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Kyle Larson wrecks twice, finishes 37th at Darlington

By
Andrew Kim
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Photo by John Knittel for SpeedwayMedia.com.

The 2025 Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway was a race to forget for Kyle Larson, who wrecked twice in the same location on two different instances (early and late) and left the track deemed “Too Tough to Tame” towards the bottom of the final leaderboard.

The 2021 Cup Series champion from Elk Grove, California, commenced NASCAR’s annual Throwback Weekend event at Darlington by sporting a special orange, blue, white and yellow scheme to his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet entry that paid homage to NASCAR Hall of Famer and former champion Terry Labonte when the latter achieved his final Cup victory at Darlington in 2003. By then, it marked a second consecutive time where Larson paid tribute to Labonte at Darlington after he sported a throwback white, yellow, red and green-schemed entry that mirrored Labonte’s 1996 Cup championship entry during the 2024 campaign.

Starting in 19th place for the 2025 event at Darlington, Larson spent the opening laps racing within the top-20 mark. Then on the third lap, Larson, who was battling Joey Logano for 18th place, snapped sideways entering the backstretch, spun and hit the inside wall head-on. The incident was enough to have Larson’s entry towed back to the garage, but under NASCAR’s revised Damaged Vehicle Policy (DVP), the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet pit crew was permitted to have Larson’s entry repaired to return to the track.

Within the latter half of the second stage period, Larson returned and maintained a minimum speed to continue to race. By then, he was 160 laps down and strapped at the rear of the field in 38th place. Over the course of the event, Larson would overtake J.J. Yeley to move up to 37th place.

Then, with four laps remaining, Larson was involved in a second on-track incident entering the backstretch. The incident occurred as Larson, who briefly stepped out of the gas to avoid making contact with Tyler Reddick as Reddick bounced off the backstretch’s outside wall while battling Ryan Blaney for the lead, was hit in the rear end by Reddick’s 23XI Racing teammate, Bubba Wallace. The contact from Wallace sent Larson’s No. 5 entry sliding sideways to the bottom of the track and hitting the inside wall head-on. Compared to his first head-on incident early in the event, Larson sustained more front-nose damage to his entry and he ended up retiring his car in the garage.

With a 37th-place finish in the final running order of the Goodyear 400, Larson was left strapped with his second result of finishing outside the top-30 mark and his first DNF of the 2025 Cup Series campaign. In addition, the Californian recorded his fourth consecutive finish of 20th or worse in the spring Darlington event.

Photo by John Knittel for SpeedwayMedia.com.

Nonetheless, Larson is currently ranked in sixth place in the driver’s standings and trailing the lead by 71 points. In addition, he accumulated his first Cup victory of the 2025 season at Homestead-Miami Speedway in late March and is in a guaranteed spot of locking up a berth to make the 2025 Playoffs come this September and NASCAR’s return to Darlington.

With the Cup Series’ first of two scheduled visits of the year to Darlington in the rearview mirror, Larson, along with his fellow competitors, will next travel to Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tennessee, for the Food City 500. Having recorded 12 top-10 results through 17 previous Cup starts at Bristol, Larson is a two-time race winner at the venue, both of which occurred in the fall and during the Playoffs. Finishing as high as second place during the spring Bristol event, he will contend for his first spring victory this upcoming weekend.

The 2025 Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway is scheduled to occur next Sunday, April 13, and air at 3 p.m. ET on FS1.

Rick Ware Racing: Goodyear 400 from Darlington

By
Official Release
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RICK WARE RACING
Goodyear 400
Date: April 6, 2025
Event: Goodyear 400 (Round 8 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Darlington (S.C.) Raceway (1.366-mile oval)
Format: 293 laps, broken into three stages (90 laps/95 laps/108 laps)
Note: Race extended four laps past its scheduled 293-lap distance due to a green-white-checkered finish.

Race Winner: Denny Hamlin of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)
Stage 1 Winner: William Byron of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 2 Winner: William Byron of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)

RWR Finish:

● Cody Ware (Started 35th, Finished 27th / Running, completed 297 of 297 laps)

RWR Points:

● Cody Ware (36th with 44 points)

Race Notes:

● Denny Hamlin won the Goodyear 400 to score his 56th career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his second of the season and his fifth at Darlington. His margin of victory over second-place William Byron was .597 of a second.

● There were eight caution periods for a total of 45 laps.
● Thirty of the 38 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.

