Denny Hamlin wins in OT at Darlington for back-to-back NASCAR Cup Series victories
Denny Hamlin is back in Victory Lane, despite only leading for a fraction of Sunday’s NASCAR race at Darlington.
The Joe Gibbs Racing veteran led just 10 of 297 laps throughout an overtime Cup Series race that saw dominance from William Byron.
Byron, the Charlottean who entered Sunday atop of the Cup standings, started on the pole. The driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet didn’t give up the lead until he headed down pit road under the green flag after leading the first 243 laps.
“Very similar to Houston (Saturday),” Hamlin said in his post-race news conference, referencing the Cougars’ stunning comeback against Duke in the NCAA Tournament men’s basketball Final Four. “Duke dominated the game, but Houston kept hanging around just enough, and then capitalized when the others couldn’t close. That’s what happened (Sunday).
“The pit crew will get their due this week. We’re always the one who gets all the fan fare for the wins — and it goes in our win column, that’s what fans see — but this is truly a team sport.”
Before Hamlin won the race off pit road prior to overtime to take his lead, Ryan Blaney and Tyler Reddick both appeared to be on their ways to victories. The lapped car of Kyle Larson made contact with Bubba Wallace, bringing out that late caution, and then Hamlin pulled away from the pack on the overtime restart.
Byron finished in second place, Christopher Bell drove to a P3 finish, Reddick came in fourth place and Blaney took fifth.
“Everybody loves coming to Darlington,” team owner Joe Gibbs said. “I go all the way back to when we first got Denny. Our final test for him before we signed him: J.D. (Gibbs), who found him, my son said: ‘Let’s put him in at Darlington. He’s never been here. Let’s put him in an Xfinity car and see what he does.’ He finished eighth, and J.D. told me, he said: ‘I think we need to sign this guy.’
“I said, ‘I agree, but he has a feeling for Darlington.’ Of course, he’s got a feeling for a number of tracks. He’s really good at what he does. Just really appreciate Denny and his leadership with our group. He’s our veteran guy, and we just really appreciate him and what he’s done for us. When you think about 56 wins, that’s a huge deal. We hang banners at 1 p.m. (Monday), and he’s going to have 56 on that wall.”
Goodyear 400 results
Position | Driver | Car Number |
1 | Denny Hamlin | 11 |
2 | William Byron | 24 |
3 | Christopher Bell | 20 |
4 | Tyler Reddick | 45 |
5 | Ryan Blaney | 12 |
6 | Chris Buescher | 17 |
7 | Ross Chastain | 1 |
8 | Chase Elliott | 9 |
9 | Ty Gibbs | 54 |
10 | Kyle Busch | 8 |
11 | Austin Cindric | 2 |
12 | Zane Smith | 38 |
13 | Joey Logano | 22 |
14 | Todd Gilliland | 34 |
15 | Daniel Suarez | 99 |
16 | Ty Dillon | 13 |
17 | Erik Jones | 43 |
18 | AJ Allmendinger | 16 |
19 | Noah Gragson | 19 |
20 | Shane Van Gisbergen | 88 |
21 | Bubba Wallace | 23 |
22 | Cole Custer | 41 |
23 | Austin Dillon | 3 |
24 | Justin Haley | 7 |
25 | Ricky Stenhouse | 47 |
26 | Ryan Preece | 2 |
27 | Cody Ware | 51 |
28 | Chase Briscoe | 4 |
29 | Michael McDowell | 71 |
30 | John Hunter Nemechek | 42 |
31 | Austin Hill | 33 |
32 | Carson Hocevar | 77 |
33 | Brad Keselowski | 6 |
34 | Riley Herbst | 35 |
35 | Alex Bowman | 48 |
36 | Josh Berry | 21 |
37 | Kyle Larson | 5 |
38 | JJ Yeley | 44 |
Lap-by-lap updates from Goodyear 400
Lap 297: Denny Hamlin holds off the pack and wins in overtime!
Lap 294: Here we go for overtime! Denny Hamlin won the race off pit road and brings us back to green!
Lap 290: Caution comes out when Bubba Wallace had contact with Kyle Larson. Ryan Blaney had just passed Tyler Reddick for the lead. Green-white-checkered finish is coming.
Lap 249: Tyler Reddick is the new leader after Daniel Suarez pits.
Lap 244: For the first time all race there is a leader other than William Byron. Denny Hamlin took the lead when Byron when to pit road.
Lap 220: While William Byron continues to lead the race, teammate Alex Bowman heads to pit road after making contact between Turn 3 and 4. He was running in eighth at the time.
Lap 195: Josh Berry spins off Turn 2 and hits the inside wall, bringing out the caution flag. Berry was in fifth. Tyler Reddick might have forced Berry in the accident.
William Byron still leads.
Lap 187: William Byron becomes the second driver in stage racing history to lead every lap, following Chase Elliott at Martinsville in 2022.
Earning points following Stage 2: Byron, Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, Josh Berry, Christopher Bell, Ty Gibbs, Ty Dillon, Tyler Reddick and Alex Bowman.
