DARLINGTON, S.C. (AP) Denny Hamlin did his job so his pit crew could do its most stellar stop at the perfect time.

Hamlin came into the pits after a final caution in third place and told himself to hit every mark, then let his guys take over.

And thats what the Joe Gibbs Racing group did, pulling off a perfect winning moment that sent Hamlin out with the lead. He took over on the final restart and held off William Byron to win the Goodyear 400 on Sunday.

It was Hamlins 56th career NASCAR win, his fifth at Darlington Raceway and his second straight this season

When you think about 56 wins, thats a huge deal, said Gibbs, Hamlins longtime car owner.

Hamlin said he hung on throughout as Byron and others looked like they might pull out victory. Instead, Hamlin waited out his time and then pounced as he broke away during the green-white-checkered finish.

I can still do it, I can do it at a high level and look forward to winning a lot of races this year, Hamlin said.

Hamlin won for a second straight week after his success at Martinsville .

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 hed 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 Hamlins 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 Hamlins 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. Its 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 Larsons 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.

Bad day

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 three 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.

Biffles ride

Greg Biffle, the last NASCAR driver to win consecutive Cup Series victories at Darlington in 2006 and 2007, drove the pace car for the Goodyear 400 on Sunday. Biffle has had an eventful few months, flying rescue missions with his helicopter into areas of the Southeast affected by devastating Hurricane Helene in September.

Biffle was planning a weeklong trip to the Bahamas when his phone started going off about people stranded in parts of Western North Carolina.

I went to the hangar and the power was out, Biffle said. We got the hangar down open with the tug and got the helicopter out. Once I got in the air, I realized what had taken place.

Biffle then flew the next 11 days from sunup to sundown.

It was incredible, Biffle said. It was pretty tough going for the first week.

Biffle won the Myers Brothers Humanitarian Award for his work.

Up next

The series goes to Bristol on April 13 before taking its traditional Easter break.

___

AP NASCAR: https://apnews.com/hub/nascar-racing

南卡罗来纳州达灵顿（美联社）——丹尼·哈姆林（Denny Hamlin）完成了他的任务，以便他的维修团队能在最佳时机完成他们最出色的工作。

在最后一次警告后，哈姆林以第三名的成绩进入维修站，并对自己说一定要每一个标记都做到位，然后让他的队友接手。

这正是Joe Gibbs Racing团队所做的，他们创造了一个完美的胜利时刻，让哈姆林领先出场。在最后重新启动时，他接管了比赛，并顶住了威廉·伯恩的挑战，在周日赢得了古德伊尔400赛的胜利。

这是哈姆林的职业生涯中第56场NASCAR胜利，他在达灵顿赛车场获得的第5场胜利，也是本赛季的第二场连胜。

当你想到56场胜利时，这确实是个大事件。

哈姆林（Hamlin）表示，在他身后，拜伦（Byron）和其他人似乎可能赢得比赛。然而，哈姆林坚持到最后，在比赛结束时以绿色、白色和菱形旗的瞬间冲出，成功夺得胜利。

哈姆林表示：“我仍然能够做到，我可以在高水准上做到，并期待今年赢得很多比赛。”

在马汀斯维尔取得成功后，哈姆林连续第二周获得胜利。

哈姆林在最终重启时选择了外侧车道，并迅速冲到领先位置，与系列积分领头羊伯恩和纳斯卡胜利领头羊克里斯托弗·贝尔拉开距离。

哈姆林（Hamlin）看起来会有一个强劲的收尾，但并非获胜之举，因为瑞恩·布兰尼（Ryan Blaney）在最后三圈中超越了泰勒·雷迪克（Tyler Reddick）取得领先。但片刻之后，凯尔·拉森（Kyle Larson）的失误迫使比赛最后时刻谨慎行事，并增加了额外的圈数。

此时，哈姆林的Joe Gibbs Racing维修团队大放异彩，迅速让他重回领先位置。

拜伦在头243圈中领头，但最终以第二名完赛，而哈姆林的JGR车队队友贝尔则位列第三。

我现在真正热爱的是两个人，我的维修团队和凯尔·拉尔森。

雷迪克位列第四，布莱尼位列第五。其余前十名选手分别为克里斯·布尤瑟、罗斯·查斯坦、蔡斯·埃利奥特、泰·吉布斯和凯尔·布什。

汉姆林将过去两场胜利的功劳归功于他的维修团队。

他说：“维修团队刚刚表现惊人，他们上周就赢了，这周又赢了。一切都靠他们。”

布莱尼（Blaney）原本以为在晚些时候超越雷迪克（Reddick）后，他就能获得自己在达灵顿（Darlington）的首场胜利。然而，当他看到拉森（Larson）的失控而亮起的警示旗时，他说他心想，“哦，不！我以为我们赢了比赛。”

拜伦也试图成为近25年来首位在每一圈都领跑的NASCAR车手，最终在最后一轮绿色旗子停靠时被超越，未能恢复排名。

看起来这将会是一场完美的比赛，而我们将在每一圈都领先。

但一旦我们失去了控制，再想重新站起来就为时已晚，拜伦说。

糟糕的一天

凯尔·拉森(Kyle Larson)在2023年赢得了这里的南方500英里大赛(Southern 500)，对在达灵顿(Darlington)再次获胜抱有极高的期望。然而，他在第三圈第二弯道冲入内墙，随后直接进入维修站，他的团队在接下来的几个小时里努力工作，让他重新回到赛道上。拉森在落后161圈之后在第164圈重返赛道。拉森最终以第37名的成绩排在倒数第二。

Biffle的骑行之旅

格雷格·比弗尔（Greg Biffle）是最后一位在2006年和2007年连续在达灵顿（Darlington）赢得NASCAR杯系列赛胜利的赛车手，他于周日驾驶领航车参加了固特异400（Goodyear 400）比赛。比弗尔最近几个月经历了许多事情，他驾驶直升机进行救援任务，飞往受9月毁灭性飓风海伦（Helene）影响的美国东南部地区。

Biffle原计划去巴哈马度假一周，但他的手机突然响了起来，是关于北卡罗来纳州西部部分地区被困人员的情况。

Biffle说：“我去了机库，发现停电了。我们用拖车把机库门打开，把直升机拖了出来。当我飞到空中时，我才意识到发生了什么。”

比夫尔接着连续飞行了接下来的11天，从日出到日落。

Biffle说：“那真是太不可思议了，第一周过得相当艰难。”

Biffle因其工作而获得了Myers Brothers人道主义奖。

接下来

该系列将于4月13日前往布里斯托尔，然后开始其传统的复活节假期。

美联社NASCAR专区：[https://apnews.com/hub/nascar-racing](https://apnews.com/hub/nascar-racing)