“I knew we were on a high, just didn’t know when it was going to happen,” said Brandon Jones, who was riding feelings of ecstasy last Saturday. But his words reflected how unpredictable his Xfinity Series victory at Darlington Raceway was. The Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help A Hero 200 featured 14 lead changes among drivers. This amount of shuffling wildly contradicted the situation on Sunday, as Goodyear 400 champion Denny Hamlin observed.

During the Goodyear 400, William Byron almost met Jeff Burton’s record of leading all the laps to a New Hampshire victory in 2000. Byron led 243 of 297 laps – until a round of shocking climax twists brought the prize to Denny Hamlin’s table. According to Hamlin, the crux of this mystery lies in the difference in cars between the Xfinity Series and the Cup Series.

Denny Hamlin dives deeper

In NASCAR, the Cup Series car has evolved by leaps and bounds over the years. Currently, drivers use the Next-Gen model introduced in 2022. This differs a lot from Xfinity cars, which still have some old-school NASCAR features – like carburetors, which were eliminated in all Cup Series competitions from 2012. Another key difference is the Cup cars’ additional five inches in wheelbase. By extending it from the Xfinity Series’ length of 105 inches to 110 inches, there is a world of aerodynamic differences. According to Denny Hamlin, this is why we saw the vast difference in Darlington. While Xfinity pole sitter Christopher Bell slipped out of the picture and finished 25th, Cup pole sitter William Byron was a heavy factor and finished second.

Brandon Jones took the lead on the Xfinity restart with only 12 laps remaining. He picked up the win with a healthy 1.105-second margin. Denny Hamlin proceeded to explain why this differed from the Cup race: “The difference in Xfinity and Cup is that the leader in Cup has the advantage. He has the clean air, he can dictate where he places the dirty air on the car behind him. In Xfinity, the second-place car can manipulate the first-place car. All he needs to do is drive up right to the rear bumper, and it takes all the air off that Xfinity car. The next thing you know, the leader is slipping and sliding around, which is why you’ve seen some incredible Xfinity races there over the years. Because the second-place car’s in control, not the first-place car.”

If we look back at the Darlington races of the past, Hamlin’s point stands tall. Just last year at the Southern 500, Kyle Larson led 263 out of the 367 laps, but like Byron, he could not win the race, finishing in 4th place as Chase Briscoe took the win. However, this was after a late caution with 31 laps to go saw Briscoe make a daring three-wide move on the restart to take the lead and then hold it till the checkered flag, hammering home Hamlin’s point of how important being in the lead is in the Next-Gen car.

DARLINGTON, SC – MAY 14: The field races down the front stretch during the running of the NASCAR, Motorsport, USA Cup Series Goodyear 400 on May 14, 2023, at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, SC. Photo by Jeffrey Vest/Icon Sportswire AUTO: MAY 14 NASCAR Cup Series Goodyear 400

This lack of predictability was there at the Goodyear 400 last year as well, as Denny Hamlin said in a recent ‘Actions Detrimental’ episode. “(Last) spring, you had the whole… [Chris] Buescher and [Tyler] Reddick got into each other, [Brad] Keselowski wins. That was an exciting moment… I don’t know, Darlington… We didn’t have but 4 lead changes all day long. That was one of them, and it was with 3 or 4 to go. I don’t know what we expect, but that’s about as good as it’s going to get at Darlington. It’s not going to be like the Xfinity car.” 

Keselowski notched up an unexpected Darlington win in 2024, and in 2025, William Byron was supposed to win until a green flag cycle of pit stops muddled up his plans. Tyler Reddick and Ryan Blaney entered the picture – then again, a wildly unexpected caution by Kyle Larson with four laps to go let in Denny Hamlin, who eventually won after a lightning-fast 9.42-second pit stop shot him from third into the lead.

Evidently, Denny Hamlin acknowledged that his Cup Series win in Darlington was not at all expected. In fact, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver even hailed his best opponent.

Saluting his rival’s hard work

Well, you would expect this rival to be William Byron, right? Undoubtedly, the Hendrick Motorsports driver’s dominance at Darlington goes without question. However, another driver was on fire last weekend, going up against incredible odds – Ryan Blaney. The No. 12 Ford faced a slew of pit-stop miscues. He stopped deep in his pit box on his first stop, getting hemmed in behind the No. 88 Chevrolet of Shane van Gisbergen.

Then, at the end of Stage 2, he was in 4th place. But trouble with jacking up the left side of the car dropped him to 16th place by the start of the final stage. Despite these setbacks, the Team Penske driver soared to the front by lap 291, overtaking Tyler Reddick in a sure-shot chance for victory. It was only due to Kyle Larson’s second caution and Denny Hamlin’s faster pit stop that the win slipped from Blaney’s hands.

So, despite rejoicing in his first back-to-back Cup Series victories since 2012, Denny Hamlin hailed his rival. “I saw that the No. 12 was having issues on pit road throughout the day. I mean, I thought that, truthfully, he had the best car,” he said. He continued, “It was like, ‘Yeah, just put them behind someone and let’s see what happens.’ You could just see that the No. 12 was really able to make passes that others couldn’t. So, I thought he had the best car. He never had the track position because it seemed like he would lose spots on pit road. Certainly, that was a hindrance for that team, and it was ultimately kind of a deciding factor there.”

Penske’s pit stop woes have been in the spotlight all season long. The stats back this up as well. All three of Team Penske’s pit crews, 22, 12, and 2, rank amongst the bottom 16 in average four-tire pit stop time this season. The worst is Joey Logano’s (22) team with an average stop of 11.523 seconds, while Blaney is at 11.268, not much better. Meanwhile, Denny Hamlin’s #11 Joe Gibbs Racing team leads the entire grid in this category, averaging just 9.650 seconds!

Ultimately, Denny Hamlin’s take on Darlington was humble and honest. As Bristol looms into view next weekend, eyes will again be on the defending race winner. Do you think Denny Hamlin can go three in a row? Let us know in the comments!