Results, Fantasy, They Said It
By Roy J. Akers- www.skyviewsports.net
The Track to Tough to Tame has a mix of top drivers that cycle to the top along with drivers that you usually struggle everywhere except Darlington, as favorites for Race 8 on the Cup circuit. William Byron won the pole for the Goodyear 400 and is a recent winner. Count Joey Logano, Kyle Larson, and Chase Briscoe among the most recent winners. How about Erik Jones? His victory in the fall of 2022 was his last Cup victory. How tough is Darlington to tame? Every driver has had at least one finish outside the top 20 since 2022.
Now for the Green Flag…
First Stage
Pole sitter William Byron leads all 90 laps in Stage One. Ryan Preece ran side by side at different intervals with Byron, and Bubba Wallace finished third in the Stage. Three cautions for incidents reduce the field to 29 machines on the lead lap and Kyle Larson spins out and hits the wall, causing heavy damage that finishes his day.
Stage Two
William Byron and Preece take the field to the line, and Wallace closes on the leader after dropping Preece to third. Just five laps later, Tyler Reddick takes second with Wallace, Preece, and Ryan Blaney running 2-5. Byron stays out until lap 139. Brad Keselowski exits pit road, and a lap late,r he cuts a tire and bends the toe link, but does not draw a caution. Byron, Joey Logano and Erik Jones are running 1-2-3. On lap 138, track debris triggered a caution. With all remaining drivers pitting during under yellow, Byron takes four tires but cycles right back to the lead as he is off pit road first. The Green flag is dropped on lap 144, with Logano sharing the front row with Byron. Byron wins the battle with Logano and goes back to the lead by nearly a second. Byron continues to run up front with Logano, Denny Hamlin, Josh Berry, and Christopher Bell 2-5. Larson reenters the race on lap 168 after spending all but four laps fixing the #5. Larson is looking for points from other drivers possibly leaving the race. Byron goes on to win the Stage. He is only the second driver to lead every lap of the first two Stages. Chase Elliott is the first during the Stage era.
Final Stage
The green flag is dropped with 90 to go, and Byron barely holds off Bell to lead every lap of the race up to this point. Green flag stops, start at lap 229 (64 to go) to go as Preece comes in. Byron extended his lead to 3.47 seconds over Bell and Hamlin. Twenty-six drivers are still on the lead lap. Byron pits with 50 to go.laps left. The ’24’ takes four tires and fuel and surrendered the lead to Hamlin for the first time in the race. With Hamlin pitting, Reddick, Logano, and Bell run in front of Byron with 40 to go. Reddick goes in front by six seconds. Byron moves in front of Logano for third and is impeded in lapped traffic. Teams entered the Goodyear 400 with ten sets of tires plus scuffs and had two sets of tires left going down the stretch.
Among drivers making late race runs, Ryan Blaney has a long-range machine and moves into 6th with 26 laps left. RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher moves into the Top-Five. With Reddick being slowed by lapped traffic, Bell and Byron shave his second to five seconds and 22 to go. Drivers chasing Reddick are hoping for a caution. Blaney continues to charge around the field. He moves into second, 4.36 seconds behind Reddick. With ten to go, Reddick and Blaney are 1 and 2, and the field is moving over for the final ten laps. With eight laps to go, Blaney is only .29 behind the 45. Reddick runs the top line and Blaney the bottom. Reddick’s 45 touches the wall and went around Reddick, and at the same time, Larson goes into the wall in turn two with three laps to go to bring about the race’s eighth caution.
It will be a shootout to the checkered flag. Blaney and Reddick both pit to get fresh tires. The race off pit road gave Hamlin the lead with Reddick and Byron right behind.
Hamlin has a terrific restart at the green/white checker with Reddick, Byron, and Bell going three-wide. Hamlin pulls away and wins the Goodyear 400. He wins his second race of the season. Byron is second, Bell third and Reddick 4th. Hamlick in victory lane. Q- A week ago you dominate the race. This week your pit crew gets you off first. Was there ever a doubt in your mind that you were going to win this after they did that? DENNY HAMLIN: There are two people I really love right now: my pit crew and Kyle Larson. Had a little assist there, so thank you. Man, the pit crew just did an amazing job. They won it last week. They won it this week. It’s all about them. Thanks Sport Clips. They have such a big deal here in Darlington, South Carolina.”
Checkered Flag
Denny Hamlin wins the Goodyear 400 and leads ten laps. His final pit stop was the difference and he watched the Reddick, Byron, and Bell go three-wide and their stalled momentum allowed Hamlin to rocket to the victory. It’s his 5th Darlington win.
In the Running
William Byron leads the first 243 laps before a pitstop mishap puts him in a position to test his #24 against slower traffic and moved up fairly quickly. 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.“
A Factiod that may only interest me
William Byron won the pole and led the first 243 laps of the race. It is the longest any pole winner has kept the lead to start the race at Darlington going back to the first race in 1950.
HOF Cup driver Carl Edwards drops the green flag to open the race. Former Cup driver Greg Biffle drives the pace car. Glad to hear that Kyle Larson did not run into Biffle before the flag dropped.
He Said It…
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.”
Tale of the Tape
Final Results << Click for Full Field VV Top Ten Below
Fantasy NASCAR Team
This week, we will post the Fantasy team gleaned by Go Full Throttle and the picks made by AI based on date input from www.gofullthrottle.net guru Bob Francis. These are the final picks made after qualifying and laps posted plus season and track historical data. How did your team do? Here is the team from Go Full Throttle.
Go Full Throttle missed with Larson, who crashed on lap 4. They hit with Blaney and Reddick.
Roy J. Akers -www.skyviewsports.net covers NASCAR, Indy Car and several sports.
