Denny Hamlin took the lead coming out of the pits before a final overtime finish and held off William Byron to win the NASCAR Cup Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway on Sunday.

Hamlin won for a second straight week after his success at Martinsville and for the fifth time overall at Darlington, the most of any current driver.

Hamlin chose the outside lane for a final restart and shot out to the lead and pulled away from series points leader Byron and NASCAR wins leader Christopher Bell.

Hamlin looked like he’d have a strong finish, but not a winning one as Ryan Blaney passed Tyler Reddick for the lead with three laps left. But moments later, Kyle Larson spun out forcing a final caution and the extra laps.

It was then time for Hamlin’s Joe Gibbs Racing pit crew to shine as it got him out quickly and in the lead.

Byron, who led the first 243 laps, was second with Hamlin’s JGR teammate Bell in third.

“There are two people I really love right now, my pit crew and Kyle Larson,” Hamlin said to a round of boos from those in the stands.

Reddick was fourth and Blaney was fifth. The rest of the top 10 finishers were Chris Buescher, Ross Chastain, Chase Elliott, Ty Gibbs and Kyle Busch.

Hamlin credited the past two victories to his pit crew.

“The pit crew just did an amazing job,” he said. “They won it last week, they won it this week. It’s all about them.”

Blaney had thought he was clear to his first-ever Darlington victory after getting by Reddick late. When he saw the caution flag for Larson’s spin, he said he thought, “Oh, no! I thought we had the race won.”

So did Byron, who sought was to become the first NASCAR driver in nearly 25 years to lead every lap on the way to victory. He got shuffled down the standings during the last round of green-flag pit stops and could not recover.

“It was looking like it was going to be a perfect race and we were going to lead every lap,” he said.

But once “we lost control, it was too late to get back up there,” Byron said.

Kyle Larson, who won the Southern 500 here in 2023, had high hopes for a second Darlington win. But he slid into the inside wall coming off the second turn on Lap 3 and went right to garage where his team worked the next couple of hours to get him back on track. Larson returned on lap 164 after falling 161 laps off the pace. Larson finished next to last in 37th.

Formula One

Max Verstappen of Red Bull won the Japanese Grand Prix and broke a “mini-slump” of only two wins in his previous 16 races.

It was the Dutch driver’s fourth straight victory on the Suzuka circuit in central Japan and breaks the momentum of the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, who won the season’s first two races.

The four-time defending Formula 1 champion, Verstappen started from pole position after setting a course-record time in qualifying, which he called “insane.” Norris placed second and Piastri was third. The track was dry despite rain earlier in the day to produce an incident-free race.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc finished fourth followed by George Russell of Mercedes and teammate Kimi Antonelli in sixth. Japanese driver Yuki Tsunoda finished 12th in his first drive with Red Bull’s top team.

“We keep pushing,” Verstappen said. “Unbelievable. A great weekend for us.”

Norris leads the driver’s standings after three races with 62 points to 61 for Verstappen.

The weekend turned when Verstappen took the pole on his record last lap Saturday in qualifying.

“If was fun, just pushing very hard at the end,” Verstappen said. “The two McLarens were pushing very hard. We didn’t give up improving the car and today it was in its best form.”

“Of course, starting on the pole — that’s what make it possible to win this race.”

Winning in Japan again with Red Bull and engine supplier Honda was important for Verstappen.

“It means a lot to me. It was in the back of my mind those last few laps, I was like ‘Wow, I need to try and stay ahead. It would be a great story, you know, our final like kind of farewell race together with Honda here in Japan.’

“I’m incredibly proud of what we have achieved, of course, over all those years together, and I think it’s just like a perfect send off.”