● Byron remains the championship leader after Darlington with a 49-point advantage over second-place Hamlin.

Sound Bites:

“Definitely not the day we wanted, but I think when we look at it comparatively to everything else we’ve dealt with the last seven weeks, it’s progress. Anytime we can have a lead-lap finish and fight hard at a place like Darlington, it shows progress. We’ll just keep digging and go to Bristol next week.” – Cody Ware, driver of the No. 51 Jacob Construction Ford Mustang Dark Horse

Next Up:

The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Food City 500 on Sunday, April 13 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. The race begins at 3 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FS1 and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

CHEVROLET NCS AT DARLINGTON 1: Post-Race Report

By
Official Release
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NASCAR CUP SERIES
DARLINGTON RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE REPORT
APRIL 6, 2025

Byron Brings Home Runner-Up Finish at Darlington Raceway

TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL TOP-10 RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
2nd – William Byron
7th – Ross Chastain
8th – Chase Elliott
10th – Kyle Busch

  • After enduring late-race pit strategy and an overtime finish, William Byron and the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet team came just short of a near dominate race – taking the checkered flag with a runner-up finish at Darlington Raceway.
  • Leading the 38-car NASCAR Cup Series field to the green flag for the second time this season, the 27-year-old Charlotte, North Carolina, native took his Hendrick Motorsports-prepared Chevrolet to the lead on the opening lap. Taking early control of the race, Byron went on to lead every lap of both Stage One and Two for the stage win sweep. Varying pit strategies during the final green flag pit cycle shook up the top of the leaderboard, with Byron finding himself in the fourth position when the final caution flew. With yet another stellar stop on pit road, the No. 24 pit crew gained Byron one position in the race off pit road to give Byron the opportunity to lineup on the outside of the second row for the overtime finish. The restart position gave Byron one last shot at making a pass for the lead, ultimately ending yet another strong day with a runner-up finish.
  • For the seventh consecutive week, Byron and the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet will end the weekend atop the NASCAR Cup Series points standings – heading to Bristol Motor Speedway with a 49-point lead over today’s race winner, Denny Hamlin.
  • Three different Chevrolet organizations were represented in the top-10 of the final running order at Darlington Raceway, with Byron leading Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain in seventh; his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Chase Elliott, in the eighth position; and Richard Childress Racing’s Kyle Busch rounding out the top-10.

Chevrolet’s all-time NASCAR Cup Series statistics at Darlington Raceway:

Wins: 44
Poles: 23
Top-Fives: 208
Top-10s: 435

Chevrolet’s season statistics with eight NASCAR Cup Series races complete:

Wins: 2
Poles: 4
Top-Fives: 16
Top 10s: 36
Stage Wins: 5

UP NEXT: The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season continues at Bristol Motor Speedway with the Food City 500 on Sunday, April 13, at 3 P.M. ET. Live coverage can be found on FS1, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
Post-Race Driver Quotes:

William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

Finished: 2nd

“This No. 24 Axalta Chevrolet team did a great job. We had a great Chevy all race long. We just needed control of the race there under green and we lost that with the pit sequence. The No. 45 (Tyler Reddick) went really short. We lost a few spots under the green flag sequence, and that was the difference. We had a decent run that time. The No. 20 (Christopher Bell) did a good job kind of air blocking and just keeping us behind him. It took me a long time to get by him. We had a great pit stop there at the end and was able to line up on the second row. We just needed the front row to have a shot to win here.

It stings to be this close, but at the same time, I’m really proud of that effort by the whole team. It shows what we’re really made of, and hopefully there’s a lot more of that to come.”

What were you thinking about when you led all the laps in Stage One and Two?

“Just try not to screw it up, right? Just try to explain what my balance was in clean air, and it just changed a little bit.

I felt like we were in position to have a perfect race there. That would have been pretty damn impressive. It sucks, but nobody is at fault. Those guys could be aggressive on the other side of us and it was turning into a big strategy play. We just couldn’t keep control.”

Ross Chastain, No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet

Finished: 7th

“It was a warm one today at Darlington in our Busch Light Fishing Chevy. We worked our way up to the top-15 early in the race with adjustments. 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 and the guys made good adjustments and we were able to get up in the top 10 and we finished 7th. Darlington is one of my favorite tracks and I am looking forward to Bristol next weekend.”

