Shigeaki Hattori, championship Truck Series owner, dies in highway crash at 61

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

Shigeaki Hattori, a former driver and championship-winning NASCAR team owner, died Saturday morning in a highway crash. He was 61.

The Huntersville (N.C.) Police Department confirmed Hattori’s death in a Monday press release, reporting that officers responded to a two-vehicle collision on NC Highway 73 at approximately 9:15 a.m. ET Saturday. According to the release, the department’s preliminary investigation indicates Hattori’s 2025 Toyota Crown was traveling westbound when it crossed the centerline into the oncoming lane and collided with another vehicle.

According to the release, Hattori was pronounced deceased on the scene. Investigators do not believe speed or impairment were contributing factors in the crash. The incident remains under investigation.

Hattori raced in IndyCar and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series before transitioning to team ownership. His Hattori Racing Enterprises (HRE) teams made starts over several years in the Xfinity Series but emerged as a contender in the Craftsman Truck Series, winning the 2018 championship with driver Brett Moffitt.

“We are heartbroken to confirm that Shigeaki ‘Shige’ Hattori was pronounced deceased on the morning of Saturday, April 5, in Huntersville, N.C., following a motor vehicle accident,” HRE said in a Monday statement. “… Shige was known for his relentless drive, focus and competitive spirit. Team ownership through HRE and Hattori Motorsports had become both his passion and his life’s work. He had a unique gift to constantly inject a light-hearted attitude and one-of-a-kind sense of humor into his race teams that will never be forgotten. We’ll miss you dearly. Farewell, Shige.”

Hattori scored 14 wins as a Truck Series team owner from 2018 to 2021 — six by Moffitt and eight by current Xfinity Series regular Austin Hill. All the while, Hattori served as an ambassador for the sport in his home country of Japan, building partnerships with his team and Toyota dealerships, and creating a NASCAR training program for aspiring mechanics there.

“Shigeaki Hattori was a passionate racer and highly successful team owner, but beyond all his team’s statistics — which includes a NASCAR Truck Series championship — Shige was a genuine, beloved member of the garage who worked tirelessly to lift our sport and his people,” NASCAR said in a statement. “We are deeply saddened by his tragic passing. NASCAR extends its thoughts and prayers to his family and many friends.”

In a statement, Toyota Racing Development USA President Tyler Gibbs said: “Everyone at Toyota and TRD, U.S.A. is saddened to learn of Shige Hattori’s tragic passing. Toyota’s history with Shige spans decades. Through his long run as a driver to his history-making championship success as an owner, Shige’s motivation and work ethic to achieve at the highest level never wavered. His endearing personality was infectious and unforgettable. We are thinking of his family and friends as they process this terrible loss.”

As a driver, Hattori began his career in youth go-karts before shifting to Formula 2 and 3 racing in Japan. He moved to the U.S. in 1995 to chase a racing career stateside, joining the Indy Lights Series full-time the next year and scoring two wins in 1998.

He reached the IndyCar Series in 2000 and competed in parts of four seasons before exploring the Craftsman Truck Series in 2004, the same year Toyota entered NASCAR. He made 10 starts on that circuit the next year but decided to trade his driving gloves in for a different role shortly thereafter.

“I decided, ‘OK, no more,’ and I stopped driving,” Hattori told NASCAR.com in 2022. “Two or three years after, I didn’t do anything. I took some classes at UCLA, traveling and doing nothing with my life. I was thinking, I should do something. I really liked NASCAR racing, and so I decided I should start my race team and put young drivers (in it). So, I started in 2008.”

That year, Hattori started a team in the ARCA Menards Series, then known as the NASCAR K&N Series. He reached the national series ranks in 2013, with Moffitt as his first driver.

Hattori’s organization began full-time competition in trucks with Ryan Truex at the wheel. The next year, he reunited with Moffitt and the two won in just their second race back together, an overtime victory at Atlanta that set the course for their title march.

“It was a green-white-checkered (finish),” Hattori recalled. “It was such a good memory.”

Posted on April 6, 2025April 6, 2025 by George Winkler

Denny Hamlin drove away on the NASCAR Overtime restart to win Sunday’s Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway. For the Joe Gibbs Racing veteran, it was his 56th Cup Series win, surpassing Rusty Wallace for 11th place on the all-time list.

