Hauler Talk: Bristol track conditioning a hot topic heading into weekend

Posted on April 9, 2025 by Nate Ryan

Concerns about tire rubber being laid on the track have prompted a return to the PJ1 Trackbite traction compound this weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway.

On the latest episode of the “Hauler Talk” podcast, NASCAR managing director of communications Mike Forde said the decision was made after resin produced unsatisfactory results after Cup Series practice and qualifying last September. In an unusual move, PJ1 Trackbite was applied on the morning of the Sept. 21 night race at Bristol.

RELATED: Bristol schedule | Entry list | Buy tickets

NASCAR and track officials elected to go the entire weekend this time with PJ1 Trackbite, which is a sticky substance applied to the track via a spray.

“It was a pretty big curveball for the teams (last year),” Forde said. “We talked to the garage and said, ‘Hey, here’s what we’re looking at,’ so that’s why we did it. So that is the reason why we are doing it again this weekend because of how little the track took rubber. It seems to be only a Bristol issue with the speeds, the banking, the concrete and those things in concert. We’ve noticed that the PJ1 works a little bit better.”

NASCAR and its tracks largely have moved away from using PJ1 Trackbite as a traction compound over the past four years since the PJ1 resin (which is produced by the same company) was applied for the inaugural Cup race weekend at Nashville Superspeedway in June 2021.

Forde said resin was used more recently because “it was more predictable, more consistent and lasted kind of the entire race where PJ1 Trackbite … needed to heat up and wasn’t as predictable and consistent” but seemed to be the best match for Bristol’s concrete surface. …

The final caution at Darlington Raceway also was addressed during the podcast. Kyle Larson was spun after contact from Bubba Wallace, whose teammate, Tyler Reddick, had just lost the lead to Ryan Blaney.

Forde said NASCAR officials reviewed the incident to confirm “there was nothing nefarious, and that we saw what everyone else saw that (Larson) checked up and unfortunately (Wallace) hit and spun them.” Forde also explained how NASCAR’s new remote race control at its production facility in Concord, North Carolina, can review real-time data and communicate with the scoring tower on site to help analyze such incidents.

Former senior vice president of competition Scott Miller is involved with the new remote race control, which has been in place since the Daytona 500.

Other topics covered during the 10th episode of “Hauler Talk,” which explores competition issues in NASCAR:

— The Wi-Fi trouble for some teams early in the Cup race at Darlington Raceway;

— The new Damaged Vehicle Policy that allowed Larson to return to the track from an early crash;

— NASCAR’s meeting with Xfinity drivers after the caution-plagued race at Martinsville Speedway

The guest on this week’s “Hauler Talk” is Amber Wells, the senior director of the NASCAR Hall of Fame and Regional Partnerships who discussed the Throwback Weekend at Darlington, the NASCAR Hall of Fame voting process and her experience as a passenger on the “Miracle on the Hudson” flight in 2009.

Click on the embed above to listen or search for “Hauler Talk” wherever you download podcasts to hear it on your phone, tablet or mobile device.

Nate Ryan has written about NASCAR since 1996 while working at the San Bernardino Sun, Richmond Times-Dispatch, USA TODAY and for the past 10 years at NBC Sports Digital. He is a contributor to the new “Hauler Talk” show on the NASCAR Podcast Network. He also has covered various other motorsports, including the IndyCar and IMSA series.

Posted on April 9, 2025April 9, 2025 by Dustin Albino

When Kaulig Racing informed AJ Allmendinger he was returning to the NASCAR Cup Series in 2025, the 43-year-old was put on the recruitment trail to find his replacement for the organization’s No. 16 Xfinity Series entry.

One name tipped the scale.

Christian Eckes was amid the most consistent full-time Craftsman Truck Series season of all time. Aside from winning four races, he ended his second year with McAnally-Hilgemann Racing with an astounding 5.4 average finish, earning 22 top-10 finishes in 23 races, including 21 straight to end the season. It was an obvious decision for Kaulig Racing.

RELATED: Christian Eckes driver page

“My biggest push to Matt [Kaulig, owner] and Chris [Rice, team president] was, first, what is the direction that they want Kaulig Racing to be?” Allmendinger said. “If that direction is to bring in younger guys that could be the future of the race team, then that was the thing to do.