Daniel Suarez, No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet

Finished: 15th

“The No. 99 Quaker State Chevy was still tight. The strategy just didn’t go our way a couple of times. We were just average.. we weren’t great. We’ll go back to work and get ready for Bristol next weekend.”

Ty Dillon, No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet

Finished: 16th

“I’m just proud of our effort. We started in the back, started in a hole, and then got ourself halfway to the front and had an issue on pit road. We were able to rebound again. I just appreciate the team’s resilience and mental fortitude to keep me calm. I feel like I was on the edge of losing my mind a couple of times, but everybody just believed in each other that we could rebound and we did. We made the most of the day, we got some stage points and had some really good speed. We just need to keep this moment rolling.”

AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet

Finished: 18th

“Frustrating second half of the race; we really good in the first half. Finished 10th in the first stage; I thought we were even better than that, honestly. Then the track changed, and we just completely lost the balance, cautions hurt us at the wrong time. When we started of the race, I thought we were gonna be okay for sure. At the end of the day, just have to keep working on it and I have to be better too. We made an okay result out of it, but definitely I thought we could have been better.”

Shane van Gisbergen, No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet

Finished: 20th

“The day started quite good for the No. 88 WeatherTech Chevrolet team. We were moving forward. We learned a lot and it was quite fun. And then in the middle of the race, we really lost the handling on the car. We struggled to get that back and get it to my liking, which was a shame. It’s been a trend we’ve been having the last few weeks, so I need to understand what I’m doing and we also need to understand on the car side what we can do better. At the end, I felt like the long runs were really good. I found myself being able to manage the tires well. To get a top-20 after the runs we’ve been having is a great starting point, and now we just need to try and build some momentum.”

Michael McDowell, No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet

Finished: 29th

“It was a rough day for the No. 71 Delaware Life Chevrolet team. We started off the race in the top-10, but very early on, we felt like we missed the balance. Our team fought hard all day, but we just never had speed in the car. Some days you just miss it and today was one of those days that we just missed it as a group. It’s unfortunate because we had high hopes after yesterday. The long run speed and short run speed, we just weren’t there today. We’ll have to go back to the drawing board and see where we went wrong and where we missed it. We got off sequence there, strategy-wise, trying to make something happen and that definitely hurt us more. But at that point, we were fighting to really just salvage the day and get a top-20 finish. It’s not what we want to be fighting for, so yeah we’ve got work to do.”

About General Motors

General Motors (NYSE:GM) is driving the future of transportation, leveraging advanced technology to build safer, smarter, and lower emission cars, trucks, and SUVs. GM’s Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC brands offer a broad portfolio of innovative gasoline-powered vehicles and the industry’s widest range of EVs, as we move to an all-electric future. Learn more at GM.com.

Toyota GAZOO Racing NCS Post-Race Recap – Darlington – 04.06.25

By
Official Release
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DENNY HAMLIN CAPTURES FIFTH CAREER DARLINGTON VICTORY
Second triumph of 2025 after last weekend’s win in Martinsville

DARLINGTON, S.C. (April 6, 2025) – Off a clutch pitstop by his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) crew and a swift overtime restart, Denny Hamlin captured victory at Darlington Raceway Sunday afternoon – his second straight win after last weekend’s triumph in Martinsville. Today’s result is Hamlin’s fifth career win at Darlington Raceway, which ties him for fourth all-time at the famed race track. He also claimed Cup Series career win number 56, which now puts him 11th on the all-time wins list.

Christopher Bell (third), Tyler Reddick (fourth and Ty Gibbs (ninth) joined Hamlin inside the top-10 on Sunday. Bell and Gibbs also took advantage of the race-flipping yellow, while Reddick was near the top of the field most of the afternoon and maintained position. The driver of the No. 45 Camry XSE for 23XI Racing took the lead after the last round of green flag pitstops and led 42 laps before finishing the day fourth.

The Cup Series heads to Bristol Motor Speedway next weekend for the first of two visits this season.

Toyota Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Darlington Raceway
Race 8 of 36 – 400.2 miles, 293 laps

TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS

1st, DENNY HAMLIN
2nd, William Byron*
3rd, CHRISTOPHER BELL
4th, TYLER REDDICK
5th, Ryan Blaney*
9th, TY GIBBS
17th, ERIK JONES
21st, BUBBA WALLACE
28th, CHASE BRISCOE
30th, JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK
34th, RILEY HERBST
*non-Toyota driver

TOYOTA QUOTES

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 Sport Clips Haircuts Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 1st

Describe your emotions with today’s victory.