Digging deeper than Victory Lane, however, we find drivers who are on the upswing coming out of Darlington as well as a few who didn’t enjoy Throwback Weekend as much and might want to travel back in time for a do-over. Here are our picks for three drivers up and three drivers down after Race 8 of the 2025 season:

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

THREE UP ⬆️

1. Ross Chastain, No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet

Started: 25th

Finished: 7th

What happened: Chastain credited crew chief Phil Surgen with making adjustments that helped the No. 1 car move forward through the field, but Chastain was also good on restarts Sunday, ranking fifth, according to NASCAR Insights. The top-10 finish was Chastain’s fourth this season and his third in the last four races at Darlington.

What’s next: It’s Bristol, baby, where Chastain has just two top-10 finishes in nine career starts. However, he’s coming off a 10th-place finish there last fall in the Bristol Night Race.

Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images

2. Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

Started: 15th

Finished: 8th

What happened: Elliott produced another solid effort to earn his fifth top-10 finish of the season. After failing to finish in the top 10 in both Darlington races last season, Sunday’s performance could be a sign that he’ll be competitive here for the playoff-opening Southern 500.

What’s next: Elliott has never won at Bristol but has nine top-10 finishes in 15 starts there, including four top 10s in a row in the Next Gen car.

James Gilbert | Getty Images

3. Ty Gibbs, No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

Started: 11th

Finished: 9th

What happened: Gibbs grabbed his first top-10 finish of the season, coming on the heels of a 13th-place result at Martinsville. He moved up five spots in the standings to 26th place as he tries to get back into the playoff picture.

What’s next: Gibbs has two top-10 finishes in four starts at Bristol, where he was ninth last spring when tire falloff was the story of the day.

James Gilbert | Getty Images

THREE DOWN ⬇️

1. Josh Berry, No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford

Started: 24th

Finished: 36th

What happened: Berry spun off Turn 2 after contact with Tyler Reddick on Lap 195, mashed the inside wall and exited the race. He was running fifth at the time of the wreck but had to settle for 36th place. He dropped a spot in the standings to 20th.

What’s next: Berry doesn’t have much Cup experience at Bristol, with just two starts and no top 10s there. He finished 12th last spring after starting second.

Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images

2. Carson Hocevar, No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet

Started: 13th

Finished: 32nd

What happened: Hocevar’s day got off to a rough start when he spun from 35th place on Lap 24 with a tire going down. Then, Riley Herbst collided with Hocevar after the No. 77’s half-spin on Lap 82. Sunday’s performance marked Hocevar’s fourth finish of 30th or worse in the last five races.

What’s next: Hocevar has three starts at Bristol with a best finish of 11th in fall 2023 for Legacy Motor Club. He’ll need to buck his current trends as well as his career trends at Bristol to rebound from Sunday’s outing.

Alejandro Alvarez | NASCAR Digital Media

3. Brad Keselowski, No. 6 RFK Racing Ford

Started: 20th

Finished: 33rd

What happened: What appeared to be Keselowski’s best chance to get back on track this season ended with another subpar performance. On Lap 135, Keselowski spun off Turn 4 after a right-rear lug nut came loose. He made it to pit road, but the caution came out three laps later for debris. Keselowski fell out of contention after that and is now 31st in the standings.

What’s next: Keselowski has three wins in 27 starts at Bristol, with his most recent trip to Victory Lane coming in 2020. He finished third in the spring race last year when tire management became a priority.

Jacob Reeves for NASCAR Digital Media

Posted on April 6, 2025April 6, 2025 by Zack Albert

DARLINGTON, S.C. — Ryan Blaney had plenty to take away from a valiant charge in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series showdown at Darlington Raceway — gobs of long-run speed in his No. 12 Team Penske Ford, a savvy pit strategy that nearly paid off, and a post-race smack on the behind from NBA great Michael Jordan, who had just finished consoling his 23XI Racing driver Tyler Reddick moments earlier. Areas of improvement in execution, though, were also on the takeaway list.

