Denny Hamlin won Sunday’s (April 6) Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway, winning his second consecutive NASCAR Cup Series race.
An excellent pit stop from the No. 11 crew on the final pit stop of the day catapulted Hamlin to the race lead, and in NASCAR overtime, Hamlin got a jump on the restart and drove away.
“Two people I really love right now: my pit crew and Kyle Larson,” Hamlin told Fox Sports’ Regan Smith. “Had a little assist there, so thank you. The pit crew did an amazing job. They won it last week, they won it this week. It’s all about them.”
Just minutes earlier, it was Blaney’s race to lose – until he saw Larson go around on the exit of turn 2.
“I thought we had the race won,” Blaney told Fox Sports’ Jamie Little. “I’ll have to watch the replay of how that yellow came out. Great [pit] call, great car. Proud of the No. 12 folks for giving me a fast car, just wasn’t meant to be. I really would’ve liked to have won here.”
Byron had the fastest car for the first 80 percent of the race, but saw a win fall out of his hands late.
“For us to execute like that, it was looking like it was going to be a perfect race,” Byron told Fox Sports. “Those guys could be aggressive on the other side of the green flag cycle and we lost control. Once we lost control, we couldn’t get back up there.”
William Byron led the first 243 laps of the race, but the final green-flag pit cycle of the day saw big changes at the front of the field. Tyler Reddick, Joey Logano and Christopher Bell, who pitted first, all cycled out in front of Byron, leaving him to hopelessly chase the lead for the rest of the afternoon.
As Reddick led, Ryan Blaney, who had an excellent long-run car all afternoon and pitted last of the leaders, began to chase him down. The Penske racer was cutting big chunks of time out of his lead, as much as eight-tenths of a second a lap. On lap 290, Blaney passed Reddick for the lead, only to see Kyle Larson spin off of turn 2 for the second time on the day and bring out the caution flag.
On the subsequent pit stop, Blaney went from first to fourth. Hamlin went from third to the lead.
Byron got back to second on the final restart, then Bell, Reddick and Blaney. Chris Buescher, Ross Chastain, Chase Elliott, Ty Gibbs and Kyle Busch completed the top -10.
On lap 134, an incident occurred that ended up flipping the field. Brad Keselowski pitted for four tires during a round of green-flag stops, but his crew failed to get the right rear wheel nut tight. That nut proceeded to come off, resulting in a half-spin.
Brad Keselowski goes around! #NASCARonFS1 pic.twitter.com/xn02vNatBg
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) April 6, 2025
Keselowski recovered from the spin and limped back to the pits, losing multiple laps in the process. However, NASCAR threw a debris caution on lap 139 to retrieve the wheel nut, trapping cars that were quick early such as Ryan Preece and Bubba Wallace one lap down. Meanwhile, drivers that had been stuck outside the top 10, such as Hamlin, Ty Dillon and Austin Hill, were able to gain crucial track position, while those trapped a lap down struggled in dirty air for the rest of the afternoon.
Larson and Josh Berry both met similar fates on Sunday. On lap 4, Larson got loose under Logano, sliding down the backstretch and making hard contact with the inside wall. While Larson eventually rejoined the race, he was many laps down and out of contention.
Big trouble and heavy damage for Kyle Larson! #NASCARonFS1 pic.twitter.com/E5Qgzbii0i
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) April 6, 2025
On Lap 196, Berry was racing with Reddick when Reddick attempted to clear Berry. Instead, contact between the two sent Berry spinning into the inside wall, turning Berry’s beautiful No. 21 into a heap of scrap metal.
"The 45 just wrecked him."
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) April 6, 2025
Trouble for Josh Berry at Darlington! #NASCARonFS1 pic.twitter.com/1nDugbh25c
Goodyear 400 Results
The ninth race of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season will take place at Bristol Motor Speedway on April 13. The Food City 500 will go green shortly after 3 p.m. ET, with coverage on FS1, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
A member of the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA), Samuel also covers NASCAR for Yardbarker, Field Level Media, and Heavy Sports. He will attend the University of Arkansas in the fall of 2025.