“I mean, truthfully, I wanted to race until the end. I thought third place (was) kind of what we had. This is just a quintessential race where you just put yourself in the right place, things will fall your way. They didn’t (really) fall our way – our pit crew won it. It comes down to these crunch time situations. I had to do my job on pit road executing, but I have to thank Sport Clips, TRD (Toyota Racing Development), Progressive, National Debt Relief, Kings Hawaiian, Yahoo!, Coca-Cola, Jordan Brand, Shady Rays, Logitech. My kids, my family, my fiancé. I mean, what a great day! I didn’t see that trophy before the race, but that’s awesome!”

You captured your sixth win at Darlington. How special is that?

“Yeah, it is. This place (Darlington Raceway) is so special. So difficult to get a win here. We didn’t have the best car today. We had a decent car, but this is a great team victory. I love getting this victory for the guys behind me.”

CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 20 DEWALT Outdoors Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 3rd

Does it feel good to walk out of here with a top-five finish?

“Yeah, it does. That was a perplexing race. Even now thinking back on it, I don’t know what to think. At the beginning of the day, the car performance was not great, not capable of running inside the top-20. All of the sudden, we got that yellow that put me in the front and I could maintain the pace. I don’t know. These cars are very confusing, but overall, great execution from our team and we made something out of being in the back. Got a lucky break, then was able to execute on pitstops and restarts, and walked out of here with a top-five. Proud of everyone on this DEWALT Camry XSE team and happy to represent my mentor, Rick Ferkel.”

TY GIBBS, No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 9th

How good does a top-10 finish feel?

“Yeah, it’s nice for sure. I know we’ll get more of those, but it was a good improvement. I’m not too worried; feel like we’ll be okay. Just continue to get everyone reps and figure it out. Excited for what the future holds. Know we’ll be good.”

About Toyota

Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in North America for nearly 70 years, and is committed to advancing sustainable, next-generation mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands, plus our more than 1,800 dealerships.

Toyota directly employs nearly 64,000 people in North America who have contributed to the design, engineering, and assembly of nearly 49 million cars and trucks at our 14 manufacturing plants. In spring 2025, Toyota’s plant in North Carolina will begin to manufacture automotive batteries for electrified vehicles. With more electrified vehicles on the road than any other automaker, Toyota currently offers 31 electrified options.

For more information about Toyota, visit www.ToyotaNewsroom.com.

Blaney Leads Ford with Fifth-Place Darlington Run

By
Official Release
-

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Goodyear 400 — Darlington Raceway
Sunday, April 6, 2025

FORD FINISHING RESULTS

5th – Ryan Blaney
6th – Chris Buescher
11th – Austin Cindric
12th – Zane Smith
13th – Joey Logano
14th – Todd Gilliland
19th – Noah Gragson
22nd – Cole Custer
26th – Ryan Preece
27th – Cody Ware
33rd – Brad Keselowski
36th – Josh Berry

RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Dutch Boy Ford Mustang Dark Horse – HOW DO YOU FEEL AFTER A DAY LIKE THIS? “I’m proud of the effort that we had. I’m obviously disappointed in the result. I thought we could have won the race and had a good shot at winning the race. We did the last run perfectly. I thought our pit call was fantastic and our car was fast enough to stay. It had a lot of speed in it late, but a late yellow and then lost the lead off pit road. We didn’t even get to start on the front row and you’re not gonna go from fourth to first in a green-white-checkered here, so it just wasn’t meant to be, but proud of the effort.”

WHAT GOES THROUGH YOUR MIND AFTER YOU PASS REDDICK FOR THE LEAD AND THE CAUTION COMES OUT? “If the caution didn’t come out, I thought we had it won easily. We were so much faster on newer tires. It was a great strategy call running long. Those guys short pitted and they were struggling real bad, and I thought if we could have just got off of two with the lead and the caution didn’t come out, I thought I was gonna kind of ride off into the sunset. That’s just not how it worked, unfortunately. We lost the lead on pit road, lost a front row starting spot and never had a shot.”