Blaney nearly completed a sterling surge on fresher tires down the stretch in Sunday’s Goodyear 400 but came up short of his first victory of the Cup Series season. A fifth-place result was just his second top-five finish of the year, but his first since February at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Blaney’s No. 12 Mustang — bearing a throwback look reminiscent of a long-ago design that his father, Dave, once drove — methodically tracked down Reddick’s No. 45 Toyota with sights on the lead in what was shaping up to be the final green-flag run to the end. He’d benefited from a strategy play by crew chief Jonathan Hassler, who stopped on the 247th of a scheduled 293 laps, slightly later than other contenders — a move that provided him with fresher Goodyear rubber for the final push.

“Honestly, really, when I got to like fifth, I was like, ‘Dude, he’s really far away. I don’t know if I’m gonna be able to get there,’ but those guys just hit a cliff, and I just never did,” Blaney said on pit road post-race. “I kind of kept trucking, and when I got to second and it was, like, nine (laps) to go, I was kind of tongue-out for like four laps, but then I’m like, I think I’m gonna have enough.”

Credit Hassler for putting his driver on offense after the final green-flag cycle, a pivotal turn of events that unraveled the race-long domination of William Byron, who led the first 243 laps.

“Honestly, I thought our car was really good. All day, it would take off pretty well,” Hassler said. “We were able to pass some guys, even on restarts, and then as the run went on, we certainly got better. Then, when we kind of lost a little bit of track position there, our only play was to try and run long like that. Worked out probably better than I thought it would, with the chance to take a win.”

On Lap 290, Blaney closed on Reddick and finally scraped by with a slight side tap, but when Kyle Larson’s damaged No. 5 Chevy spun and crashed behind them, the race teetered toward overtime. Blaney pitted from the lead with the other front-runners but exited pit road in fourth place, putting him on Row 2 for the two-lap sprint to the finish as Denny Hamlin roared away from the No. 1 perch to his second straight victory.

“If the caution didn’t come out, I thought we had one easily,” Blaney said. “We were so much faster on newer tires. It was a great strategy running long. Those guys short-pitted, and they were struggling real bad. I mean, I thought, if we could have just got off (Turn) 2 with the lead and caution didn’t come out, I thought I’d have kind of ride off the sunset. Just, not how it worked unfortunately and lost the lead on pit road, lost a front-row starting spot, and never had a shot.”

MORE: Cup Series standings

Blaney was put in the position of playing catch-up for much of the afternoon, with a collection of pit-stop miscues costing him ground. Blaney stopped deep in his pit box on his first stop, getting hemmed in behind the No. 88 Chevrolet of Shane van Gisbergen. He was in fourth place at the end of Stage 2, but trouble with jacking up the left side of the car during the break dropped him to 16th place for the start of the final stage.

According to Racing Insights, the No. 12 team lost a total of 20 spots on pit road over the course of the day, including a critical final three positions before overtime.

“Yeah, we’ve just got some things to work on, you know?” Blaney said. “I mean, I make mistakes. I screw up a lot. Those guys don’t have great stops every now and then. It’s just part of the sport. But you know, they’ll go to work, they’ll figure it out, where do they need to improve, just like we do with the race car. Where have we got to improve on that? So those guys do the same thing, and we’ll try to come back even better.”

Said Hassler: “I mean, our team is our team. Our guys are our guys, and we know we’ve got areas to work on, but we could be certainly proud of the speed that we’ve had, and the group’s perfectly capable. We’ve just got to clean it up and we’ll be there, hopefully sooner rather than later.”

Posted on April 6, 2025April 7, 2025 by Chris Murdock

DARLINGTON, S.C. — William Byron and the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports team put together a record-shattering day in Sunday’s Throwback Weekend race at Darlington Raceway.

Byron dominated much of the NASCAR Cup Series’ 400-mile South Carolina event, leading the first 243 laps consecutively before being dethroned by Denny Hamlin during a green-flag pit stop cycle with 50 laps to go.

But as the race neared its conclusion, Byron faded to fourth before a late-race caution for a spin by Byron’s HMS teammate Kyle Larson renewed hopes for the silver and red-flamed No. 24, paying homage to Jeff Gordon, to return to the front. Ultimately, Hamlin capitalized on pit road to place his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota in front during the overtime restart, securing his second victory of 2025 and relegating Byron to a runner-up finish.

