Denny Hamlin pulled off a perfect winning moment that sent him out off pit road with the lead and took over on the final restart, holding off William Byron to win the Goodyear 400 on Sunday at Darlington Raceway.
It was Hamlin’s 56th career NASCAR win, his fifth at Darlington Raceway and his second straight this season
Hamlin won for a second straight week after his success at Martinsville.
Hamlin chose the outside lane for a final restart and shot out to the lead and pulled away from series points leader Byron and NASCAR wins leader Christopher Bell.
Byron, who led the first 243 laps, was second with Hamlin’s JGR teammate Bell in third.
Tyler Reddick was fourth and Ryan Blaney was fifth. The rest of the top 10 finishers were Chris Buescher, Ross Chastain, Chase Elliott, Ty Gibbs and Kyle Busch.
Blaney had thought he was clear to his first-ever Darlington victory after getting by Reddick late when the caution came out for Larson’s second spin of the race.
Larson, who won the Southern 500 in 2023, had high hopes for a second Darlington win. But he slid into the inside wall coming off the second turn on lap three and went right to garage where his team worked the next couple of hours to get him back on track. Larson returned on lap 164 after falling 161 laps off the pace. Larson finished next to last in 37th.
The series goes to Bristol on April 13 before taking its traditional Easter break.