HOW TOUGH WAS IT TODAY WITH THE PIT CYCLE GOING AGAINST YOU AND THE JACK ISSUE ON ANOTHER STOP? “It was just a day where nothing really went our way. It’s kind of crappy. That part sucks about it. Your car is so fast and we just kept having to make it up. It was like, ‘Gosh, we have to come from 15th to the top three.’ We just could never start at the front. I thought we were, by far, the best car, especially the second half of the race and just had to keep playing catch-up, so we have to clean a few things up on our end, for sure, but I’m really proud of the effort. This is the best car I’ve ever had here. I thought Jonathan did a great job, but that stings. I really wanted to win here and it just wasn’t meant to be.”

IF YOU HAD THE SITUATION LIKE BYRON, YOU COULD HAVE LED THE FIRST COUPLE HUNDRED LAPS? “Yeah, I feel like it. I felt very similar to Homestead with how good we were there and how much we were able to lead when we got to clean air. I just never got there. I was just never able to get there and kind of control the race. I was always playing catch-up and that makes it tough here.”

AT ONE POINT YOU WENT FROM FOURTH TO 16TH ON A PIT STOP AND THEN LATE YOU LOST THE FRONT ROW. HOW DO YOU JUSTIFY THAT OR INTERNALIZE THAT AS A DRIVER? “We’ve just got some things to work on. Hey, I make mistakes. I screw up a lot. Those guys don’t have great stops every now and then, it’s just part of this sport, but they’ll go to work and figure it out where they need to improve, just like we do with our race car. Where do we have to improve on that, so those guys do the same thing and try to come back even better.”

CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 17 Fifth Third Bank Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “We had a really fast Fifth Third Bank Ford Mustang. I’m really proud of everybody. We made some really good adjustments after practice and got it decent for qualifying and really good in the race. That untimely caution just got us and put us behind for the majority of it, so we clawed our way out of it with some good pit calls. The pit crew did a really nice job today and we got back in the hunt there by the end. We just needed a couple more laps and we probably would have been a little better than some of the cars, but it’s hard to say. We just got a tough break with that one caution.”

AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Freightliner Ford Mustang Dark Horse – HOW WOULD YOU ASSESS THE DAY? “Obviously, stage points at the beginning with a great starting spot. We had a good start, but unfortunately the caution came out and trapped us a lap down on the pit cycle and we spent the whole race trying to recover from that. But we were really good on short runs. We fell off pretty hard on long runs, but Brian and the guys never gave up on adjustments and I felt like we got the car a lot better balanced by the end of the race and we were fighting our way through making spots. We made a few more on that last restart, so it was a good way to end a day that was gonna be dominated by something out of our control.”

JOSH BERRY, No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “It always gets tight off of two here at Darlington and it looked like just me and the 45 got together. It’s hard to say one way or the other if he came up a little bit or I was a little too low. Obviously, you’re trying to keep it out of the fence and clear that bump and everything, so I don’t know. It’s a racing deal, I guess.”

HOW WAS THE RACING WAS UP UNTIL THAT POINT? “It seemed fine. We had a good car. I feel like we steadily worked our way forward throughout the whole race and caught a break on that green flag sequence to get up front, but I thought our car held on well and I think we had a shot at a really solid finish.”

Austin Hill Focused on Becoming Mentor in Xfinity Series

By
Angie Campbell
-

Austin Hill met with the media at Darlington Raceway Saturday morning. The conversation concerned last week’s controversial Xfinity Series event at Martinsville Speedway. The race ended as JR Motorsports driver Sammy Smith made contact with Taylor Gray, creating a chain reaction behind them.

Smith was fined $25,000 and docked 50 driver points, dropping him from sixth to 13th in the Xfinity Series Standings.  

NASCAR officials spoke to the Xfinity Series drivers Friday morning at Darlington Raceway.

Eric Peterson, the Xfinity Series Managing Director, commented on the incident.

“We want to see really hard racing and door-to-door racing he said. And, contact is certainly a part of the sport and part of the sport at Martinsville Speedway.”

“We felt like after looking at all the facts, all the video, the team audio, SMT data and all the tools, we have to work with and review an incident like that.

“Unfortunately, what Sammy did was over the line and something that we feel like we had to react to. We would prefer to leave it in the driver’s hands. But, in this case, it wasn’t really a racing move and we reacted to it as such.”

Hill spoke to Allgaier after the meeting about taking more of a leadership role in the series going forward.

“Yeah, so Justin Allgaier and I had a really great conversation outside of the tent,” he said. We were walking back. I stopped him and we had a really good conversation.