By leading the first 243 laps, Byron surpassed Bill Elliott’s previous mark at Darlington of 107 laps led from the green flag in September of 1988. Although the native of Charlotte, North Carolina, had a dominant day, when the checkered flag waved, the neon red scoring pylon showed second place for the No. 24 team.

Instead of dwelling on disappointment, Byron chose to focus on the positives of the day.

“It sucks,” Byron said. “It’ll sting to be this close, but at the same time, it’s like, man, really proud of that effort by our whole team. It shows what we’re made of and, hopefully, a lot more of that to come.”

That resolve is something felt throughout the entire Hendrick Motorsports team, with crew chief Rudy Fugle echoing the comments made by the 27-year-old after the race.

“It’s a good track for us,” Fugle said outside of the No. 24 hauler. “We’re excited about coming here. You know, it’s good to showcase how good of a car it is, and it stinks to not win.

“I think we take it as a positive. It sucks we did not win, but a great car. We’re doing all the right things and preparations, right? Bristol has been tough for us. So, probably different goals to start with there. Got to be more in the ballpark with a better balance and see where we end up.”

The upcoming Bristol Motor Speedway (Sun., 3 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) has proven to be a challenge for Byron and his team, with the last two outings resulting in finishes outside the top 15. However, Byron leaves Darlington atop the points standings with a 49-point cushion over Hamlin.

Posted on April 6, 2025April 7, 2025 by Holly Cain

DARLINGTON, S.C. — A perfectly executed overtime restart by Denny Hamlin following a clutch final pit stop by his Joe Gibbs Racing crew provided exactly the advantage the veteran needed to claim the trophy in Sunday’s Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway.

Hamlin took the race lead out of the pits during the final late-race caution then bested the field on the ensuing restart, pulling his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota out front and ultimately to a 0.597-second victory over the day’s most dominant driver, Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron.

It’s the second-consecutive victory for Hamlin, who won last week at Martinsville, and it marks the first time he’s won back-to-back races since 2012 when he won at Bristol and then Atlanta the following week.

All smiles as he climbed out of the car, Hamlin gave all the credit to his pit crew. He was in third place at the time of the final caution — the yellow coming out for Byron’s Hendrick teammate Kyle Larson’s spin. The leaders seized the chance to pit for fresh Goodyear tires in anticipation of the overtime restart and Hamlin’s crew got him out of the pits first — ahead of 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick and Byron.

A perfect launch on the ensuing green flag gave Hamlin the victory over Byron, who led a race-best 243 of the 297 laps. It is Hamlin’s 56th career win, breaking a tie with NASCAR Hall of Famer Rusty Wallace for 11th place on NASCAR’s all-time wins list.

“There’s two people I really love right now: my pit crew and Kyle Larson,” the 44-year-old Virginian Hamlin said with a grin. “Had a little assist there, so thank you.

“The pit crew just did an amazing job. They won it last week [at Martinsville]. They won it this week. It’s all about them.”

SHOP: Race winner gear

It was obviously a tough ending to a career day for Byron, who rallied to the runner-up finish on the final restart but had absolutely dominated the early race, leading the opening 243 laps and claiming both Stage 1 and Stage 2 victories. It was the most laps Byron has ever led in a single race.

“First off, just really proud of my team to bring that level of effort and preparation and have a car like that and us execute like that, it was looking like we were going to have a perfect race and we were going to lead every lap,” the 2025 Daytona 500 winner Byron said.

“So, I was really proud of that. Those guys could just be aggressive on the other side of the green flag cycle and we just lost control, and once we lost control, it was too late to get back up there.

“It sucks and I’m sure it will sting tonight, but there are still a lot of positives. It just stings in the moment for sure.”

MORE: Byron falls short of Darlington win

Hamlin’s JGR teammate Christopher Bell finished third in the No. 20 Toyota after an amazing rally forward from a 20th-place starting position. Reddick finished fourth in the 23XI Racing Toyota, co-owned by Hamlin and NBA legend Michael Jordan.

Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney finished fifth. It is the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series champion’s first top five at the 1.366-mile historic track, but the result still stings as Blaney had just taken the race lead moments before the final caution came out with only three laps of regulation remaining.