“Chris asked me a lot of who would be on the short list that you want here. Christian was the guy that I said, ‘If he’s available, we should get him.’ Christian has shown the last couple of years that he can be a superstar in the sport, and I was really hoping that he would be here.”

To get the call made the previous seven years worth it for Eckes, which included four full-time seasons and three partial schedules in the Truck Series.

Eckes doesn’t usually describe himself as patient. However, endurance and capitalizing on opportunities helped net the 24-year-old an Xfinity Series gig.

“It was starting to get to the point where I was getting a little bit concerned about it,” Eckes told NASCAR.com of his racing progression. “Not necessarily getting stuck, but not knowing what that next opportunity was going to come or if I was just going to be a truck guy. At the time, I was OK with it, but luckily, this opportunity came up. With the last two years being successful, there are more opportunities that arose and conversations.

“A couple of years ago, I probably would have said that I would be truck racing for the rest of my life.”

The McAnally opportunity was a way for Eckes to reinvent himself. He weighed his options before committing to Kaulig, but it was a relief to know opportunities were presenting themselves to advance up the proverbial racing ladder.

“It reminded me a lot of [McAnally] in a way,” Eckes said of Kaulig. “There are a lot of good people, a lot of good things. They kind of had a down year last year, and I felt like I could come and hopefully make a little bit of a difference. Being part of not necessarily a rebuild, but a reinvention and being part of growth is the biggest thing for me.”

While some drivers rush to the Xfinity Series, Eckes admits he wouldn’t have been ready for this opportunity if it came early in his career. He grasped valuable life lessons on his journey to Kaulig.

“You learn a lot when you go through things like losing your ride, going to different teams in different situations, not only about racing but life and everything else,” Eckes said. “Definitely wouldn’t change those experiences for the world, even though they were tough at the time.”

Before a late January test at Rockingham Speedway, Eckes never strapped into an Xfinity car. Those laps ahead of the 2025 season kicking off were paramount, acquainting him with his No. 16 team.

Eckes has leaned heavily on Allmendinger to adjust to the series, with Allmendinger competing in a pair of Championship 4 races in three full-time Xfinity seasons with Kaulig.

“I feel like we talk a lot,” Allmendinger said. “I’ve made it clear to all these guys that are my teammates, I’m always going to have an open door, open-book policy. I’m never going to force myself on you. There are certain guys that don’t want to talk to you, and it’s not my job to force my way in there. He’s talked to me a lot, and I’ll answer the phone every time that he calls me.”

Rice didn’t know anything about Eckes before honing in on him. He found himself up late at night watching YouTube videos of Eckes’ demeanor. He quickly realized that Eckes was “way better and different than I thought he was.”

Through the opening eight races, the No. 16 team has had a roller-coaster season. Before Darlington Raceway last week, the team shifted to a new motto of being looser throughout the weekend. The description? Limp Bizkit to Bob Marley.

MORE: Xfinity Series standings | Xfinity Series schedule

“I knew this year was going to be tough in Xfinity for him,” Rice said. “We started out good, but not great; we haven’t had the finishes. We know that we have a lot of future in our young guys, and that’s what is key. We’ve got to have some future. AJ does an amazing job, but you can’t sit on your hands and wait for someone to come to you. You’ve got to go get them, and that’s what we did with Christian.”

Eckes doesn’t consider himself a goal-setter but wants to see development throughout the season from himself and the No. 16 team.

“I want to see progression more than anything going into 2026,” he said. “Going race to race, if we can say we’re better, we’re going to be fine and in contention. That’s the biggest thing for me is seeing solid, steady improvement.”

With a seventh-place finish and tallying 43 points at Darlington, Eckes gained 17 points on the elimination line, slotting in 15th in the regular season standings. Eckes and the No. 16 team will next race at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday (5 p.m. ET, The CW, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Posted on April 8, 2025April 8, 2025 by Kobe Lambeth

With a seventh-place finish in Sunday’s Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway, Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain picked up his fourth top-10 finish in the first eight races of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season.