“I think that him and I can both bring some really great things to the table. You know, Justin’s very respected on the racetrack. But he’s also super aggressive but he does it in a sneaky way. He’s super aggressive but he does it in a good way, in a sneaky way.

Hill thinks that sharing their viewpoints with all the Xfinity drivers will help the series accomplish a united goal.

“I think that him and I, both being veterans of the sport; he has different ways of looking at it than what I do. But, I think that we both can kind of bring our own perspective in a way and kind of reach both, you know, eras of drivers, as far as the super aggressive ones and maybe the ones that race extremely clean, whatever. I think that him and I can give a lot of feedback to the drivers.”

Hill realizes that things won’t change overnight, but hopes they can all work together toward one common goal.

“I don’t think that just one meeting is going to change the outcome of the playoff race in Martinsville, he said. “So, you know, it might be one of those cases where we need to have multiple meetings throughout the year just to reiterate some of the stuff.

“Even if things aren’t happening on the racetrack, even if it’s just a — say we’re all racing clean and we’re all doing the right things, but I think we got to keep it in everyone’s head that, you know, race the way you want to be raced and race with respect, and I thought that that’s kind of where we ended the conversation today and I thought it was all great.”

RCR NXS Race Recap: Darlington Raceway

By
Official Release
-

Jesse Love and the No. 2 Whelen Chevrolet Battle Tight Handling Conditions En Route to 11th-Place Finish at Darlington Raceway

Finish: 11th
Start: 11th
Points: 5th

“We struggled with the balance of our Whelen Chevrolet today. This morning in practice, we fired off fast and thought we would be in a good spot for qualifying and the race. Because our car then got tight in qualifying, we felt the changes we made before the race would have helped. The car started on the tight side, and the longer the run went, the better it got. Later in the race, the car went back to the tight side, and we just couldn’t recover from it. Danny (Stockman, crew chief) and our No. 2 team threw every adjustment they could at it, and nothing seemed to fix the issue. We’ll go back to work and come back stronger.” -Jesse Love

Darlington Raceway Proves to Be a Tough Challenge for Austin Hill and the No. 21 Bennett Transportation & Logistics Chevrolet Team

Finish: 16th
Start: 19th
Points: 3rd

“I put us behind to start with by hitting the wall in qualifying, which didn’t help our case. I’ll take the majority of the race on my shoulders today. There are things that we can do on our Bennett Transportation & Logistics Chevrolet to make it better, but all in all, we just missed it on the package this weekend. We thought we were pretty good in Stage 1, but at the start of Stage 2, our car got really tight on the front end of a run, and then I would blow the rear tires off it on the back end of a run. We’ll have to go back to the drawing board. We have been trying some different front end package stuff, so maybe this package that worked well at other tracks, simply doesn’t work here. Rough day for our No. 21 team though. Finishing outside the top-15 isn’t normally what RCR does, so we’ll figure it out.” -Austin Hill

Brandon Jones breaks 98-race drought with Xfinity win at Darlington

By
Angie Campbell
-
Brandon Jones Photo by John Knittel for SpeedwayMedia.com.

Brandon Jones earned his sixth Xfinity Series career win Saturday afternoon at Darlington Raceway in the Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help A Hero 200. The victory broke a 98-race winless streak. He led 24 laps in the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, including the last 12. Jones finished ahead of Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott by 1.105 seconds.

Though some have doubted his ability, Jones never gave up.

“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,” Jones said.

“This place is freaking awesome man, Jones added. “I love coming to Darlington; second win and just huge momentum. I knew we were on a high, just didn’t know when it was going to happen.”

Elliott chose to run the Xfinity race as a way to get more comfortable at Darlington, stating it was a tough one for him to get a handle on.

“The cars are very different for sure. But I do think there are a couple of small characteristics that hold to be true. As the runs go on, late into a run, you end up struggling with the same thing, kind of,” Elliott said. “So, I do think there are a few things you can take from it and I think more than anything, it was nice to get some reps.”

Justin Allgaier won Stage 2 and led the most laps (56) during the race, but had to settle for a third-place finish.

Allgaier admitted he was “disappointed,” but was pleased overall with the team’s performance.

“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.”

Allgaier leads the Xfinity Series point standings by 71 points over Sam Mayer.