Stage 2
Lap 185: William Byron has led every lap and sweeps the stages!
Lap 180: William Byron’s lead is nearly two seconds over Joey Logano as we near the Stage 2 finish. The Charlotte native has led every lap.
Lap 175: Coming up on 10 laps to go in the stage: William Byron, Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin, Josh Berry and Ryan Blaney run in your Top Five.
Lap 165: Kyle Larson is back in the race! He crashed on Lap 4 and returns to the track, running 158 laps down.
Lap 162: Light raindrops have started.
Lap 160: William Byron has led the entirety of this race, now more than halfway through. Twenty-five laps remain in Stage 2.
Lap 143: Back to green! William Byron remains the leader. Joey Logano has made it up to P2, Denny Hamlin in third place, Christopher Bell fourth and Josh Berry fifth.
Lap 138: Caution comes out for debris in Turn 4!
Lap 135: Brad Keselowski spins! No caution.
Lap 132: Here come green-flag pit stops, and Tyler Reddick comes down pit road.
Lap 126: William Byron grows his lead over Tyler Reddick, Ryan Blaney and Ryan Preece. Chris Buescher gets up into fifth place.
Lap 119: William Byron pulls away in the lead a little bit more, as Tyler Reddick goes to ride the top of the race track.
Lap 114: Ryan Blaney passes Bubba Wallace for third place as Tyler Reddick inches closer to William Byron, who’s already led his most laps in two years.
Lap 107: Tyler Reddick gets by Bubba Wallace for P2 and is gaining ground on William Byron from the outside.
Lap 104: Both of the 23XI Racing cars are running fast here. Bubba Wallace continues in second place, while Tyler Reddick has surged into P3. Ryan Preece and Ryan Blaney round out your Top Five behind William Byron.
Lap 99: Bubba Wallace zooms past Ryan Preece to take back P2. William Byron remains out in front.
Lap 98: William Byron and Ryan Preece bring us back to green for Stage 2!
Lap 95: Josh Berry, Ty Gibbs and John Hunter Nemechek are among a group of cars that pit under this stage break caution. Roughly 20 cars stayed on track and didn’t pit.
Lap 92: William Byron led all 90 laps of the opening stage to earn the playoff points.
Your points-getters following Stage 1: Byron, Bubba Wallace, Ryan Preece, Chris Buescher, Tyler Reddick, Brad Keselowski, Ryan Blaney, Austin Cindric, Zane Smith and AJ Allmendinger.
Stage 1
Lap 90: William Byron wins Stage 1!
Lap 88: William Byron brings us back to green!
Lap 87: Three to go in the opening stage as we get ready to come back to green.
Lap 82: Carson Hocevar gets turned as he makes contact with Riley Herbst! Third caution is out late in the opening stage.
Lap 80: William Byron still leads with 10 laps to go in the opening stage.
Lap 66: William Byron, Ryan Preece and Chris Buescher run up front. Ryan Blaney and Bubba Wallace have jumped back into the Top Five, passing Chase Briscoe.
Lap 58: William Byron is out in front of Ryan Preece and the rest of the pack by nearly five seconds.
Your Top 10: Byron, Preece, Chris Buescher, Bubba Wallace, Ryan Blaney, Chase Briscoe, Kyle Busch, Austin Cindric, Tyler Reddick and Zane Smith.
Lap 45: William Byron has had the fastest car on the track for most of the day, and he remains the leader throughout every lap of the first half of Stage 1.
Lap 38: William Byron’s lead is down to less than one second over Ryan Preece. Chris Buescher, who got hit by Tyler Reddick during Brad Keselowski’s victory here a year ago, passes Chase Briscoe for P3.
Lap 29: Back to green! William Byron and Kyle Busch are out in front.
Lap 25: Josh Berry and Ryan Blaney lead another big group of cars down pit road.
Lap 24: Carson Hocevar spins! We’re back under caution for the second time today. His team said on the radio right before that something was off with his steering, and the No. 77 went for a spin.
Lap 20: Interesting point on the radio of Noah Gragson: Apparently there is no internet on pit road right now at Darlington.
Lap 8: Back to green! William Byron still leads.
Lap 6: Denny Hamlin, Bubba Wallace and Ryan Blaney are among a big group that opts to pit during this early caution.
Lap 4: And we’ve got our first caution! Kyle Larson crashes in his No. 5 Terry Labonte-inspired blue and orange Hendrick Motorsports car. He got loose off Turn 2 and smacked the wall. His car is being towed back to the damaged vehicle area and can return to the race.
Green flag, 3:16 p.m.: Racin’ at Darlington!
3:07 p.m.: Engines are fired!
3:05 p.m.: Before cars come on the track, nice touch from the FS1 broadcast — Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer open its race coverage by driving classic No. 21 Wood Brothers cars, of Neil Bonnett and David Pearson, that were sitting on pit road as the track celebrates “throwback weekend.”