“We worked our way up to the top 15 early in the race with adjustments,” Chastain said. “We got caught by that one caution in the middle of the race just after we pitted under green. So we had to take the wave around and work our way back up through the field. Phil [Surgen, crew chief] and the guys made good adjustments, and we were able to get up in the top 10 and we finished seventh.”

The No. 1 Chevrolet driver only has two finishes worse than 12th this year — a 40th-place finish in the season-opening Daytona 500 after getting swept up in a multicar wreck and 31st place at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Despite the pair of outliers, Chastain seems to be trending in the right direction after missing the playoffs last season. The five-time Cup Series race winner will look to keep the momentum rolling into Bristol on Sunday afternoon (3 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Although Chastain currently sits 12th in the standings after Darlington, NASCAR Insights data suggests that the No. 1 team is excelling in three of the five categories used to analyze performance throughout the season. NASCAR Insights uses categories of Passer Rating, Defense Rating, Speed Rating, Restarts Rating and Pit Crew Rating to evaluate each driver and team.

In the Goodyear 400, Chastain ranked eighth in Passing Rating, third in Defense Rating and fifth in Restarts Rating. Considering he qualified 25th for Sunday’s race, all three of these categories proved key in his successful South Carolina outing.

The No. 1 team kept working on the car all race long, and Chastain’s ability to complete passes, maintain track position and make the most of his restarts resulted in his fourth top 10 of the year. Chastain placed 15th in Speed Rating and 27th in Pit Crew Rating, but it did not slow him down at the track “Too Tough to Tame.”

When evaluating NASCAR Insights’ season-long averages, Chastain’s Darlington performance mirrored what we have seen from him all season. After eight races, he sits third in Passing Rating, sixth in Defense Rating and first in Restarts Rating. Performing that well is a key indicator of on-track success.

Chastain has a reputation in the garage for having moxie in his driving style, which can often rub his competitors the wrong way. However, that same style often provides him with the results he and Trackhouse are looking for at the race track each week — and which are evident in the Insights ratings.

MORE: Chastain ‘confused’ and ‘disappointed’ with Logano’s comments

On Saturday, Chastain competed in the Xfinity Series race in the No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet alongside Cup Series regulars Christopher Bell (No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing) and Chase Elliott (No. 17 Hendrick Motorsports). During the race, Chastain had run-ins with both drivers. Bell’s No. 19 Toyota got squeezed into the wall while racing Chastain, putting Bell out of contention as he dropped to 25th place.

Elliott expressed his displeasure with how Chastain raced him under caution during the Xfinity Series contest, although Elliott finished runner-up to race winner Justin Allgaier, as Chastain ended Saturday in fourth place.

With a good showing of speed and ruffling feathers along the way, is the old Ross Chastain back? Based on NASCAR Insights data and the basic eye test, it seems that way, which is a great sign of things to come for the Trackhouse driver.

Chastain’s competitors may continue to feel frustrated toward his aggressive driving style, but it brings out the best in him. And when he is on the right side of the equation, it delivers results for the No. 1 team. Being 14th in his season-long Speed Rating and 15th at Darlington, there is no doubt that Chastain will get the most out of his equipment each race, even if he does not have the fastest car.

Other notables from Sunday:

• Despite placing 13th in Speed Rating, Christopher Bell was able to finish third after gaining valuable track position, due to a well-timed caution and perfect execution on pit road as the No. 20 left Darlington first in Pit Crew Rating.

• To no one’s surprise, William Byron was first in Speed Rating after sweeping Stages 1 and 2, which included him leading the first 243 of 297 laps before settling for a second-place finish.

• Denny Hamlin was 11th in Pit Crew Rating, but his pit crew delivered big time on the money stop that ultimately helped him secure the lead and race win in NASCAR Overtime.

Posted on April 8, 2025 by Pat DeCola

Denny Hamlin went back-to-back after capturing his fifth career win at Darlington Raceway as William Byron saw a dominant day crumble on pit road. Could we see Round 2 between this week’s top two drivers on Sunday on the high-banked short track?

NASCAR.com’s Pat DeCola ranks the top 20 Cup Series contenders after the Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway and before Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway (3 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Analysis: No. 24 has been the most complete driver across the board in 2025, even as frustrating as Sunday’s ultimate result was for him after a surefire win turned into a sour runner-up. Like much of Darlington, Byron is dominating the field, and he’ll get a bit of a heat check at Bristol, where he’s never won — or even led a lap.

