Denny Hamlin did not seem like the most dominant driver during the NASCAR Cup Series Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway. However, he did make sure to keep himself near the front throughout the allongned race. Once the race entered overtime due to a last minute crash between Kyle Larson and Bubba Wallace, Hamlin’s No. 11 crew gave an astonishing pit stop that placed him at the forefront of the race.
“Once I get into the pit stall, they drop the right side. I know I did a good job on my metrics, hopefully, I didn’t speed,” Hamlin remarked during his post race interview. Hamlin makes it clear that he remains uncertain as to whether pit stops are decision making if they require too much precision to fuel expectations. During such a heated race and the options placing each other on the clock things are never really as easy as they sound.
With the lead firmly in his grasp, Hamlin got on the wheel and got to work, fending off Byron, who dominated the race for a staggering 243 laps, securing his second consecutive victory in the NASCAR Cup Series. While doing this, Hamlin was driving a throwback paint scheme honoring NASCAR Hall of Famer Carl Edwards’ Office Depot scheme from 2006.
Darlington marks the 56th victory in Hamlin’s illustrious career in the NASCAR Cup Series, breaking a tie with Rusty Wallace and moving Denny Hamlin to 11th on the all-time list. The victory came a week after Denny the 55th career win during the Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway.
When asked to share his thoughts on the possibility of winning Bristol for a third-consecutive time, Hamlin stated, “I like our outlook to win a lot of races this year.”
This was painful loss for Byron and the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports team because of how historic and dominant the driver’s performance; he led to the first 243 laps of the race before finishing second in Overtime.
In his own words, Byron states that it was the green flag pit sequence towards the end of the race that led to him losing control and ultimately spelled the end of his day despite leading most of it.
“By controlling the race during green flags, everything would have been ok,” Byron mentioned The team did an awesome job and the car was working perfectly”.
Byron is celebrating that nobody had managed to lead more than him in consecutive laps during Goodyear 400s until Jeff Burton managed it 25 years ago at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Byron led 243 laps before getting replaced which is an all time record and surpassed Jeff’s record of 300 consecutive laps in 2000.
Despite the disheartening outcome on what could have easily become his second win of 2025, Byron found comfort in his fast car and during a dominating day, Byron increased his point lead to 49 points over Hamlin after the eighth race of the season.
Tyler Reddick, who raced for 23XI Racing, finished in fourth place while Christopher Bell captured a solid third place in the 20 Toyota Camry Joe Gibbs.
Ryan Blaney, who faced heartbreak on pit road throughout the race, had taken the lead from Reddick with seven laps left. However, when the caution flag was waved on lap 291, Blaney’s win depended on his team preforming well during a pit stop. Unfortunately, the No. 12 Team Penske pit crew let Blaney down, forcing him to exit the pits in fifth.
As much as Blaney tried and watched his fellow racers speed ahead, Blaney’s strong fifth place finish was a heartbreaker.
“That stings man, I really wanted to win here. And it wasn’t meant to be,” Blaney said, having his head hung low.
Chris Buescher, Ross Chastain, Chase Elliott, Ty Gibbs, and Kyle Busch completed the top 10 finishers during Sunday’s Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway.
The ninth place run marked the first top 10 finish for the season for Gibbs, driver of the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
After the 2025 season began roughly for him, Brad Keselowski was looking forward to trying to defend his victory in the Goodyear 400 from the previous year. He even had hopes of achieving a top-10 finish. Unfortunately, his strong showing before a loose wheel on lap 135 cost him a good amount of his day.
Keselowski would ultimately settle for a dismal 33rd place finish, 2 laps down. He also claimed that in the Elimination Race held in Darlington that weekend, he had been robbed in the first stage. Keselowski placed 31st in the championship standings with zero top-10 finishes this season.
The NASCAR Cup Series next moves to Connecticut for a duel at the Stafford Motor Speedway as cars prepare for The Food City 500 at the Bristol Motor Speedway. That race will be televised on FS1 with coverage set to start at 3 PM ET.
