Monday Morning Pit Box: Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Crew Come Up Clutch at Darlington

William Byron led 243 of the 293 laps at Darlington Raceway on Sunday (April 6), but he was not out front when it mattered most. Instead, it was Denny Hamlin who used a clutch pit stop and a strong overtime restart to win the Goodyear 400 for his second straight NASCAR Cup Series win.

In the closing laps, it was green flag pit stops — and the timing of them — that played a crucial role in the race’s outcome. Let’s break it all down.

Tire Strategy Plays Out in Closing Laps

Shortly after the race restarted with 92 laps to go, it became clear that we were in for a long green flag run. That meant green flag pit stops to make it to the end on tires and fuel.

With Darlington’s abrasive surface, there was no doubt that every team was going to take four tires, but crew chiefs on pit road still had an important decision to make. They could either pit early and try to leapfrog drivers still on old tires, or pit later in the cycle and have the fresher tires down the stretch.

Ryan Preece started the cycle on lap 231; a handful of laps later, the frontrunners went to the service of their crews. When the dust settled on the pit cycle, it was not Byron, but rather Tyler Reddick who led the way. Christopher Bell also got around Byron for second, pushing the dominant No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet to third.

How did Reddick and Bell do it? They pitted earlier than Byron, with Reddick pitting on lap 239, Bell on lap 241, and Byron on lap 243. Reddick and Bell made the most of their four and two laps fresher tires respectively to put Byron somewhere he had not been all day: in dirty air.

As the laps clicked off, a fourth driver entered the conversation, that being Ryan Blaney in the No. 12 Team Penske Ford. Pitting on lap 246, Blaney possessed the freshest tires out of all the contenders. With just four laps left, Blaney got by Reddick for the race lead, but just a couple of moments later, the caution came out to set up overtime.

At that point, it was the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing pit crew’s time to shine, but we’ll have more on that later.

Pit Road Police

It was a mostly quiet day in the pit road penalty department, but there were a few worth mentioning:

• Noah Gragson got a tail end of the field penalty for not staying single file in the outermost lane of pit road during the lap 189 pit stops.
• On the same round of pit stops, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and the No. 47 Hyak Motorsports Chevrolet team got penalized for throwing equipment. Bob Pockrass of Fox Sports tweeted out an explanation for the No. 47 penalty.
• Also on the lap 189 stops, Shane van Gisbergen got tagged for speeding on pit road, sending him to the rear of the field.

Pit Crew of the Race: No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

The caution with four laps remaining gave Hamlin and the No. 11 team a new lease on life, and they made the most of it.

Before overtime, every lead lap car came down pit road for four tires, and Hamlin got out first in his Toyota. The No. 11 pit crew came through with an 8.3-second, four-tire pit stop. Meanwhile, Blaney, who came onto pit road as the leader, dropped three spots on the pit stop to fall to fourth.

I know that I've been singing their praises all week but that was a clutch pit stop from the No. 11 @JoeGibbsRacing pit crew of @dennyhamlin.

They completed a four tire change in right around 8.3 seconds.

Setting an example of what it's like to perform under pressure. pic.twitter.com/KtaJ0XfvrP

— Bozi Tatarevic (@BoziTatarevic) April 6, 2025

“It takes so many people to execute a pit stop perfectly,” Joel Bouagnon, the jackman on the No. 11 crew, told Frontstretch post-race. “Our crew, we want a situation like [the last pit stop]. That’s the best, the most high-stressful situation you can be in a race, and that is exactly what we look for and what we train for.”

As shown by Byron’s dominance, track position was king at the Track Too Tough to Tame. Hamlin left no doubt on the restart to secure the victory.

This is the second pit crew of the race honor for the No. 11 team, and the fourth overall for a JGR team.

Look Ahead to Next Week

The NASCAR Cup Series will head back to a short track next Sunday, April 13 for the running of the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tenn. Race coverage begins at 3 p.m. ET on Fox Sports 1.

Goodyear inadvertently made the Bristol spring race one of the most exciting and unpredictable of the 2024 Cup Series season, introducing a softer tire compound that wore off much quicker than in years past. It will be interesting to see if Goodyear and NASCAR bring back the same tire compound next weekend. If they do, will it produce a similar product?

With passing hard to come by at short tracks in the Next Gen car, crew chiefs will definitely be cooking up some strategy calls in an effort to maximize track position.