POSDRIVERNOPOINTSBEHINDNEXT
1Justin Allgaier734600
2Sam Mayer41275-7171
3Austin Hill21267-798
4Sheldon Creed0251-9516
5Jesse Love2247-994
6Connor Zilisch #88224-12223
7Brandon Jones20216-1308
8Carson Kvapil #1213-1333
9Ryan Sieg39210-1363
10Harrison Burton25198-14812

Ross Chastain and Carson Kvapil, the highest-finishing rookie, rounded out the top five. Connor Zilisch, Christian Eckes, Nick Sanchez, Sammy Smith, and Sheldon Creed completed the top 10.

The Xfinity Series heads to Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday, April 12th. Catch all the action on the CW with radio coverage provided by PRN and SiriusXM.

Race Results
Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help A Hero 200
Darlington Raceway

FINSTNODRIVERLAPSS1S2S3PtsStatus
1220Brandon Jones14764052Running
2817Chase Elliott1470800Running
337Justin Allgaier14721053Running
4279Ross Chastain1479300Running
561Carson Kvapil14706037Running
61688Connor Zilisch14700031Running
7916Christian Eckes14772043Running
81548Nick Sanchez14700029Running
9128Sammy Smith14700028Running
10100Sheldon Creed1471010029Running
11112Jesse Love14709028Running
121739Ryan Sieg14700025Running
131425Harrison Burton14715040Running
14541Sam Mayer14700023Running
152227Jeb Burton14700022Running
161921Austin Hill14700021Running
17710Daniel Dye14700020Running
183026Dean Thompson14700019Running
192344Brennan Poole14730026Running
20264Parker Retzlaff14700017Running
211851Jeremy Clements14700016Running
222571Ryan Ellis14700015Running
232199Matt DiBenedetto14700014Running
243191Josh Bilicki14780016Running
25119Christopher Bell1470700Running
263753David Starr14700011Running
27367Nick Leitz14700010Running
282431Blaine Perkins1470009Running
293545Mason Massey1470008Running
303428Kyle Sieg14740014Running
313242Anthony Alfredo14750012Running
322814Garrett Smithley1470005Running
33454Taylor Gray1470005Running
343835Greg Van Alst1460003Running
352018William Sahwahlich1390002Running
362911Josh Williams1370001Overheating
373370Leland Honeyman1280001Accident
38135Kris Wright270001Suspension

William Byron secures pole for Darlington Goodyear 400

By
Angie Campbell
-
Photo - William Byron wins Pole at Darlington by John Knittel for SpeedwayMedia.com

William Byron claimed the pole for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway with a 170.904 mph lap during qualifying. It’s his 15th career pole and his second this season.

“I felt good about it today,” Byron said, “felt like we had a good plan going into practice and that we are always strong here. 

“Tried to find a decent balance there, worked on it and got better and finished practice pretty strong, so I felt like I had some confidence going into practice, was just nervous going early.

“Having an earlier draw was not ideal, but it seemed like the track temp was going up so it wasn’t the worst thing. Proud of our team, we had a really good week of prep.”

Ryan Preece will start beside Byron on the front row at Darlington in the Goodyear 400 for his first top-10 start of the season.

Denny Hamlin was third-fastest while Chase Briscoe qualified fourth, followed by Bubba Wallace, to round out the top five.

Denny Hamlin, last week’s Cup Series winner at Martinsville, was third-fastest and spoke about his confidence heading into this weekend’s race at Darlington.  

“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.”

Austin Cindric, Tyler Reddick, Kyle Busch, Ryan Blaney and Michael McDowell completed the top-10 drivers in the qualifying session.

Starting Lineup – Goodyear 400:

darlington-i-cup-starting-lineup

Kaulig Racing Race Recap | Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help a Hero 200

By
Official Release
-

No. 16 Black’s Tire Service Chevrolet

Start: 9th
Stage 1 Finish: 7th
Stage 2 Finish: 2nd
Finish: 7th

Eckes gained multiple positions at the start of the race, never falling further than seventh place. When the first caution came out, Eckes stayed out, restarted fifth, and ultimately finished the stage in seventh, out-driving numerous cars on fresher tires. He pitted during the stage break for tires, fuel, and a minor air pressure adjustment for security in the No. 16 Black’s Tire Service Chevy. The team gained one spot on pit road to start the second stage in sixth place. Immediately gaining four spots on the restart, Eckes’ second stage was even stronger than his first. The stage ran incident free, and Eckes finished second. Happy with the handling of the No. 16 Chevy, crew chief Alex Yontz made the call for a small air pressure adjustment to help make the tires last a little longer. After another fast pit stop, Eckes started the final stage in second place. Firing off tight, Eckes slid back to sixth, before a caution on lap 112 allowed him to go back on the previous air pressure change and get fresh tires. He restarted sixth and drove up to fourth. Late in the race, a yellow flag came out, and Eckes pitted for his final set of sticker tires. While exiting his pit stall, Eckes got trapped in the middle of three wide and received contact on both sides of the No. 16 Chevy. Despite feeling like something was broken on the car, Eckes restarted ninth and drove up to seventh, where he finished the race.

