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.
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.”
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.”
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.
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.
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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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“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
DARLINGTON, S.C. — Justin Allgaier’s third-place finish in Saturday afternoon’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Darlington was not one without adversity, but with it, he continues a streak of top-five finishes that spans five races with two victories slotted in the middle.
On top of the current run of top fives, the driver of the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet also ties Hall of Famer Mark Martin for the most consecutive top-10 finishes at the “Lady in Black” with nine.
It is a run of finishes that Allgaier solely attributes to the grit and determination of his No. 7 crew.
“Listen, this team, everybody at JR Motorsports, everybody on our Brandt Chevrolet has given me the opportunity to do that,” Allgaier said after the race. These cars are fun to drive. They do an amazing job, you know?”
But as aforementioned, the result was not achieved without a battle. What started as a day in a great position to potentially grab win No. 3 for the Chevrolet organization quickly went south after winning Stage 2 as a pit-stop error mired the No. 7 car back in mid-pack.
“Listen, we win as a team, we lose as a team,” Allgaier continued. “You know, the pit-road deal. It’s hard when you have those moments, but when you watch the guys rally, it’s because they understand, and they want to be successful, just like this race team is. We want those top fives. You want those wins. And, you know, I think that the best example I can give you is last year in Phoenix. You know, we were down, but we were never out, and we came back and we rallied.”
In that Phoenix race mentioned by Allgaier, he came from nearly two laps down to win the Xfinity Series title, a race that netted him the first driver’s championship of his career.
It was that race and the adversity that came along with it that JRM co-owner and Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. attributes to the early success for Allgaier in 2025. The pressure is off the 38-year-old, allowing him to go out each week and chase victories.
“I mean, that’s classic Justin Allgaier,” Earnhardt said post-race at Darlington. “He’s always going to give you everything, you know, everything you can, every lap. That’s what he did today, and we got the best result we could get.
“He’s got a lot of pressure off since he won his championship, so he can really just kind of focus on winning races and not really the whole big picture of the season, like he’s had to. You know obviously, he knows his chances of winning a championship are whittling away, and so to be able to get that done now, he could just go back to focusing on week after week, race after race, and you can see he’s just not making the mistakes we typically see him make in high-pressure situations. Because he’s not, you know, he’s not trying as hard. He’s kind of dialed it back. He’s racing smarter, being smoother, not feeling like he’s got to, you know, make it happen every single lap.”
It’s that mentality and focus that keeps the Springfield, Illinois native proud of the effort and resilience put in by his team despite falling short on Saturday.
“I’m proud of the effort that we’re putting in,” Allgaier said. “If I’d have come out of here 10th or 15th, yeah, I’d have probably been a little more upset. But to come out of here third and lead as many laps as we did, the points day that we had. I mean, just a great day. Yes, you want to win, but it’s hard to be sad with third and a great points day.”
Track: Darlington Raceway Location: Darlington, South Carolina Track length: 1.366 miles When: Sunday, 3 p.m. ET Where to tune in: FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Race purse: $11,055,250 Race distance: 293 laps | 400.2 miles Stages: 90 | 185 | 293 Defending winner:Brad Keselowski, May 2024 Starting lineup:William Byron seals Busch Light Pole
Time for 2-for-2 for Hamlin?
Denny Hamlin has some momentum on his side, and the forward progress is well-timed. On the heels of his first NASCAR Cup Series victory of the season last weekend, this week’s stop at Darlington Raceway provides another welcome opportunity.
Hamlin possesses plenty of positive indicators heading into Sunday’s Goodyear 400 (3 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at venerable Darlington, where he’s a four-time Cup Series winner. The 44-year-old dominated like the days of old last Sunday at Martinsville Speedway, leading 274 of the 400 laps and collecting his sixth grandfather clock trophy. This week’s venue is another stronghold for the Joe Gibbs Racing veteran, and he’s predicted to be near the top in Racing Insights’ full-field projections.
“I think last week was a great week for the team, no doubt about it,” Hamlin said. “To get a win early, just to start to get some playoff bonus points, that’s always a great thing. When we come here, absolutely. I know what I need out of the car. I’ll know within the first few laps of practice whether it’s got the ‘it’ that it needs to be good and if not, we’ll go to work on it. But the confidence I have is knowing exactly what I need at this track. I know how to enter the corner; I know how to exit it. I know how much gas and brake to apply to make good speed here. It’s just a matter of whether the car’s working directly on that day and if it isn’t, we can get it pretty close usually.”
Hamlin will start third in the 38-car field after putting his No. 11 Toyota on the second row in Saturday’s Busch Light Pole Qualifying. He’ll start behind polesitter William Byron, a Darlington winner in the spring of 2023, and a resurgent Ryan Preece, who continues to make the most of his first campaign with RFK Racing. Joe Gibbs Racing has already had one driver go on a tear this year, with Christopher Bell reeling off three consecutive wins spanning Atlanta, Circuit of The Americas and Phoenix. Hamlin could be the next with back-to-back success.
