DARLINGTON, SC. – William Byron of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet) won the Goodyear 400 to score his seventh career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his third of the season, and his first at Darlington.
With the field bunched up following a pair of late cautions inside the final 20 laps, Byron’s No. 24 gave Hendrick Motorsports its first win in Darlington since Jimmie Johnson in 2012 by pulling away from Kevin Harvick in a two-lap dash in NASCAR overtime.
His margin over second place Kevin Harvick was .781 of a second.
Front-row drivers Ross Chastain and Kyle Larson wrecked with six laps to go, putting Byron, 25, in position for his first win at the legendary speedway and his third this season. Chevrolet recorded its eighth win in 2023.
Chase Elliott finished third followed by Brad Keselowski and Bubba Wallace.
There were eight caution periods for a total of 47 laps. Twenty-two of the 36 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.
The race extended two laps past its scheduled 293-lap distance due to a green-white-checkered finish.
Ross Chastain remains the championship leader after Darlington with a 27-point advantage over second-place Christopher Bell.
“We had a good car all day. We just could never get up toward the front,” said Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 SUNNYD Ford Mustang. “Our Sunny Delight Ford Mustang struggled in traffic today, but we were really good at the second half of the run and just struggled at the beginning of the run. We had a good track position and then had a bad pit stop under green, but had everything worked out at the end. I didn’t have anything for William (Byron). The front is torn up pretty well, but they did a great job and just kind of kept ourselves in the game and you never know what’s gonna happen.
“I think if you would’ve dropped us in first or second place we probably could’ve run there,” added Kevin Harvick. “The Fords struggle in traffic with this particular aero package and it’s hard to make up ground, and then we lost a bunch of ground on pit road under the green flag pit stop. Then we got toward the end and missed all the wrecks. Well, we came out the other side of the wreck. We were in the wrecks but just didn’t have any damage to the wheels and tires, just structural damage. William ended up being the only car that didn’t have damage and he just drove off, so still a good day for our Sunny Delight Ford Mustang and we’ll just keep plugging away.”
Stage 1 Winner: Martin Truex Jr., of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)
Stage 2 Winner: Ross Chastain of Trackhouse Racing (Chevrolet)
SHR Race Finish:
- Kevin Harvick (Started 20th, Finished 2nd / Running, completed 295 of 295 laps)
- Ryan Preece (Started 32nd, Finished 15th / Running, completed 295 of 295 laps)
- Chase Briscoe (Started 31st, Finished 17th / Running, completed 295 of 295 laps)
- Aric Almirola (Started 17th, Finished 21st / Running, completed 295 of 295 laps)
SHR Points:
- Kevin Harvick (3rd with 400 points, 29 out of first)
- Chase Briscoe (16th with 275 points, 154 out of first)
- Aric Almirola (26th with 221 points, 208 out of first)
- Ryan Preece (29th with 201 points, 228 out of first)
This was Harvick’s best result so far this season. His previous best was a trio of fifth-place finishes – Feb. 26 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, March 12 at Phoenix Raceway, and April 2 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway.
Harvick earned his fourth top-five and his sixth top-10 of the season. It was also his 14th top-five and 19th top-10 in 31 career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Darlington.
Harvick’s 14 top-fives and 19 top-10s at Darlington are the most among active NASCAR Cup Series drivers. (Denny Hamlin is next best with 12 top-fives and 16 top-10s.)
Harvick finished eighth in Stage 1 to earn three bonus points and seventh in Stage 2 to earn seven more bonus points.
Harvick led twice for five laps to increase his laps-led total at Darlington to a series-leading 818. (Hamlin is next best with 801 laps led at Darlington.) Harvick has now led 11,565 laps since joining SHR in 2014. He has led 15,980 laps in his entire NASCAR Cup Series career.
Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the non-points NASCAR All-Star Race on Sunday, May 21 at North Wilkesboro (N.C.) Speedway. The race starts at 8 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FS1 and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio beginning at 5:30 p.m. with the undercard NASCAR All-Star Open.
