DARLINGTON, S.C. — While Denny Hamlin celebrated his Darlington victory Sunday, the feeling of those further down pit road was much different.
“Just sucks,” said William Byron, who led the first 243 laps before finishing second. “It’ll sting to be this close.”
“That stings,” said Ryan Blaney, who lost the lead on pit road ahead of the overtime restart and finished finished fifth. “I really wanted to win here.”
Instead, it was Hamlin winning for the fifth time at this track and 56th time in his Cup career. And he did so without the best car.
“I told the team, the crew chief, I said don’t get offended when I debrief and say that we probably had an eighth-place car,” Hamlin said.
That won’t make Byron or Blaney feel any better.
It would be understandable if Byron was crestfallen after becoming the first driver since Jeff Burton at New Hampshire in 2000 to lead more than 210 laps to open a Cup race.
The race winner thanked his pit crew and a competitor after his second consecutive victory.
Byron did it by winning the pole and taking advantage of track position. Darlington’s unique shape makes for a more narrow groove than many big tracks so track position is critical. Run out front in clean air and life is good. Run in the pack and life can be miserable.
Byron stayed in the lead and caught a break when a caution for debris interrupted a green-flag pit cycle at Lap 139 of the 297-lap race. Byron was among about a dozen cars that had yet to pit. That allowed him to maintain control of the race.
Things changed when Tyler Reddick pitted on Lap 240 under green. He was among the first drivers to pit in that green-flag cycle and came in four laps before Byron.
After the cycle ended, Reddick had a six-second lead on Christopher Bell and a 6.2-second lead on Byron due to the faster laps on the new tires when Bell and Reddick had yet to pit.
“We knew that Tyler was going to beat us (on the cycle),” said Rudy Fugle, crew chief for Byron. “But with four-lap (fresher tires) and if we come out where we’re supposed to come out, I think it goes really well. It just didn’t work out. That’s racing. Everything comes down to that execution.”
Said Byron: “We lost a few spots on that green-flag sequence and that was the difference. Had a good decent run that time. (Bell) did a good job kind of air blocking and just kind of keeping us behind. It took me a long time to get by him.”
It’s his 56th career victory, putting him in sole possession of 11th on the all-time win list.
Then came Blaney.
He had one of the better cars but something always seemed to happen to him Sunday.
“Just a day where nothing really went our way,” he said.
A debris caution at Lap 139 interrupted a green-flag pit cycle. Blaney and Reddick had pitted so they were not caught a lap down as others but they were behind all those that had yet to pit and lost track position. Blaney worked his way to fourth to end the second stage but lost 12 spots with a slow pit stop after the stage ended.
In the final stage, he pitted two laps after Byron in the green-flag cycle (Hamlin also pitted that lap). With fresher tires, Blaney proved to be stronger as the run went, taking the lead on Lap 291 from Reddick. But a caution for Kyle Larson’s incident sent the race into overtime.
Hamlin’s pit crew got out first, setting him up to win.
Byron exited pit road third; Blaney fourth.
“I had a great pit stop there at the very end and was able to line up on the second row,” Byron said. “Just need the front row to have a shot to win here.”
Said Blaney: “Lost the lead on pit road, lost the front row starting spot. Never had a shot (after that).”
