Gold Line: Denny Hamlin 'Mavis, Richmond Win' Camry

On a day trip to Charlotte in the spring of 2025, I stopped into the JRG Race shop. I hadn't visited JGR since 2020 and it was interesting to look around. Although the JGR shop is one of my least favorites, they do have a nice little fan shop. While they didn't have many diecast cars in stock, the only 1/64 available was this Denny Hamlin 2024 Toyota Owners 400 Richmond win replica. For a closer look, read on...

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The real thing: Denny Hamlin celebrates his 53rd career win at Richmond Raceway on March 31st , 2024 during the Toyota Owners 400. (Photograph courtesy of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette).

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Over the past few seasons, Denny Hamlin has been trending as an early season multi-race winner. In both 2024 and 2025, Hamlin has at least two wins by the 10th race of the season. In 2024, Hamlin won a total of three races, and those wins came during race numbers, 4, 7, and 11. (Bristol, Richmond, and Dover respectively). This 1/64 represents Hamlin's second of the three wins in 2024, and his 53rd over all career win. Hamlin started from the 11th position for the Toyota Owners 400. This would be Denny's 5th time winning at Richmond. Out of the other active drivers in Nascar, only Kyle Busch has more wins there (6).

Martin Truex Jr. was leading the race with just a few laps to go over second place Joey Logano when the caution flag flew. Kyle Larson lost control leaving turn four, and with some help from Bubba Wallace, went spinning through the grass. Hamlin had only been lurking up until that point after briefly leading twice for 10 laps earlier in the day. But a last minute pit-stop gave Hamlin the advantage. The JGR pit crew beat both the 19 team, and the 22 team on pit road. After the restart, Hamlin was perfect, and won the race but not without incident. Truex Jr., who had led half the race slammed into Hamlin's bumper after the last lap had been completed. The full race can be seen here.

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Notes: 
​The diecast is a nice little rendition. There are a few paint/printing issues that I could nitpick, but that's for another time. The 2024 Toyota Camry casting is a nice one, and arguably, nicer than the 2022 Camry. It does depend on accurate detailing, and that has not been done entirely well. The raced-version details are very good, from the meticulously placed confetti, to the exhaust singes, and the race damage. Lionel is once again showing off what can be accomplished. This is a nice offering overall. 

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Sources:
-Jayski.com
-Joegibbsracing.com
-Lionelracing.com
-Nascar.com
-Post-gazette.com
-racing-reference.info