2:55 p.m.: The invocation has been given, the national anthem has been performed. Racin’ soon!
2:45 p.m.: Michael Jordan is here! The basketball legend who co-owns 23XI Racing climbed up Bubba Wallace’s No. 23 pit box before today’s race.
2:30 p.m.: Good afternoon from Darlington! It’s a scorching 85 degrees out in South Carolina for this one. Charlotte native William Byron is leading the field to green, ahead of Ryan Preece, Denny Hamlin, Chase Briscoe and Bubba Wallace.
‘Dreamed about racing here’
Byron on Saturday won the pole position for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Darlington.
The Charlotte native came out on top of a competitive qualifying session, edging Ryan Preece, Denny Hamlin, Chase Briscoe and Bubba Wallace to snag his second pole of the season.
Byron, the two-time Daytona 500 champion, remembers seeing the historic South Carolina race track out the windows of his family’s car when taking trips to Myrtle Beach.
“This might be my best track,” Byron said. “Ever since I’ve been here as a driver, I just enjoy coming down here. It’s a tough challenge — it really tests you, mentally and physically — and off the track, I had a lot of nostalgia coming here as a kid. It was just the place that I loved seeing on the way to Myrtle Beach as a kid and just dreamed about racing here. I feel like for every driver, that kind of makes it important to you. It doesn’t mean you’re always going to be good here, but it’s always been an important track. I think that history and then parlaying that into having good runs here, it has had a special place in my heart.
“This place is just very special. I feel like it’s always had a lot of meaning. I guess my first race here, I ran Ricky Hendrick’s throwback scheme in Xfinity. That was just really special. We had a good day. I think it’s just kind of continued. I’ve had a lot of great throwback schemes, honestly, and that’s always made it fun here in the spring or the fall. I think it’s just that kind of nostalgia that I enjoy.”
Odds and prediction for the Goodyear 400
Byron is tied with Kyle Larson as the favorite to win at +450 odds on DraftKings Sportsbook, followed by Ryan Blaney (+700), Denny Hamlin (+700) and Tyler Reddick (+750).
The Observer’s Shane Connuck is picking Chase Elliott. The sport’s most popular driver is due for a victory, and why not at Darlington? He’s recorded top-15 finishes in five of his past six races at the venue famously known for being “too tough to tame,” and his Cup Series success has come on a variety of different tracks. From road courses to superspeedways, Elliott’s proven himself a winner throughout his career, and he looks to continue his winning ways by taking a Ken Schrader-inspired No. 9 car to Victory Lane.
The State Newspaper’s Lou Bezjak is picking Tyler Reddick. The 23XI Racing driver qualified seventh for the race and has run well at Darlington. He has three top-three finishes in his last six Darlington races. In last fall’s race, Reddick dealt with a stomach bug and finished 10th.
How to watch the NASCAR Cup Series race at Darlington
Race: Goodyear 400
Place: Darlington Raceway (Darlington, S.C.)
Track Length: 1.366-mile asphalt oval
Date: Sunday, April 6
Time: 3 p.m. ET
Purse: $11,055,250
TV: FS1 & FOX Deportes, 2 p.m. ET
Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR (Channel 90)
Distance: 400.2 miles (293 Laps)
Stages: Stage 1 ends on Lap 90; Stage 2 ends on Lap 185; and the Final Stage ends on Lap 293.
Starting lineup for the Goodyear 400
Position | Driver | Car Number |
1 | William Byron | 24 |
2 | Ryan Preece | 60 |
3 | Denny Hamlin | 11 |
4 | Chase Briscoe | 19 |
5 | Bubba Wallace | 23 |
6 | Austin Cindric | 2 |
7 | Tyler Reddick | 45 |
8 | Kyle Busch | 8 |
9 | Ryan Blaney | 12 |
10 | Michael McDowell | 71 |
11 | Ty Gibbs | 54 |
12 | Todd Gilliland | 34 |
13 | Carson Hocevar | 77 |
14 | Chris Buescher | 17 |
15 | Chase Elliott | 9 |
16 | Zane Smith | 38 |
17 | Christopher Bell | 20 |
18 | Joey Logano | 22 |
19 | Kyle Larson | 5 |
20 | Brad Keselowski | 6 |
21 | Justin Haley | 7 |
22 | AJ Allmendinger | 16 |
23 | Austin Dillon | 3 |
24 | Josh Berry | 21 |
25 | Ross Chastain | 1 |
26 | Noah Gragson | 4 |
27 | John Hunter Nemechek | 42 |
28 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | 47 |
29 | Ty Dillon | 10 |
30 | Daniel Suárez | 99 |
31 | Cole Custer | 41 |
32 | Riley Herbst | 35 |
33 | Alex Bowman | 48 |
34 | Erik Jones | 43 |
35 | Cody Ware | 51 |
36 | Shane Van Gisbergen | 88 |
37 | Austin Hill | 21 |
38 | JJ Yeley | 44 |
This story was originally published April 5, 2025 at 4:34 PM.
