Hamlin, who won last year's Bristol Night Race, found himself in a much different scenario on Sunday, 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 tyre management and strategy.
Although Goodyear brought the same tyre combination to this race as was used last year, for some reason the tyre fall-off laid no rubber on the track, which resulted in excessive wear.
Midway through the race, NASCAR allowed Goodyear to provide teams with one additional set of tyres but with many teams only able to go between 47-50 laps before developing problems, that forced them to greatly alter the pace of the race.
Hamlin’s #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 pitstops with the lead and then held off a challenge from his team-mate Martin Truex Jr in the final 20 laps as the two battled lapped traffic.
He edged Truex 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
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.
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 #24 Chevrolet.
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.
Following the break between Stages 2 and 3, the lead cars all elected to pit with Gibbs the first off pit road and heading the pack 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 tyres.
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 pitted with Hamlin again first off pit road.
Larson was penalised 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.
| CLA | DRIVER | # | MANUFACTURER | LAPS | TIME | INTERVAL | PITS | POINTS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | D. HamlinJOE GIBBS RACING | 11 | Toyota | 500 |
3:20'40.890 |
11 | 44 | ||
| 2 | M. Truex JrJOE GIBBS RACING | 19 | Toyota | 500 |
+1.083 3:20'41.973 |
1.083 | 13 | 44 | |
| 3 | B. KeselowskiRFK RACING | 6 | Ford | 500 |
+7.284 3:20'48.174 |
6.201 | 12 | 50 | |
| 4 | A. BowmanHENDRICK MOTORSPORTS | 48 | Chevrolet | 500 |
+14.342 3:20'55.232 |
7.058 | 13 | 33 | |
| 5 | K. LarsonHENDRICK MOTORSPORTS | 5 | Chevrolet | 500 |
+15.155 3:20'56.045 |
0.813 | 11 | 44 | |
| 6 | J. NemechekLEGACY MOTOR CLUB | 42 | Toyota | 499 |
+1 Lap 3:20'42.136 |
1 Lap | 12 | 44 | |
| 7 | C. BuescherRFK RACING | 17 | Ford | 499 |
+1 Lap 3:20'43.592 |
1.456 | 12 | 38 | |
| 8 | C. ElliottHENDRICK MOTORSPORTS | 9 | Chevrolet | 499 |
+1 Lap 3:20'45.272 |
1.680 | 12 | 29 | |
| 9 |
T. GibbsJOE GIBBS RACING
|
54 | Toyota | 499 |
+1 Lap 3:20'46.227 |
0.955 | 14 | 48 | |
| 10 | C. BellJOE GIBBS RACING | 20 | Toyota | 499 |
+1 Lap 3:20'51.588 |
5.361 | 12 | 36 | |
| 11 | M. McDowellFRONT ROW MOTORSPORTS | 34 | Ford | 499 |
+1 Lap 3:20'53.255 |
1.667 | 12 | 26 | |
| 12 | J. BerrySTEWART-HAAS RACING | 4 | Ford | 499 |
+1 Lap 3:20'55.854 |
2.599 | 11 | 26 | |
| 13 | C. BriscoeSTEWART-HAAS RACING | 14 | Ford | 498 |
+2 Laps 3:20'41.698 |
1 Lap | 12 | 24 | |
| 14 | R. PreeceSTEWART-HAAS RACING | 41 | Ford | 498 |
+2 Laps 3:20'42.613 |
0.915 | 12 | 26 | |
| 15 | R. ChastainTRACKHOUSE RACING | 1 | Chevrolet | 498 |
+2 Laps 3:20'43.140 |
0.527 | 13 | 22 | |
| 16 | R. BlaneyTEAM PENSKE | 12 | Ford | 498 |
+2 Laps 3:20'43.837 |
0.697 | 13 | 26 | |
| 17 | J. HaleyRICK WARE RACING | 51 | Ford | 498 |
+2 Laps 3:20'46.250 |
2.413 | 12 | 20 | |
| 18 | D. SuarezTRACKHOUSE RACING | 99 | Chevrolet | 498 |
+2 Laps 3:20'47.612 |
1.362 | 12 | 19 | |
| 19 | K. GralaRICK WARE RACING | 15 | Ford | 498 |
+2 Laps 3:20'48.435 |
0.823 | 12 | 18 | |
| 20 | E. JonesLEGACY MOTOR CLUB | 43 | Toyota | 498 |
+2 Laps 3:20'49.175 |
0.740 | 12 | 17 | |
| 21 | C. LajoieSPIRE MOTORSPORTS | 7 | Chevrolet | 498 |
+2 Laps 3:20'52.449 |
3.274 | 12 | 16 | |
| 22 | J. LoganoTEAM PENSKE | 22 | Ford | 498 |
+2 Laps 3:20'53.855 |
1.406 | 12 | 23 | |
| 23 | A. AllmendingerKAULIG RACING | 16 | Chevrolet | 498 |
+2 Laps 3:20'54.017 |
0.162 | 14 | ||
| 24 | A. DillonRICHARD CHILDRESS RACING | 3 | Chevrolet | 498 |
+2 Laps 3:20'54.399 |
0.382 | 13 | 13 | |
| 25 | K. BuschRICHARD CHILDRESS RACING | 8 | Chevrolet | 498 |
+2 Laps 3:20'56.639 |
2.240 | 14 | 12 | |
| 26 | T. GillilandFRONT ROW MOTORSPORTS | 38 | Ford | 497 |
+3 Laps 3:20'44.451 |
1 Lap | 12 | 11 | |
| 27 |
C. HocevarSPIRE MOTORSPORTS
|
77 | Chevrolet | 497 |
+3 Laps 3:20'55.021 |
10.570 | 12 | 10 | |
| 28 | D. HemricKAULIG RACING | 31 | Chevrolet | 496 |
+4 Laps 3:20'49.320 |
1 Lap | 13 | 9 | |
| 29 | B. Wallace23XI RACING | 23 | Toyota | 496 |
+4 Laps 3:20'56.263 |
6.943 | 11 | 10 | |
| 30 | T. Reddick23XI RACING | 45 | Toyota | 495 |
+5 Laps 3:20'42.155 |
1 Lap | 13 | 7 | |
| 31 | A. CindricTEAM PENSKE | 2 | Ford | 495 |
+5 Laps 3:20'47.106 |
4.951 | 11 | 6 | |
| 32 | H. BurtonWOOD BROTHERS RACING | 21 | Ford | 495 |
+5 Laps 3:20'47.274 |
0.168 | 12 | 5 | |
| 33 | R. Stenhouse JrJTG DAUGHERTY RACING | 47 | Chevrolet | 495 |
+5 Laps 3:20'56.172 |
8.898 | 14 | 4 | |
| 34 | N. GragsonSTEWART-HAAS RACING | 10 | Ford | 494 |
+6 Laps 3:20'49.502 |
1 Lap | 13 | 3 | |
| 35 | W. ByronHENDRICK MOTORSPORTS | 24 | Chevrolet | 492 |
+8 Laps 3:20'49.309 |
2 Laps | 13 | 2 | |
| 36 |
Z. SmithSPIRE MOTORSPORTS
|
71 | Chevrolet | 192 |
+308 Laps 1:27'54.223 |
300 Laps | 12 | 1 |
