCAR Cup Series race that happened at Dover Motor Speedway. After the race on Sunday, Earnhardt went to X/Twitter to share his reaction.

Rick Ware Racing — Good news: Cody Ware finished 18th at Indy last year, one of his best finishes in a limited Cup schedule in 2024. Bad news: Ware is coming off a 36th-place finish at Dover, his worst finish since Bristol in April.

Following a sixth-place finish at Dover Motor Speedway, Chase Elliott took the top seed in the standings from Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron.

Chase Elliott overtakes teammate William Byron for the regular-season points lead; here are other playoff story lines to watch this week.