Denny Hamlin took his second straight victory with an overtime finish at Darlington’s throwback weekend dominated by William Byron.
Hamlin secured his first back-to-back win in 13 years today and placed himself 11th in the all-time winners list with his 56th victory, decorated in Carl Edwards’ throwback scheme.
Each year, the Spring race at Darlington Raceway brings a unique touch: the Throwback Weekend. Teams have the opportunity to celebrate history with classic paint schemes used by iconic drivers across NASCAR’s 75-year history.
Ranked: 2025 Darlington Throwback Schemes
Darlington, known as the “Lady in Black” and the track “too tough to tame” is a uniquely egg-shaped oval featuring a wider radius in turns one and two than three and four, meaning drivers must adapt to different approach speeds at each end of the track.
Thanks to Darlington Speedway’s progressive banking, the fastest way around the track is to rip the fence, getting as close as possible to hold the most speed around the track. Those drivers who end up touching the wall earn the famous “Darlington stripe” with marks up the side of their cars.
Last year’s winner Chase Briscoe describes Darlington as “the most fun you’ll have in a racecar” and it has an “intimidation factor” – proving it a difficult yet rewarding track for the greatest drivers.
Championship leader and Hendrick Motorsports driver, William Byron, started the day on pole position with RFK Racing’s Ryan Preece outside him. Last week’s winner, Denny Hamlin, started in third beside his JGR team-mate Chase Briscoe. The track “too tough to tame” was set to test all the drivers over the next 293 laps.
Only four laps in, Kyle Larson found the inside wall exiting turn two. The no. 5 car featuring the Terry Labonte throwback scheme promised a lot today, but Larson got loose under Joey Logano off turn two and spun to bring out the first caution.
Byron and Preece led the field to green coming to lap nine. Bubba Wallace was the highest of the drivers who pit under caution, in 17th place.
On lap 24, a flat rear-right tyre put Carson Hocevar into a spin and brought out the second caution after a big scrape with the wall on the exit of turn four. William Byron won the race off pit road, followed by Preece, Busch, Cindric and Briscoe.
By lap 30, the field returned to green and JJ Yeley in the no. 44 Bill Elliott throwback scheme found the wall at the first turn. He returned to the pit lane without causing a caution.
As stage one progressed, Ty Gibbs, Chase Briscoe, Austin Cindric and Christopher Bell all quickly fell off the pace with ill-handling as the stint continued.
Carson Hocevar was turned sideways between Riley Herbst and William Byron on lap 82, bringing out the caution.
After the restart, Byron cleared the pack with ease while Buescher, Preece and Wallace battled three-wide off the final corner to finish stage one. Wallace beat Preece to the line followed by Buescher.
Byron and Preece led the field into stage two while Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace battled their way past Preece, gaining ground on the leader of Bryon.
Blaney passed Wallace 20 laps later, who began to fall back, losing six places over the next 10 laps. 41 laps into stage two, Blaney was the first leader to hit pit road, followed by a herd of other cars in the next laps.
Suddenly, Brad Keselowski’s right-rear wheel nut fell off and pitched the car into a half-spin at turn four. Although a caution was not called for the incident, a debris caution fell just a few laps later.
William Byron dominated the rest of stage two, sweeping both stage wins as he crossed the line one second clear of Logno, followed by Hamlin, Blaney and Berry. Bryon became the first driver to lead every lap in the first two stages of a race since his team-mate Chase Elliott at Martinsville in 2022.
William Byron continued to lead as he beat his rivals off pit road with another great stop. Logano lined up beside him with Hamlin, Ty Gibbs and Erik Jones in tow. Ryan Balney suffered from a slow stop and dropped outside the top 20 before the restart on lap 194.
Hamlin and Bell advanced past Logano in the opening lap before Josh Berry spun down the back straight and slammed the inside wall hard after Tyler Reddick pulled up in front of him over the bump exiting turn two. The seventh caution of the day was called.
Christopher Bell started alongside Byron and challenged the no. 24 through the opening corners but ultimately didn’t keep the momentum of Byron and settled for second place.
Alex Bowman returned to pit road with a bent right-rear toe link after hitting the wall, earning that wonderful Darlington Stripe.
Through the green flag pit cycle, Reddick inherited the lead by undercutting Byron, who also lost out to Bell.
However, Ryan Blaney, with tyres two laps fresher than Byron, could wrap the bottom of the track better and sliced past Byron and Bell within a lap as he cut the gap to race leader Reddick with 15 laps to go.
With four laps to go, Blaney found the inside of Reddick and swept past. Reddick touched the fence – but not as hard as Larson who – right behind them – spun off turn two again and clattered the inside wall to trigger a caution and initiate NASCAR Overtime.
Suddenly, it was a whole new race as Byron’s first pit stall may allow him the advantage for the overtime restart. Surprisingly, it was Denny Hamlin who exited pit road first, followed by Reddick, Byron, Blaney and Bell.
NASCAR Overtime launched with just two laps to go, led by Reddick and Hamlin on the front row. Hamlin’s perfect restart allowed him to clear any threats. Byron and Reddick went side-by-side in turns one and two, while Bell made it three-wide in turns three and four. Hamlin ran away with the victory followed by Byron, Bell, Reddick and Blaney.
Hamlin took his fifth victory – and Joe Gibb’s 11th – at Darlington Raceway: “there’s two people I really love right now – my pit crew and Kyle Larson” he joked, to many boos from the fans.
It was heartbreak for William Byron who led 243 laps and dominated the first two stages: “I’m just really proud of my team, for us to execute that – it looked like it was gonna be a perfect race and we would’ve led every lap. It sucks… I’m sure it will sting a lot tonight.”
Hamlin moves up to second in the standings as the Cup Series looks ahead to next Sunday’s Food City 400 at Bristol Motor Speedway – where Hamlin won last year. Can the no. 11 driver match team-mate Bell with a hat-trick of victories this season?
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