“Oh no,” Blaney conceded of his thoughts when the yellow flag flew.

“I thought we had the race won. I don’t really know. I’ll have to watch a replay and see how the yellow came out and watch it back. But we did a great job and great strategy call of running long.

“Great call and just really fast, but never got to really control the race,” he added. “… I feel like nothing really went our way. Pit road, we’ve got to work on a little bit. Caution coming out during the cycle set us way back and I feel like we kept making up spots. Really proud of the 12 folks for giving me a fast car. Just wasn’t meant to be. I really would have liked to have won here. That would have been really neat. Proud of the effort and we’ll keep plugging along.”

RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher finished sixth, followed by Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain, Hendrick’s Chase Elliott, JGR’s Ty Gibbs and Richard Childress Racing’s Kyle Busch. It was a season-best effort for Gibbs.

Byron’s runner-up showing keeps him in the NASCAR Cup Series championship lead now by 49 points over Hamlin and 52 points over Bell. It’s a different look atop the standings, where all four Hendrick Motorsports cars were ranked among the top five.

Hendrick’s Chase Elliott finished eighth Sunday and is now fourth in the standings, 59 points back. Larson dropped to sixth place after finishing 37th of the 38 cars Sunday. Bowman is now ranked 10th with a 35th-place showing at Darlington.

The NASCAR Cup Series moves to the famed Bristol Motor Speedway high banks next weekend for Sunday’s Food City 500 (3 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Hamlin is the defending winner and looks to become the second JGR driver to win three in a row this season, with Bell as the other.

NOTE: Post-race inspection in the NASCAR Cup Series garage was completed without issue, confirming Hamlin as the race winner. The Nos. 8, 12, 24 and 45 cars will return to the NASCAR R&D Center in Concord, North Carolina, for engine dynamometer testing.

Posted on April 6, 2025April 6, 2025 by Staff Report

Kyle Larson brought out the first and last cautions of Sunday’s Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway with similar wrecks. On both occasions, the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet slid exiting Turn 2 and made hard contact with the inside wall on the backstretch of the 1.366-mile speedway.

The first wreck happened four laps into the race and sent Larson to the garage where his crew worked on repairs under NASCAR’s new damaged vehicle policy. Larson was running 19th at the time of the wreck but dropped to last place when he went to the garage.

Larson re-entered the race 160 laps down and ultimately gained one position to 37th place but still left with just one point earned on the day. Last season, Larson lost the Regular Season Championship to 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick by one point and missed out on the 15-point bonus to carry into the playoffs.

Larson’s second spin on Sunday at Darlington happened with four laps remaining and Ryan Blaney leading. The wreck forced NASCAR Overtime, and on the ensuing restart, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin drove away to the victory over second-place William Byron for his 56th career Cup Series win.

Posted on April 6, 2025April 6, 2025 by Staff Report

Can’t wait any longer to go Inside the Race following each NASCAR Cup Series event?

Visit our NASCAR YouTube page post-race to get live, immediate breakdowns and analysis from veteran crew chief and broadcaster Steve Letarte, alongside additional co-hosts and reporters from the track.

Following today’s Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway, Kyle Petty will join Letarte to dissect the winning and losing moves, plus other top story lines following the Throwback Weekend race.

Former championship-winning crew chief and MRN broadcaster Todd Gordon and analyst Mamba Smith will also join the show, providing insights and observations directly from the track.

Watch today’s Cup Series race (3 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), then tune in for immediate analysis on NASCAR’s YouTube page.

Posted on April 6, 2025April 6, 2025 by Staff Report

Kyle Larson will have a new group of pit-crew members servicing his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet in Sunday’s race at Darlington Raceway.

Scheduled to service Larson’s ride this week are front tire changer Jafar Hall, rear changer Mike Moss, jackman Eric Ludwig, tire carrier Allen Stallings and fueler Brandon Harder. Harder is the only returning member to the No. 5 team that serviced the car one week ago at Martinsville Speedway.

MORE: Full Darlington preview | At-track photos: Darlington

The new quartet of members comes from Spire Motorsports’ No. 7 Chevrolet, where they began the year with driver Justin Haley. Hendrick Motorsports supplies pit crews to Spire’s three-car outfit. The foursome of pit athletes that previously pitted for Larson will now pit Haley’s car starting at Darlington: front changer Blaine Anderson, rear changer Calvin Teague, jackman Brandon Johnson and tire carrier RJ Barnette.