“Our No. 16 Black’s Tire Service Chevrolet was really strong all day. I wish we didn’t have that pit road contact; I think we could have been in the fight with them at the end. Unfortunately, I just felt like something broke after that. The balance was unrecoverable. Overall, I’m really proud of our 16 group. It’s been a rough couple of weeks, so to have a decent result and solid points day feels good.” – Christian Eckes

No. 10 Helm Chevrolet

Start: 7th
Stage 1 Finish: 20th
Stage 2 Finish: 19th
Finish: 18th

Dye started from the rear due to unapproved adjustments after tagging the wall during qualifying. He grabbed nine spots in the opening 22 laps before the first caution of the day displayed. Dye stayed out under caution and restarted 23rd before picking up three more spots to finish the opening stage in 20th place. He pitted for tires and fuel, radioing that the No. 10 Helm Chevy felt fairly neutral, aside from minor rear-security issues. He started the second stage from 21st place and gained two spots throughout the caution-free segment, crossing the line in 19th place. Still needing more rear security in the No. 10 Chevy, Dye pitted during the stage break for tires, fuel, air pressure and wedge adjustments, before starting the final stage in 16th. A caution on lap 112 allowed Dye to pit again for adjustments, as the No. 10 Chevy was tight handling. He restarted 16th and gained one spot when the next caution came out on lap 129. Dye pitted for his final set of tires and an adjustment, before restarting 18th, as some cars stayed out. Dye continued fighting handling issues and went on to finish 18th.

“Not the day we hoped for with our Helm Chevy. We had to start at the tail and just battled dirty air and a tight condition all race. Our team never quit and we’ll look forward to going to Bristol.” – Daniel Dye

No. 11 Alloy Employer Services Chevrolet

Start: 29th
Stage 1 Finish: 33rd
Stage 2 Finish: 31st
Finish: 36th

Williams worked his way to 25th by lap 13. On lap 21, the No. 11 Alloy Employer Services Chevrolet was clipped by the No. 5 car, tearing off its bumper from the right side. Williams pitted twice under caution so the Kaulig Racing pit crew could tape Williams’ rear-end panel back to the car, and he restarted on lap 29 from the rear on the lead lap. He took the Stage 1 green-white-checkered in 33rd on lap 45. Under caution, after pitting for tires, fuel, and a packer adjustment, Williams had to pit again so the Chevy’s bear bond tape could be reapplied. He restarted at the rear on lap 54, and after spending most of the second stage in 30th, he fell to 31st — where he’d finish the stage — on the middle stint’s penultimate lap. Williams pitted for tires, fuel, and right-rear adjustments during the final stage break and took the green with 49 laps to go from 28th place. With 36 laps to go, a spin brought out the yellow flag, and Williams once again pitted for tires, fuel, and more tape on the rear of the No. 11. After Williams restarted in 30th with 30 laps to go, the caution came out almost immediately for another spin; Williams gained two spots for the lap-124 restart attempt. Five laps later, Williams suffered front-end damage after being collected in a multi-car wreck. After assessing the damage and taking the subsequent green flag, the No. 11’s problem was terminal, and Williams retired in 36th.
 
About Kaulig Racing

Kaulig Racing™ is a full-time, multi-car NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) and NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) team, owned by award winning entrepreneur, Matt Kaulig. Established in 2016, Kaulig Racing™ has earned 27 NXS wins, made the NXS Playoffs consecutively each season since the playoff system started, and won two regular-season championships. In 2021, the team competed in select NCS events, before expanding to a two-car, full-time NCS team in 2022 and adding a third, part-time entry during the 2023 season. Since its first NCS start in 2021, the team has earned two wins. Kaulig Racing is currently fielding two full-time entries in the NCS and continues to field three full-time NXS entries. To learn more about the team, visit kauligracing.com.

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