Analysis: It wasn’t the display of dominance that Byron and Co. exhibited, but Denny did at Darlington what he does best — deliver. That’s back-to-back race wins for Hamlin, and the four-time Bristol winner — including last spring — may go for the triple.

Analysis: Sunday’s third-place finisher didn’t earn the drop here; Byron just leap-frogged him. That will likely be a common occurrence between the two this year. Bell was the only driver in the top five to fail to lead a lap, though. Bell’s been banging on the door of a (non-dirt) Bristol win for years, and it feels likely he’ll have a shot this weekend.

Analysis: Larson has the talent and accolades to back up his stature as arguably the greatest driver on the planet, but he could do himself a favor by avoiding the solo spins that seem to plague him. Thankfully for No. 5, it should be a quick hop back on the horse this weekend, as he turned in perhaps the most dominant Bristol showing of all time there last fall, leading 462 laps en route to victory.

Analysis: Elliott maintained his top-20 streak to open the year (now at eight) and turned in a second straight top 10, but it didn’t look like he was going to after striking out in the first two stages. No. 9 has yet to win at Bristol but did recently have a six-race stretch of at least 23 laps led in every one and a pair of runner-ups from 2022 on.

Analysis: Reddick can’t escape Darlington these days without making some kind of headline, but at least this time it came with a fourth-place run. Bristol, thus far, is not at all his kind of track, though, with a 20.3 average finish and his last top 10 all the way back in 2020. However, he did lead his first laps there last year.

Analysis: Blaney has just three top 10s in eight races and yet … feels like a favorite to make the Championship 4. There’s no denying the speed in the No. 12 and Blaney’s willingness to fight back in these races; eventually, a boatload of wins will come along with that combo as the dominoes start falling in the other direction. Unfortunately for a driver with six Bristol top 10s in 16 tries and just one in the last four, it’s not likely to come Sunday.

Analysis: After securing his first top 10 of the year last week, Logano was back in the teens from a finishing standpoint but did walk away with a solid 33 points. He’s been incredibly hit-or-miss at Bristol ahead of what will be his 30th start there, having won two of the previous 29 … but none in the past decade and without a top-10 finish in the current decade. (Of course, with the caveat that he did win the inaugural Bristol Dirt Race.)

Analysis: A less-eventful Darlington spring race than last year didn’t see him competing for the win, but it did result in a better overall finish with a 38-point, sixth-place effort. He’s now finished in the top seven in four of the past six races and heads to one of his tracks at Bristol, where he led 169 laps en route to the Night Race win in 2022.

Analysis: Every finish of the season so far for Wallace is either better than 10th or no higher than 20th and unfortunately for him, Darlington resulted in the latter despite showing some initial speed. It’d be easy to write him off for Bristol with just one top five (and just two top 10s) in 11 starts there — but it was a P3 last fall, and he’s running even better now.

Analysis: After notching five top 10s in the season’s first six races — more than anybody else to that point — Bowman has now finished outside the top 25 in consecutive races, clinging to a spot in the top 10 in the standings. It’s been a long haul for him to start to see some Bristol results, but he did turn in a pair of top 10s there last year for the first time since 2018.

Analysis: Chastain has now earned consecutive top 10s for the first time since the last time we were at Bristol, in last year’s playoffs, as he continues to make the most of a car that doesn’t appear to have the same spark behind it as some of the other top Chevrolets. His overall Bristol stats aren’t desirable, but perhaps he can lead his first lap there on Sunday.

Analysis: Preece landed a P3 in the opening stage and appeared headed for a solid day at Darlington before striking out in Stage 2 and ultimately settling for 26th. Not the day he wanted, but he’s showing speed and has proven to be more than capable at Bristol in the past in lesser equipment, so a rebound should be in order.

Analysis: No. 19 entered Darlington with tons of momentum and, as the most recent winner there, only to walk away with nine points and his second-worst finish of the year. He’s been sneakily a pretty decent driver at Bristol, though, despite just one top 10 there. In four of his five of his starts — in lesser equipment than his current Toyota — Briscoe finished 14th or better.