James Gilbert | Getty Images
Hamlin has led laps in 19 of his 25 career Cup Series starts at Darlington, including a string of the last 10, and he’s been a top-five finisher here 52% of the time with an all-time best average finish of 8.2. Three of his Darlington wins — including his most recent in 2021 — were in the longer 500-mile classic, the Southern 500, but he’s not selling this weekend’s 400-miler short in terms of its punishing nature.
“Even though this is a 400, it’s still grueling,” Hamlin says. “I think Darlington is by far one of the most grueling race tracks that you go to simply because it’s going to be a warm one this weekend. It’s going to be mentally taxing knowing that you have to hit your marks just perfect at this track and then, just knowing the mental side of it, you have 35 other guys out there that don’t want to let you win.”
What do crew chiefs and pit crews have in focus to win Sunday’s race?
Pit-stop strategy for teams at Darlington doesn’t lend itself to experimentation or alternate gambits. With the tendency for rapid tire wear on the gritty 1.366-mile track, the call for crew chiefs is virtually always for fresh Goodyear rubber at all four corners of the car.
Sunday’s springtime edition at Darlington is 100 miles shorter than the 500-mile Labor Day classic, and the stages are split into near-even thirds. The timing of the pit stops may be a variable, but the type of pit-crew service should be a constant.
“You know when you pit here, you’re going to come down and get four tires, every opportunity you get,” Randall Burnett, crew chief of Richard Childress Racing’s No. 8 Chevrolet for Kyle Busch, told NASCAR.com. “Last year was real unique. You had a couple back-to-back cautions there in the fall race where it was only a lap or two on tires. Some guys stayed out, but that lap or two made a difference. We came and pitted and put some tires on and were able to make up some spots just by a couple-lap different gain on tires there. So, yeah, tires are such a crucial thing here. It’s gonna be really hot tomorrow, which is gonna make them even more valuable. So, yeah, you just do four tires here.
“How you break up the stages is a little unique. A lot of guys will short-pit and then try to run the second half of a stage longer. Some guys will run it to halfway and split it perfectly, so you’ve got the same amount of laps on your tires and try to use your tires equally. So there’s a lot of different bearing strategies. It kind of depends on your pace and your fall-off and all that.”
Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
When drivers do come to pit, the track’s demanding “Too Tough to Tame” reputation also extends beyond the hard-edged racing surface down to a particularly tricky pit road. Pit entry is a difficult task, with drivers needing to slow their cars’ momentum and navigate the wide apron to reach pit lane. It’s a gritty area of the track, and pit road also has those same slick, sandy characteristics — especially as the weather turns warmer during the heat of the afternoon.
So while there might not be much guesswork with four-tire stops being the norm, the premium on precision in trying to change all four quickly is high.
“I think for us, it’s always a big race for the pit crews, obviously, because you know what you’ve got in front of you — you’re going to do four tires,” says Chris Burkey, Joe Gibbs Racing athletic director and a former pit-crew coach. “There’s really no strategy. Very rarely are you going to do the two-tire or fuel only. You’re going to come down here and it’s a man’s race, not only on the track, but for us. And we really look forward to races like this, because you’re going to do seven to eight pit stops this weekend. It’s 100 miles shorter than the one in the fall when you’re going to do 10 to 15 pit stops, right? But you know what you’ve got this week, and we really focus in on just doing four-tire pit stops.
“Man, if you can come out of here feeling good about what you did on pit road, you probably finished pretty well on the track, but we always look forward to Darlington. We always circle Darlington because it’s really a man’s race for us.”
Pit-stall selection — the reward for a solid qualifying lap — stands out as another key. Burkey said choosing a stall closer to the exit in Turn 1 is preferable, but that the spots to avoid are further toward the entrance at Turn 4. A section of six stalls in that area have a slight curvature to the wall, plus another barrier that juts out before teams make their way down the rest of pit road.
“Those are the more challenging ones,” says Burkey, who describes those half-dozen stalls as “an island.” “Obviously, we want our guys to qualify well, so we can get up toward the front and be on that frontstretch there. It’s pretty straightforward if you’re down there, but if you’re down on that Turn 4 exit there, they can be challenging.”
Expect a veteran presence up front. According to Racing Insights, every Darlington winner since 2006 has had a minimum of 100 career Cup Series starts. That was the case with both of last year’s Darlington victors — Brad Keselowski, who turned his 534th Cup Series start into his 36th win, and Chase Briscoe, who prevailed in the Southern 500 in Cup start No. 134 for his second premier-series victory.
He may not be the favorite to win, but watch out for …
ERIK JONES. The Legacy Motor Club driver currently sits 29th in the early Cup Series standings, but his racing acumen at Darlington is among the circuit’s best. Two of Jones’ three Cup Series wins have come at Darlington (2019, 2022), and the track ranks tied for his best in top fives and top 10s and second-best in average finish (12.8). The 28-year-old driver has gone 86 starts since his last win, but Darlington has traditionally been one of his strong suits.
