Denny Hamlin Steals NASCAR Cup Series Win At Darlington In Overtime

And just like that, Kyle Larson is Denny Hamlin’s favorite driver.

Hamlin won the Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway after a spin by Larson in turn two with four laps to go sent the race into an overtime finish.

It was Larson’s second spin of the day, the pre-race favorite having brought out the first yellow of the race on lap four when he got loose in the same turn, hit the inside wall and fell 160 laps down while his car was repaired.

William Byron dominated the first 243 laps of the 293-lap race, sweeping the first two stages without anything resembling a real challenge.

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Things didn’t go well on the last set of green flag pit stops when Byron pitted after Reddick and Bell and reentered the race in third place.

It was then a charging Ryan Blaney who hunted down the trio and got past Reddick for the lead just seconds before Larson brought out the yellow flag.

That sent the leaders back into the pits for fresh rubber and a quick pit stop by Hamlin’s Joe Gibbs Racing crew let him win the race off pit road. A perfect restart when the green flag waved for the overtime finish let him pull away from the field without looking back.

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“There’s two people I really love right now, my pit crew and Kyle Larson. So had a little assist there so thank you,” Hamlin said during his post-race interview on FS1.

“The pit crew just did an amazing job. They were on it last week. They were on it this week. It’s all about them.”

The win was Hamlin’s second in a row, having led the final 75 laps at Martinsville last week. It was also the 56th of his career, which broke a tie with Rusty Wallace for 11th on the all-time list.

Up next is Bristol, where Hamlin has four wins including last year’s spring race and the fall race in 2023.