Hall and Ludwig, now officially members of the No. 5 team, have already pitted for Larson in 2025. The duo was called over to the 2021 Cup champion’s team for two races in March — Phoenix and Las Vegas — when Johnson and Anderson were sidelined with a two-race suspension after the No. 5 Chevrolet lost a right-front wheel at Circuit of The Americas.

“We’ve looked at a lot of different factors of really not what the old (No.) 5 group was doing wrong, but what this other group was doing right,” Cliff Daniels, crew chief of the No. 5 team, told NBC Sports. “We’ve been working really hard within our pit department of just pushing, pushing the edge of performance and whatever that takes to keep moving the needle. Certainly, a lot of teams are performing at a very high level on pit road.”

Larson enters Sunday’s race second in the points standings, 16 points behind Hendrick teammate William Byron. A winner at Homestead-Miami on March 23, Larson has strung together four consecutive top-10 finishes since the costly error at COTA and has collected four top fives and five top 10s in seven races.

Daniels said the team’s previous pit crew had been “solid” over the past few weeks.

“But we weren’t outstanding over the top of times,” he told NBC Sports. “… Over the course of this season and over the course of the end of last season, the incoming group has really been putting up really fast times, very consistent, performing at a high level.”

Anderson, Barnette, Teague, Johnson and Harder had been pitting the No. 5 car together since the summer of 2022. The trio of Barnette, Harder and Teague had worked together since 2010 — 15 years ago — with driver Jimmie Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus on their way to a record fifth straight NASCAR Cup Series championship.

A change in pit crew isn’t the only change for Haley and Co. this week. Car chief Robert “Cheddar” Smith, who had worked with crew chief Rodney Childers since late 2013 when the duo started building the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing team, departed Childers and the No. 7 team this week to join the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing program with driver Ty Gibbs. Robbie Fairweather replaces Smith as the new car chief for Haley and Childers.

And though Haley and the No. 7 team lose what has proven to be an effective combination on pit road, the group they receive carries a veteran presence to join fueler Matt Lehman.

“When it’s a crew like the 5 crew, I mean, all good things come,” Haley said Saturday. “We’re just trying to do our best each and every week. And obviously, it was a different week with a lot of things changing on the 7 team, but yeah, I have full confidence in Rodney and the guys and that we’re gonna bring a faster race car.”

Larson will start Sunday’s Goodyear 400 in 19th place, with Haley 21st on the starting grid at 3 p.m. ET (FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Posted on April 6, 2025April 6, 2025 by Alex Cadavid

Projections updated after Saturday’s practice and qualifying.

Despite having all four of its drivers in the top five of the NASCAR Cup Series standings, Martinsville was something of a missed opportunity for the Hendrick Motorsports camp to track down the “perfection” Vice Chairman Jeff Gordon emphasized after Kyle Larson’s win at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Today’s race at Darlington Raceway (3 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, Sirius XM NASCAR Radio) is the perfect setting for Hendrick to bounce back and run the standings table.

MORE: Full Darlington race preview | Full starting lineup

Racing Insights’ early metric predicted all four Hendrick drivers to net top 10s — something the organization has already done twice this season. After practice and qualifying, Bowman dropped to 14th, but has has reeled in top 10s in the last two spring races at Darlington. Byron and Larson have won at the iconic track already and are great candidates to win again, particularly with Byron winning the Busch Light Pole. Elliott failed to record top 10s in either trip to South Carolina last year, but he has a best finish of third in this race two years ago and has finished top 20 in all seven races this season.

FANTASY: Set your lineup | Make a 36 for 36 pick

OTHER DRIVERS TO WATCH

TYLER REDDICK: Since the start of 2022, Reddick has been one of the best, if not the best, at Darlington. He has three top-three finishes, 275 laps led and an average running position of 6.8 at “The Track Too Tough to Tame.”

CHRIS BUESCHER: Buescher could’ve won this race last year if he hadn’t collided with Tyler Reddick, which led to a fiery discussion. Not only has Buescher started the last three Darlington races in the top 10, but he’s also recorded five top 10s in the last eight races there.