Analysis: Baby steps. It’s a far cry from three top 10s in the first four races, but Busch has bettered his finish each race since a P33 at Las Vegas and landed his fourth 2025 top 10 at Darlington before we turn the corner to perhaps his best track. While that very much has not been the case lately (no Bristol finishes better than 20th since 2020), you can’t just wash away a resume with eight Tennessee wins on it.

Analysis: Give this man some credit — he has yo-yo’d back and forth between the Cup and Xfinity Series more than anybody in recent memory and yet here he is, in the top 16 in the standings nearly a third of the way through the Cup regular season. He’s had a few Bristol runs pop off over the years as well, too — P7 as recently as the 2022 Night Race — and it wouldn’t be the biggest shocker to see him compete for a top-15 spot or higher this weekend.

Analysis: McDowell’s worst showing of the year so far has him dipping, and only 20 points separate him (in 17th place) from 24th in the standings (Daniel Suárez). With just one top 10 to date on top of that, there’s certainly some concern for his season-long prospects. Despite just two Bristol top 10s in 26 starts he could sneakily get back on track Sunday, though — McD has been 11th or better in five of the last six races there.

Analysis: Not a whole lot has gone right for Berry and the No. 21 since their Las Vegas win (outside of having arguably the best Darlington throwback paint scheme), with back-to-back finishes outside the top 30 adding to the sting. The short-track star should have a shot to compete at Bristol, though, where he led 25 laps as a rookie in his first start there last year.

Analysis: You know it’s still early in the season when a driver can finish 25th, collect just 12 points and still move up two spots in the Cup standings, but Stenhouse will take it. Back in his Roush days, a Bristol win felt like an inevitability for him, but Stenhouse has just one top 20 there since 2018.

Analysis: Cindric narrowly missed out on just his second top 10 since Daytona, and still can’t quite seem to find the early season speed that saw him lead 47 or more laps in three of the first five. It’s unlikely that he turns around at Bristol, where he’s yet to lead a lap and averages a 24.0 finish.

Posted on April 7, 2025April 8, 2025 by Staff Report

After a week off, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series returns to action Friday night at Bristol Motor Speedway this weekend for the Weather Guard Truck Race (7:30 p.m. ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

BRISTOL ENTRY LISTS: Cup Series | Xfinity Series

Following his victory a few weeks ago at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Cup Series regular Kyle Larson is looking for his second Truck Series win of the 2025 season in the No. 07 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet.

See the full entry list for the 250-lapper in “Thunder Valley” this weekend:

Posted on April 7, 2025April 8, 2025 by Staff Report

The NASCAR Cup Series returns to Bristol Motor Speedway this weekend for Sunday’s Food City 500 (3 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

BRISTOL ENTRY LISTS: Xfinity Series | Craftsman Truck Series

Jesse Love, the 20-year-old Xfinity Series regular, will make his Cup debut Sunday driving the No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. Additionally, Corey LaJoie returns in the No. 01 Ford for Rick Ware Racing, and Josh Bilicki will pilot the No. 66 Ford for team owner Carl Long’s Garage 66.

See the full entry list for the 500-lap event in “Thunder Valley” this weekend:

Posted on April 7, 2025April 8, 2025 by Staff Report

The NASCAR Xfinity Series will next race at Bristol Motor Speedway, where the field will try to conquer the historic Tennessee short track on Saturday in the SciAps 300 (5 p.m. ET, The CW, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

BRISTOL ENTRY LISTS: Cup Series | Craftsman Truck Series

Forty cars make up this week’s catalog, including Kyle Larson from the Cup Series and Corey Heim from the Craftsman Truck Series. Only 38 cars will start Saturday’s event, meaning two teams will fail to qualify.

Take a look at the full entry list for Saturday’s event:

Posted on April 7, 2025April 7, 2025 by Nate Ryan

It’s hard to fathom as Denny Hamlin grinds away in a simulator for several hours a week (while also racing, managing a Cup team and raising an expanding family).

But his focus and work ethic were once questioned (and rather unfairly) in the first half of his NASCAR career.

He burst out of nowhere as the fresh-faced rookie who won four races and contended for a championship in 2006, and the whispers began soon afterward.

