Hamlin Backflips Into Win

Denny Hamlin celebrates his win in the Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway. (Photo: Jim Dedmon, Imagn Images).

Goodyear 400: Denny Hamlin stole the win in Sunday's Goodyear 400 after his pit crew came in clutch on the final pitstop of the day before a green-white-checkered finish. Hamlin was the beneficiary of a few timely cautions that boosted his track position and allowed him to capitalize with his elite pit crew to take the lead for the final restart. Hamlin was able to get a great launch and pull away from William Byron and Christopher Bell battling for second. This is Hamlin's second win of the year coming off the heels of his dominant win at Martinsville the previous weekend. He is now attempting to win three in a row this weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway for the first time in his career.

The race was, overall, meh. William Byron dominated most of the race leading the first 243 laps of the race with no real contenders in play until the pit strategy of the third stage started to unfold. At this point, and after an earlier caution had jumbled pretty much everything behind Byron, the 24 car was stuck behind Tyler Reddick and Christopher Bell. And try as he might, Byron could not get around the 20 to even try and chase down the 45. As that run continued, a new player entered the game and that was Ryan Blaney. Blaney arguably had the best car in the field as he could make moves, run different lines, and make passes. Something other cars struggled to do after the tire wear evened out. But as the race closed in on the checkered flag, the 12 team had what looked to be the best strategy call and they were mowing down the leaders. Blaney then captured the lead and looked to be on cruise control to his first win in 2025. However, an overreaction by Kyle Larson to the 45 car bouncing off the wall sent Larson's car off the nose of Bubba Wallace and into the inside wall on the backstretch for the second time of the day. It was this late race caution that set up overtime and allowed the 11 car to flex their strength on pit road and come out in the lead. It was, to me, all over after Hamlin sailed off into turn one on the overtime restart and pulled away from the pack.

As I said above, the race was meh. And that is not problem of the track or tire this weekend. It was coupled, to me, by two factors. William Byron and the 24 car being bad fast out front and the early cautions allowed him to maximize his number one pit box. And the fact that, unless a team hits a massive home run or there are massive differences in the laps on a tire, this car still sucks to try and pass in. But I do not believe this weekend should cause any overreaction from the industry or fans. Sometimes we just have meh races, and Byron was an absolute force out front in clear air. I voted "No" on Jeff Gluck's good race poll and would give this race a 6/10. Would be lower if not for some of the caution and pit strategy drama throughout the race and the overtime restart.

Next we are headed to Bristol Motor Speedway with all three series back in action this weekend. The Craftsman Truck Series kicks off the weekend Friday night on FS1 at 7:30 p.m. with the WEATHER GUARD Truck Race. The Xfinity Series takes to the track on Saturday at 5:00 p.m. with the SciAps 300 on The CW. The Cup Series caps off the weekend on Sunday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. on FS1 with the Food City 500.

Bristol Picks: Cup = Chris Buescher

Xfinity = Taylor Gray

Trucks = Kyle Larson