Fantasy update
NASCAR Fantasy Live expert Dustin Albino provides insight for your Sunday lineup.
Like Martinsville last week, Darlington is among the toughest tracks for building the best fantasy lineup because of the changing track conditions throughout practice. However, a few cars stood out, particularly Ryan Blaney who had the fastest car on 20-, 25- and 30-lap averages by nearly a tenth of a second on fellow competitors that made an extended run. Ryan Preece and Kyle Busch also performed well over the long haul, which Darlington is known for having. My only lineup changes this week are dropping Chris Buescher in favor of Busch and flipping William Byron to outrun Denny Hamlin in the featured matchups.
Our biggest pieces of the week — get covered for race day from all angles. • Darlington Stripe’s history: The track’s outside-wall toughness, a 75-year tradition | Read more
• Racing Insights: Full finishing order projections for Sunday’s Goodyear 400 | Read more
• Turning Point to Darlington: Keselowski the next veteran in line? | Read more
• Scenes and snapshots: Best photos from Darlington’s Throwback Weekend | View gallery
• NASCAR Classics: Rewind with full-race replays from the Darlington archives | Watch races
• Paint Scheme Preview: All the vintage designs ready to hit the track | View gallery
DARLINGTON, S.C. — After diligently working through a 98-race winless streak over the last three NASCAR Xfinity Series seasons, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Brandon Jones reminded his competitors — and his fans — Saturday that he’s still a race winner and a title contender.
The well-liked 28-year-old Atlanta native took the lead on a restart with 12 laps remaining in Saturday’s Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help A Hero 200 at the historic Darlington Raceway — beating 2020 Cup Series champion Chase Elliott to the finish line by a healthy 1.105-second margin to hoist his first trophy since the Martinsville spring race on April, 8, 2022 — a span of 98 races.
The 1.366-mile Darlington track may be nicknamed “Too Tough to Tame,” but it certainly presented a tamer race than the series produced a week ago on the typically wild Martinsville half-miler. This weekend featured 14 lead changes among nine drivers — none of the changes up front a result of overly aggressive driving.
Instead, strategy, a fast car and unwavering belief in himself and his team made the difference for Jones.
“It’s nice for my confidence, right, but it’s also to prove to the haters and people that said I was incapable of doing it, wrong again,” said Jones, whose No. 20 JGR Toyota led 24 of the race’s 137 laps.
“This place is freaking awesome man, I love coming to Darlington,” he added, “Second win and just huge momentum. I knew we were on a high, just didn’t know when it was going to happen.”
Justin Allgaier, who led the most laps (56) on the afternoon and won Stage 2, finished third in the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet, followed by teammates Ross Chastain and rookie Carson Kvapil. The team, co-owned by NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his sister Kelley Earnhardt Miller, had all five of its Chevys in the top 10, with rookie Connor Zilisch finishing sixth and Sammy Smith ninth.
Rookies punctuated the top 10 despite it being the first time most of them had ever raced at the famously challenging venue. In addition to Kvapil and Zilisch, rookies Christian Eckes and Nick Sanchez claimed seventh and eighth place, with Smith and veteran Sheldon Creed rounding out the top 10.
Harrison Burton’s AM Racing team won the opening stage, and JGR’s Taylor Gray was credited with the Xfinity Fastest Lap (160.706 mph) of the day.
“I am proud of Brandon Jones, I know how hard the kid has worked, he’s done a good job and I’m happy to see him get to Victory Lane” said the reigning series champion Allgaier, who has now tied Hall of Famer Mark Martin with nine consecutive top 10s in Xfinity Series races at Darlington.
It’s been that kind of year for Allgaier. He’s finished top 10 in six of the last seven races of 2025, including back-to-back victories at Las Vegas and Homestead-Miami in March and a runner-up finish at Atlanta in February.
“Disappointed,” Allgaier conceded of his Darlington day, however, noting his Chevy’s speed was good and the team overcame an early race pit-road miscue.
“We were able to get the track position back, at least for the most part. But clean air was too important today. When we were up front, we had it. But I really needed the long runs and just didn’t have that at the end of the race today. Proud of everybody on our Brandt Chemical Chevrolet. We’re on a heckuva run with top fives right now.”
The series’ popular Dash 4 Cash incentive program returns with next Saturday’s SciAps 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway (5 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The highest finisher among Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Hill, Haas Factory Team’s Creed, Allgaier and Alpha Prime Racing’s Brennan Poole will win the Dash 4 Cash $100,000 bonus check from Xfinity, having earned eligibility based on their results at Martinsville last week.
Next week marks the first spring race at Bristol since 2019. Christopher Bell was the race winner.
NOTE: Post-race inspection was completed without issue in the Xfinity Series garage, confirming Brandon Jones as the race winner. The No. 20 Toyota had one lug nut not safe and secure, which will result in a monetary fine. The Nos. 00, 7 and 19 will be returned to the NASCAR Research & Development Center in Concord, North Carolina, for teardown.
