Denny Hamlin’s Darlington sweep ruined by loose wheel, Kyle Larson capitalises

On Saturday, Denny Hamlin was in Victory Lane at Darlington Raceway while Kyle Larson finished last after struggling with engine problems. On Sunday, Hamlin was dominating before a pit road error dropped him out of contention while Larson delivered the 500th win for Hendrick Motorsports’ engine department.

Hamlin won the NASCAR Xfinity Series race on Saturday in an overtime scramble despite the event being mostly led by his Joe Gibbs Racing team-mate John Hunter Nemechek. The restart was set up by Parker Kligerman getting spun by Sam Mayer in the closing moments, and Hamlin held off Austin Hill and Nemechek for his sixth Xfinity win at Darlington.

He sought to continue his momentum in the Cup Series the next day, and things shaped up in such a manner as he led 177 laps and won the first two stages. However, his day unravelled during green-flag pit stops on lap 270 when his team realised the left-rear tyre had not been fully tightened on his car, forcing him to return to pit road. Hamlin was unable to recover and was eventually caught in a lap 332 wreck with team-mate Christopher Bell and fellow playoff contender Michael McDowell, finishing twenty-fifth.

“It looked like the left rear was still tightening as we were gone,” Hamlin explained. “It’s close enough to where it didn’t matter. What I felt, I was in a crash. I had to bring it in and just turned the day upside down. I didn’t think the damage was that bad, but the car drove significantly worse after that incident. Once you damage the splitter on these cars, they’re no good.”

With Hamlin out of the picture, Larson seized the opportunity to rebound from his Saturday troubles. He spent the final fifty-five laps facing pressure from Tyler Reddick, which was exacerbated by Larson’s driving style that preferred riding along the wall. This approach caused him to lose some time upon scraping the wall, but lapped traffic helped keep Reddick at bay.

The win is his first in the Cup Series at Darlington, a rather surprising feat as he had typically run up front only to fall short in the end. Larson had led a combined 715 laps but finished second in three consecutive Darlington races between 2019 and 2021.

“It feels really good, honestly, just to get a win and finally win at this track,” Larson commented. “We’ve led lots of laps here, so to lead lots of laps here, you have to be good at a number of different races through the different years. This is just a track that I really enjoy, suits my style, and just haven’t won yet here. It was good to do it today.

“I knew we were going to have a good car. We just didn’t qualify as good as we had hoped. Drove through the field way better than I thought that I would, and today did a really good job on the pit sequences to cycle us in front of people, and from then on you try and manage a race. Denny was really good, too. He was going to be hard to beat without his mishap, but once whatever happened to them happened, it kind of opened the door for a few more guys to possibly win, and we kept ourselves in the game enough to get it done. I got in the wall at some point in the third stage and then kind of had to nurse it to the next pit stop and then things just worked out. The team executed when we needed to.”

With the win, Larson qualifies for the Round of 12. While the Xfinity race was not a playoff event like the Cup event that opened the postseason, it also provided another layer to the playoff picture as Sheldon Creed clinched his berth.

Cup race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	18	5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	367	Running
2	3	45	Tyler Reddick	23XI Racing	Toyota	367	Running
3	8	17	Chris Buescher	RFK Racing	Ford	367	Running
4	23	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	367	Running
5	27	1	Ross Chastain	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	367	Running
6	5	6	Brad Keselowski	Team Penske	Ford	367	Running
7	19	23	Bubba Wallace	23XI Racing	Toyota	367	Running
8	13	9	Chase Elliott^	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	367	Running
9	4	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	367	Running
10	20	43	Erik Jones	Legacy Motor Club	Chevrolet	367	Running
11	11	8	Kyle Busch	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	367	Running
12	6	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	367	Running
13	16	16	A.J. Allmendinger	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	367	Running
14	10	10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	367	Running
15	12	14	Chase Briscoe	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	367	Running
16	25	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	367	Running
17	15	42	Carson Hocevar*	Legacy Motor Club	Chevrolet	367	Running
18	31	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	367	Running
19	7	4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	367	Running
20	28	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	367	Running
21	17	54	Ty Gibbs	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	367	Running
22	22	7	Corey LaJoie	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	367	Running
23	1	20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	366	Running
24	29	31	Justin Haley	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	366	Running
25	2	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	366	Running
26	30	38	Todd Gilliland	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	366	Running
27	35	51	Ryan Newman	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	365	Running
28	34	41	Ryan Preece	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	364	Running
29	26	77	Ty Dillon	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	364	Running
30	33	15	J.J. Yeley*	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	362	Running
31	14	2	Austin Cindric	Team Penske	Ford	361	Running
32	9	34	Michael McDowell	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	329	Accident
33	24	48	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	322	Accident
34	21	99	Daniel Suárez	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	320	Accident
35	32	21	Harrison Burton	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	318	Accident
36	36	78	B.J. McLeod	Live Fast Motorsports	Chevrolet	210	Engine

Bold – Currently in playoffs
^ – Currently in owner playoffs
Italics – Competing for Rookie of the Year
* – Ineligible for points

Xfinity race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	2	19	Denny Hamlin*	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	148	Running
2	9	21	Austin Hill	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	148	Running
3	1	20	John Hunter Nemechek	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	148	Running
4	4	00	Cole Custer	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	148	Running
5	7	8	Josh Berry	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	148	Running
6	15	98	Riley Herbst	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	148	Running
7	3	7	Justin Allgaier	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	148	Running
8	16	2	Sheldon Creed	RIchard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	148	Running
9	14	10	Kyle Busch*	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	148	Running
10	6	11	Daniel Hemric	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	148	Running
11	5	1	Sam Mayer	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	148	Running
12	10	16	Chandler Smith	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	148	Running
13	19	31	Parker Retzlaff	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	148	Running
14	8	9	Brandon Jones	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	148	Running
15	17	24	Corey Heim*	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota	148	Running
16	22	45	Rajah Caruth*	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	148	Running
17	11	18	Sammy Smith	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	148	Running
18	24	27	Jeb Burton	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	148	Running
19	27	07	Stefan Parsons	SS-Green Light Racing	Chevrolet	148	Running
20	31	6	Brennan Poole	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	148	Running
21	26	51	Jeremy Clements	Jeremy Clements Racing	Chevrolet	148	Running
22	33	08	Chad Finchum	SS-Green Light Racing	Ford	148	Running
23	21	91	Ross Chastain*	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	148	Running
24	13	48	Parker Kligerman	Big Machine Racing Team	Chevrolet	148	Running
25	18	25	Brett Moffitt	AM Racing	Ford	148	Running
26	34	38	Joe Graf Jr.	RSS Racing	Ford	148	Running
27	32	53	Matt Mills*	Emerling-Gase Motorsports	Toyota	148	Running
28	30	26	Kaz Grala	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota	148	Running
29	36	43	Ryan Ellis	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	148	Running
30	20	39	Ryan Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	148	Running
31	28	4	Kyle Weatherman	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	148	Running
32	29	66	Timmy Hill*	MBM Motorsports	Ford	148	Running
33	23	78	Anthony Alfredo	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	147	Running
34	35	02	Blaine Perkins	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	147	Running
35	25	28	Kyle Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	147	Running
36	38	35	Patrick Emerling	Emerling-Gase Motorsports	Chevrolet	145	Running
37	37	92	Josh Williams	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	143	Running
38	12	17	Kyle Larson*	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	117	Running
DNQ		44	Dawson Cram	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet