One of NASCAR’s most exciting weekends, the annual Throwback Weekend, concluded today with the Goodyear 400 and what a race it was. The paint schemes for this year were slick and historically accurate. Fans loved it, despite a couple of Debbie Downer drivers out there. Hendrick Motorsports in particular had a crop of great schemes. The best of them was William Byron’s throwback to Jeff Gordon’s last ride from 2015. The 24 car had the correct car number, sponsor, and color scheme, making it the most historically accurate. His teammates Kyle Larson and Alex Bowman weren’t slouching on the weekend either. Larson threw back to Terry Labonte’s Tony the Tiger Kellogg’s car while Bowman threw it back to Jimmie Johnson’s Lowe’s for Pros scheme. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a clean sweep for HMS as Chase Elliott’s “throwback” to Ken Schrader’s number 25 Kodiak car was just abysmal.
Other slick rides included Noah Gragson’s throwback to Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s first Xfinity Series start. And then there’s Josh Berry, who threw back to Jim Clark’s 1965 Indianapolis 500 win. The Wood Brothers were on Clark’s pit crew that day.
Cool paint schemes aside, the race itself was an awesome but typical Darlington showdown. Tire conservation was a major story heading into today’s race as teams were only given 11 sets of Goodyear rubber. So, with all of that in mind, here are the 3 key takeaways from today’s Goodyear 400 at the track Too Tough to Tame.
Where did he come from? After William Byron led 243 laps and ultimately lost the race on pit road, it looked like the clear-cut winner of this race was going to be Ryan Blaney. However, Kyle Larson wrecked again with 4 laps to go, triggering NASCAR Overtime. Obviously, with everyone’s tires worn practically to the core, the whole field came down pit road for some fresh Goodyear rubber. Denny Hamlin owes his pit crew for putting him in position to win the race off pit road and secure the lead with an 8 second stop. After that lightening fast stop, the race was pretty much over.
When the race restarted, Hamlin fired out of the gate and put distance between himself and William Byron, who had to wrestle second away from Tyler Reddick. Nobody had anything for Hamlin in that two-laps shootout and he was able to walk away with this win relatively easy. This is Hamlin’s second win in a row and his second of 2025.
Making headlines this weekend, perhaps for the wrong reason, was Chase Elliott for his comments regarding the status of Throwback Weekend. Essentially, Elliott thinks that Throwback Weekend has lost its luster. And since he’s NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver, his words carry a tremendous amount of weight. But just because he dominates NASCAR’s yearly popularity contest doesn’t mean that his comments weren’t met with controversy. Media members and fans alike were quick to criticize Elliott’s take. Even fellow drivers, like Kyle Busch, said that it’s not really about them or the teams but the fans in the grandstands. As long as fans enjoy it, Throwback Weekend should be an annual NASCAR tradition.
For most fans, NASCAR’s annual Throwback Weekend at Darlington is viewed favorably. With schemes like Larson’s, Gragson’s, Berry’s, and Byron’s, the weekend continues to be fresh. Of course, there’s an occasional bad scheme, like Elliott’s own 2025 “throwback” to Ken Schrader. But, by and large, many of this year’s schemes slapped. Throwback Weekend is an opportunity for the stars of today to pay homage to the pioneers who built the sport. It’s also a fun opportunity for sponsors to take a look back through their own history books by dusting off old logos. Case and point are the Zane Smith Long John Silver’s and Justin Allgaier’s Brandt schemes.
Here’s to hoping throwback weekend stays an annual NASCAR tradition.
William Byron was so good in this race that saying that he dominated even feels like a major understatement. Byron was quick from the moment they unloaded on Saturday until the checkered flag flew on Sunday. He started the weekend by setting a new NextGen-era track record of 28.774. He was nearly a full second faster than the second-place qualifier, Ryan Preece. And by the time the green flag dropped, Byron was already putting a hurting on the field. He pulled away to a massive lead and even through early cautions, managed to fire off more than good enough on restarts to retain his lead. Ultimately, he led every lap of Stage 1 to win it relatively uncontested.
In the early parts of Stage 2 it looked like Byron might have some challengers. Bubba Wallace was able to get within a few car lengths of the leader but faded as the run went on. Then his 23XI teammate Tyler Reddick tried his hand at a battle for the lead. But like Bubba, his attempt failed. Around the halfway point of the second stage, it looked like Byron might relinquish the lead for the first time today during a cycle of green flag pit stops. Fortunately for Byron’s dominant performance, the caution came out at just the right time and he was able to win the race off of pit road and retain his lead. He went on to win that stage as well and he wasn’t done yet.
The third and final stage was more of the same. William Byron fired off strong on the restart and never looked back. He expanded his lead to about 4 seconds with his sights on leading every lap of this race. He just needed a well-timed caution. Unfortunately for him that caution never came and the 24 crew was forced to make a green flag pit stop. Ultimately, the 24 stayed out too long, losing a lot of time on track and dropping down to the 4th position. It looked like his quest for the win was over as he settled in and Ryan Blaney started to drive off into the sunset.
He got a sliver of hope when Kyle Larson got loose again in the closing laps, triggering another caution. But after coming off pit road in 3rd, things weren’t looking ideal for the number 24 crew. Upon the restart, he chose to roll off on the outside of the second row but he didn’t have enough to run down eventual winner Denny Hamlin. At the end of the day, William Byron scored the Xfinity Fastest Lap and led a grand total of 243 laps of the Goodyear 400.
For the fourth straight year, Kyle Larson crashed out of the annual Throwback race at Darlington. This year, it happened on Lap 4. As you can see in the footage of the incident below, Larson’s number 5 throwback to Terry Labonte’s Tony the Tiger car snapped loose coming out of Turn 2. He slid his number 5 HendrickCars.com car down the track and hard into the inside wall. The 5 car was towed back to the garage where his crew went to work repairing the damage. He returned to the race after more than an hour and a half in the garage. He was scored 165 laps down.
For an extra kick in the pants, a near-identical incident occurred with 4 laps to go. How’s that for some foreshadowing? This incident ended his race.
All right, NASCAR fans! What did you think of the Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway? Relatively, it was an uneventful race, in our opinion. Did you have Hamlin winning on your BINGO card? What do you make of Byron’s dominant performance today? Let us know!
And be sure to tune back here all week long! We here at the Daily Downforce have all the latest news and garage rumors to get you ready for the Food City 500 aty Bristol Motor Speedway!
