The NASCAR Cup Series returned to the historic Darlington Raceway for Sunday’s Goodyear 400, where tire wear, driver discipline, and track position combined to make the 293-lap race a true test of endurance and strategy.
William Byron started strong and held the early advantage, but it didn’t take long for the Lady in Black to bite back with Darlington Stripes and mishaps. On lap 4, Kyle Larson lost control coming off Turn 2 and slammed into the inside retaining wall, causing major front-end damage and wrecking the steering. By lap 25, Carson Hocevar brought out another caution after slapping the wall off Turn 2 and spinning in Turns 3 and 4 with a cut right-rear tire. Five laps later, JJ Yeley slowed dramatically after hitting the wall in Turn 2, eventually heading to the garage with a suspected brake issue.
As drivers settled in by lap 70, tire fall-off began separating contenders from pretenders. Ryan Blaney had moved up to fourth, while Chase Elliott and Christopher Bell suddenly struggled, falling to 24th and 29th respectively. On lap 83, Hocevar and Riley Herbst were racing hard but ran out of space off Turn 4, resulting in a spin. Despite the chaos behind him, Byron dominated and claimed the Stage 1 win.
A spin by Brad Keselowski after lap 137 led to a debris caution, when his right-rear wheel nut came off. Though the wheel stayed on the car, Keselowski dropped to 36th and four laps down. Several drivers, including Byron, chose not to pit, while others had already stopped just 5–8 laps earlier, putting them at a slight tire disadvantage.
Chase Elliott had to make a second pit stop to secure a wheel, forcing him to restart outside the top 10. Still, Byron remained the class of the field, racking up 185 laps led and securing a Stage 2 win, though Joey Logano closed in near the end of the run.
On lap 195, Josh Berry’s day ended early after contact with Tyler Reddick sent him spinning off Turn 2 and into the inside wall. A few laps later, Alex Bowman, who had been running in the top 10, reported a possible toe link issue in the right rear after getting into the wall and was forced to pit.
By lap 260, Tyler Reddick had built a 6-second lead over Christopher Bell and William Byron, though his tires were four laps older than Byron’s. Blaney, with the freshest tires and a strong long-run car, was surging. By lap 275, he had climbed to fourth and chopped the lead gap down to 7.8 seconds.
The race took a dramatic turn with just four laps to go. Reddick brushed the wall as Ryan Blaney closed in, and as Blaney made the pass for the lead, the caution came out. Bubba Wallace spun off Turn 2, and in a separate incident, Kyle Larson—who had been in the garage for 160 laps as his team rebuilt the car—crashed again in nearly the exact same spot, destroying the newly repaired front end.
The leaders all came to pit road, where Denny Hamlin’s crew delivered a lightning-fast stop to get him out first, ahead of Reddick, Byron, and Blaney. On the green-white-checkered restart, Hamlin got a clean jump and pulled away as the battle for second went three-wide behind him.
Denny Hamlin took the checkered flag, claiming his second consecutive victory after winning at Martinsville the previous weekend. William Byron finished second in what had been his race to lose for most of the day.
- Denny Hamlin, No. 11
- William Byron, No. 24
- Christopher Bell, No. 20
- Tyler Reddick, No. 45
- Ryan Blaney, No. 12
- Chris Buescher, No.
- Ross Chastain, No. 1
- Chase Elliott, No. 9
- Ty Gibbs, No. 54
- Kyle Busch, No. 8