Denny Hamlin partied too much. Denny Hamlin dawdled with owning a nightclub and cultivating his brand instead of worrying about improving behind the wheel. Denny Hamlin was more likely to be seen courtside at Charlotte Hornets games or on the links with PGA stars than in the halls of Joe Gibbs Racing.

As with many negative narratives, those observations portending the downfall of Denny Hamlin now are laughable.

They certainly have aged much more poorly than Hamlin, whose career resurgence at 44 years old is largely because he puts in the work as much as any superstar in NASCAR — and he always has since his father bought him a go-kart with certain conditions.

“He said, ‘You maintain it, and you clean it because it’s not my hobby, it’s yours,'” Hamlin told Kevin Harvick on the “Happy Hour” podcast last week. “You don’t get to enjoy just the spoils of winning and driving. You have to grind and fix your wrecked cars. That instilled a work ethic that lives on today and applies to everything I do.”

Hamlin is doing a lot in everyday life.

Overseeing Year 5 of his plan with co-owner Michael Jordan to build a powerhouse that can beat Hendrick Motorsports, JGR and Team Penske, Hamlin keeps his hand in everything from competition and sponsorship at 23XI Racing. Within a few months, he will become a father for the third time with fiancee Jordan Fish.

And he is balancing all of those personal and work interests while excelling at his full-time job.

With consecutive victories at Darlington Raceway and Martinsville Speedway, Hamlin has claimed sole possession of 11th on the all-time NASCAR win list and tied Kyle Busch as Gibbs’ all-time winner with 56 victories.

What’s his secret?

It’s as simple as hard work, which in this case means Monday mornings inside a dark and windowless room staring at computer-generated images.

Turning endless laps in a high-tech driving simulator might sound like mindlessly logging hours with entertaining video games. But this is sheer drudgery, unlike any PlayStation.

“One of the things about going in the sim, it’s hard work,” team owner Joe Gibbs said. “Honestly, I think Denny is in the sim as much as anybody we have, any of the young guys. He stays after it. You get somebody that age that still has the drive to get it done … I think Denny has a real drive, and I think we’re fortunate to have him.”

It bears repeating that Hamlin is at least 14 years older than teammates Christopher Bell, Chase Briscoe and Ty Gibbs. He is way past needing to prove himself, but he has been doing exactly that with new crew chief Chris Gayle, who was impressed by Hamlin texting about setup information into the wee hours the night before Martinsville.

“I’ve been surprised at how hard he does work,” said Gayle, who estimated Hamlin puts in at least seven hours weekly in the simulator. “As he’s gotten older, he’s had to almost ramp up the amount of work he’s done, where he may have gotten by earlier without doing that. He probably doesn’t have to. Some of the other guys don’t. He does it to be a part of the team.”

Though Hamlin is an early-stage Millennial who grew up in the video game age, simulator work is oft putting for many Cup veterans. Some retired in recent years and cited simulator obligations as a major reason.

But Hamlin has increased his simulator workload, taking on all of JGR’s needs.

“I only trust myself to do it,” he said. “I don’t know why. That’s just the control freak in me to want to have everything absolutely perfect. I put a lot of work in. It’s for the benefit of all Joe Gibbs Racing. They reap the benefits.

“Yes, they don’t love it as much as probably I do, but I enjoy the process of being good at it. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized that I’m not going to win these races on raw talent anymore. I’m going to have to outwork people. I’m going to have to look at things that maybe other people aren’t looking at. I’ve learned to win it more with my mind than I have with my talent.”

Saying he “can count on two hands” the number of rivals with more ability, Hamlin sees no other way than to put his head down and keep toiling away.

“I’m not going to say it’s easy,” Hamlin said on Harvick’s podcast. “But all the things going on in my life are the things I love. I’m not doing anything I don’t love.”

The adage goes that if you find something you love to do, you never have to work a day in your life.

Maybe it also explains why Hamlin was once so overlooked despite always toiling away.

Posted on April 7, 2025 by Chris Murdock

DARLINGTON, S.C. — NASCAR Cup Series races are often won and lost in a game of inches. While the conclusion to Sunday’s Goodyear 400 was determined in overtime, this is a race that was won on pit road.