KYLE BUSCH: It was the fall race, but Rowdy had one of the best cars when he finished second to Chase Briscoe in the 2024 Southern 500. Busch hasn’t won at Darlington since the spring of 2008 but has recorded 15 top 10s over 26 Darlington starts. Plus, the track has a history of ending long winless streaks.

ROSS CHASTAIN: He nabbed a seventh-place finish last week and comes to the “Lady in Black” this week, where he’s had three top-five performances in 11 starts. Sunday will be a great opportunity for Chastain to string solid weekends together.

RACING INSIGHTS’ PROJECTIONS FOR THE GOODYEAR 400

Racing Insights’ advanced statistical formula includes current track, current track type, recent performance, team data and pit-crew data to arrive at a projected winner and full race results. Updated on race day with practice and qualifying factored in.

Finish	Car Number	Driver
1	24	William Byron
2	11	Denny Hamlin
3	5	Kyle Larson
4	45	Tyler Reddick
5	23	Bubba Wallace
6	9	Chase Elliott
7	20	Christopher Bell
8	12	Ryan Blaney
9	6	Brad Keselowski
10	17	Chris Buescher
11	8	Kyle Busch
12	60	Ryan Preece
13	19	Chase Briscoe
14	48	Alex Bowman
15	21	Josh Berry
16	22	Joey Logano
17	1	Ross Chastain
18	2	Austin Cindric
19	16	AJ Allmendinger
20	54	Ty Gibbs
21	77	Carson Hocevar
22	4	Noah Gragson
23	43	Erik Jones
24	3	Austin Dillon
25	71	Michael McDowell
26	7	Justin Haley
27	34	Todd Gilliland
28	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
29	41	Cole Custer
30	38	Zane Smith
31	99	Daniel Suárez
32	42	John Hunter Nemechek
33	10	Ty Dillon
34	88	Shane van Gisbergen
35	35	Riley Herbst
36	51	Cody Ware
37	44	J.J. Yeley
38	33	Austin Hill

Posted on April 6, 2025April 6, 2025 by Nick Giffen

It’s throwback weekend at Darlington, and after analyzing practice data, I’ve stumbled on a bit of a throwback driver to bet for Sunday’s Goodyear 400 (3 p.m. ET, FS1).

Current NASCAR odds for Darlington have five drivers a tier above everyone else as the favorites. They are Kyle Larson (+500), William Byron (+650), Ryan Blaney (+700), Tyler Reddick (+700), and Denny Hamlin (+750).

But my throwback driver lies just a bit farther down the odds board that I like for Sunday’s Goodyear 400 at Darlington.

MORE: Full Darlington race preview | Full starting lineup

NASCAR Odds, Best Bet for Darlington

*Odds as of Saturday evening

Kyle Busch Top Chevrolet (+650) — ESPN BET

As my colleague PJ Walsh alluded to at Homestead (and I quote) “Trying to beat Kyle Larson at Homestead-Miami isn’t exactly a fun strategy.”

Except here, we can swap Homestead, which is another steeply banked, high tire wear intermediate track, with Darlington. Let’s add in pole-sitter and previous Darlington winner William Byron to the mix, and we might have a difficult time winning a top Chevy bet.

But I’m backing Kyle Busch anyway. Why? It’s pretty simple, honestly.

“Rowdy” was right in a tier with Larson and Byron in my practice FLAGS metric. Larson and Byron are +150 and +190, respectively, to finish as the top Chevy driver, but the Richard Childress Racing veteran sits at +650 — a long way down in implied odds from the two Hendrick drivers.

It’s especially curious given the last time NASCAR was at Darlington, Busch finished second in the 2024 Southern 500, behind only a Ford driver (who is now a Toyota driver), in Chase Briscoe.

That means Busch finished as the top Chevy driver the last time the series visited this track.

While it’s not a massive value at +650, the implied odds of 13.3% are below my model’s 14.9% chances. It gives Busch the chance to claim top bowtie honors. And in a race where I’m showing very little value across the board, I’ll take it and hope some more value opens up closer to the green flag on Sunday.

The Bet: Kyle Busch top Chevy +650 at ESPN BET | Bet to: +600