Every year at Darlington Raceway, the NASCAR community gets a blast from the past. NASCAR Throwback weekend was this week, and there was no way to not notice it. The results were written on a typewriter, many teams ran throwback schemes from the days of yore, and so much more. Legends like Richard and Kyle Petty, Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon, and Greg Biffle all made appearances at some point throughout the race broadcast. My favorite throwback paint scheme was Denny Hamlin’s throwback to Carl Edwards’ famed OfficeDepot car from Roush Racing back in the 2000s and early 2010s.
Nearly 6/8ths of the race was dominated by William Byron. Running a throwback scheme to car owner Jeff Gordon’s 2015 Axalta “Last Ride”, Byron led the first 243 laps of the race. After he drove down pit road for a pit stop with 50 laps to go, he never saw the lead again, Jeff Burton had a complete race, leading all 300 laps at New Hampshire in 2000. The closest someone’s come to a complete race since then was Martin Truex Jr. in the 2016 Coke 600, leading 392 of 400 laps en route to victory. Truex led for 588 miles, the longest distance a driver has ever led in a single race in NASCAR history.
For the second time this year, a Joe Gibbs Racing driver has won two or more races in a row. At the beginning of the season, Christopher Bell won three consecutive races; Atlanta, COTA, and Phoenix. Now, Denny Hamlin captured victory for the second consecutive race, as he won at Martinsville last week, and now won at Darlington.
The race was decided in a good-old-fashioned NASCAR Overtime finish. Kyle Larson, who was more than 100 laps down, spun off of the bumper of Bubba Wallace in turn two with four laps to go, which is odd, because Larson had spun earlier in the race in turn two on lap four. Ryan Blaney had run down Tyler Reddick on new tires, and was in prime position to win, he had just passed Reddick, and then Larson spun and brought out a caution. With the best pit crew of the day, Denny Hamlin got the lead after pit stops, and was able to hold on to a victory at The Track Too Tough to Tame.
William Byron is still the points leader, with 315 points. Back-to-back winner Denny Hamlin jumps up to second, with 266 points, -49 to Byron. Christopher Bell also moves up to third, and he’s -52 to Byron.
The next race is the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. The race will be televised on FS1 on Sunday, April 13th at 3:00 PM EST.
Can Denny Hamlin follow in the footsteps of Christopher Bell and win three consecutive races? We’ll have to wait and see who captures victory in the Last Great Colosseum.