Denny Hamlin’s No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota came down pit road in third place for what would be the final pit stop of Sunday’s race after a late-race spin by Kyle Larson brought out the yellow flag with four laps remaining. Hamlin exited the pits first and then rocketed off with the lead, controlling the overtime restart and storming to his second consecutive win.

“I knew coming in third, I was going to have to have my best roll of the day,” Hamlin said in his post-race press conference. “That is my fastest pit roll, my fastest speed into the box. I needed to put it perfectly on the sign so they don’t have to adjust.

“I needed to stack tenths and tenths and tenths (of seconds) on my side of the job. 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. But then when they dropped the jack on the right, I know right then, ‘oh, boy, this is going to be a heater.’ ”

A “heater” it was as the 44-year-old surged off pit road from third to first, propelling the No. 11 team to eventual victory.

Pit road was a focal point during Sunday afternoon’s event, as temperatures soared close to 90 degrees in the South Carolina heat, demanding endurance from teams who made the most stops of any track on the 2025 schedule so far.

Attention was also given to the Joe Gibbs Racing pit crew’s work on Denny Hamlin’s Toyota, particularly jackman Joel Bouagnon’s distinctive behind-the-back method for moving across the car to change the left-side tires.

Bouagnon is a graduate of Northern Illinois University, where he played football as a running back. In 2017, he signed as an undrafted free agent with the Chicago Bears in the NFL before joining the Green Bay Packers in 2018.

In 2020, the now 30-year-old made the transition to NASCAR pit crew member, training for the “money stop” moments seen in Sunday’s race.

James Gilbert | Getty Images

“Finishing a race like that is as good as it gets,” Bouagnon told NASCAR.com leaving Victory Lane. “Man, that’s kind of the moments you dream of. I’m so proud of this entire team for executing. There is not a more tense situation. That’s like the pinnacle of any pit stop performance. You want to come down on a money stop like that.

“It feels great. I’m glad all our hard work is … it’s rare that you get to showcase it, you know, how lucky that we have it. We’ve got the team to execute everything. So we’re just being presented with these opportunities, and everyone’s executing. I’m glad we’re getting to see the fruits of our labor.”

Atop the pit box for the No. 11 team this season is crew chief Chris Gayle, new to the team after moving over from the No. 54 Toyota and driver Ty Gibbs. Gayle took the reins of Hamlin’s No. 11 group after former crew chief Chris Gabehart became the company’s competition director in the offseason.

Along with his driver, Gayle is celebrating consecutive Cup Series victories after the duo won at Martinsville last week prior to Sunday’s Darlington triumph. The leader of the No. 11 crew said the team has been preparing for clutch moments just like this.

“We have these conversations in the shop,” Gayle said. “I can tell you the one thing that every one of those guys has come to me about is that situation, how much they want to be in that situation, right? Some people shy away from that moment, get nervous, ‘I don’t want to fail.’ These guys are completely the other way. They’re like, ‘Give me the opportunity and let me try it.’

“I think you just can’t commend that enough. You need that kind of culture and that kind of outlook from everybody on your team.”

That culture manifested the 56th trip to Victory Lane of Hamlin’s career, netting the team a critical five playoff points in addition to Hamlin’s chase of 60 career wins. The Virginia native now sits alone at 11th all-time in Cup Series wins, chasing former contemporary Kevin Harvick for 10th. With a pit crew that ranks second on the season according to NASCAR Insights, Gayle sees potential for even more success ahead.

“For those guys, man, they are just villains,” Gayle said of his crew. “They just want that moment to where they can go in there and just rip everybody’s hearts out and win the race, walk away, don’t care what anybody else thinks, unapologetic. They are just awesome. Happy to be part of their team.”

Now, the No. 11 team will turn its attention to Bristol Motor Speedway (Sunday, 3 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) as it tries to echo a feat completed by JGR teammate Christopher Bell already this season — three consecutive victories.

Posted on April 7, 2025April 7, 2025 by Zack Albert

DARLINGTON, S.C. — A day before Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series event, Tyler Reddick said his most recent Darlington Raceway memory was of battling an agonizing, in-race sickness, and not necessarily the way he powered through it, to claim the circuit’s Regular Season Championship in the 2024 Southern 500. This springtime race last year was another memory-churner for Reddick, who led the most laps before a late-race, on-track clash with Chris Buescher sparked a post-race confrontation.

After Sunday, add a third consecutive finish that produced a memorable Reddick moment, but not a first Cup Series win here.

“This place is notorious for that, right?” Reddick said on pit road after exiting his No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota. “You can do everything right all day long. That wasn’t really us today, but yeah, it’s never over till it’s over at a place like this.”

Reddick finished fourth behind race winner Denny Hamlin after an overtime shuffle for position in Sunday’s Goodyear 400, marking his fourth top-five result in his last seven Darlington starts. He was among the last holders of the lead on a day otherwise dominated by William Byron, jumping out front in the final green-flag pit-stop exchange. That advantage gradually shrunk as the laps ticked down, and a fateful contest for the lead with four laps remaining ultimately turned the tide.

Crew chief Billy Scott called Reddick to pit road on Lap 239 of a scheduled 293, putting the No. 45 team on the early end of those stopping for four tires and fuel. With quick work, Reddick emerged from the pit cycle with a 3.2-second lead, a margin that had nearly doubled to 5.89 seconds with 25 laps to go.

But a looming threat was rising as Ryan Blaney’s No. 12 Team Penske Ford began to thread his way through traffic to chip away at Reddick’s lead. Blaney had pitted eight laps later than Reddick, and the benefit of his fresher Goodyears was showing.

Reddick scrubbed the wall with nine laps left in regulation, and Blaney chopped the margin to just two seconds. Four laps later, it was a mere 0.3 seconds. With four laps left on the board, Blaney finally pulled alongside, brushed by and cleared the No. 45 Camry through Turn 2.

“I was just kind of hoping that the 12 wouldn’t really get by some of the cars he was racing,” Reddick said. “That was my best chance, I guess, to win.”

But behind them, a laps-down Kyle Larson spun from the second turn in their wake, nosing his No. 5 Chevrolet into the backstretch wall to force a final round of pit stops and a two-lap dash to the finish. Reddick entered pit road second and left second, but he and the rest were leapfrogged by Hamlin, whose No. 11 crew delivered a dazzling final stop, gaining two spots that made the difference. Hamlin pulled away as Reddick fended for running room in a brief, three-wide shuffle with Byron and Christopher Bell in OT.

Scott watched it all from atop the No. 45 pit box. Later, he dissected how the strategy played out, and how Blaney and Hamlin took turns controlling their own late-race fates.

“I wasn’t sure,” Scott told NASCAR.com, when asked if he thought Reddick had enough to hold on at the end. “You know, Blaney was the class of the field all weekend on the long run, especially on the speed chart. So, we knew it was going to be, in large part, theirs to lose in some sense. But you know, we just had to do what was right for us, and we were racing with the 20 (Bell) and the 11 (Hamlin). We had to try to jump them. Kind of expected them to go to the optimal point. So, just the fire-off speed after that stop was good and held on pretty well long-run, I mean, better than anybody else — except Blaney. Kind of expected him to be really close at the end, and just kind of came down to how you were able to get traffic or just how the timing was, just who was out there on new tires racing with you, or who you had to get by that was on just-good-enough tires that made it difficult.

“So it was fun watching it all unfold, and Tyler did a hell of a job getting everything out of it. The last yellow, it kind of gave us a fighting chance, I guess. But also, we knew it came down to whoever controlled the race probably had a really good shot at winning. The pit crew’s done a really good job. They’ve been on it. We’ve been improving all year, and we gained a spot there over the 12. Just the 11 was a little bit better. That was all it took.”

Team co-owner Michael Jordan walked over to share post-race words of encouragement, while Hamlin — 23XI’s other ownership partner — celebrated in Victory Lane. It marked another Darlington near-miss for Reddick, who has led 307 total laps in the last four races here.

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“Yeah, that’s why it’s got the reputation it does,” Scott said. “This place is really tough to get a hold of, finish one off, and I don’t know what the stat was exactly how many races here in a row now that the car that led the most laps didn’t win, so it’s not just us who has to fight through that, but he’s done a great job. He’s got this place figured out. He’s always up there contending, and he’ll have a win coming here soon.”