Joe Gibbs Racing and Team Toyota earned a sweep at Darlington Raceway this weekend with victories by Denny Hamlin (Cup) and Brandon Jones (Xfinity). Toyota also captured victory in the season opener of Formula DRIFT in Long Beach by Fredric Aasbø.
NASCAR
After a clutch pit stop by his crew and a swift overtime restart, Denny Hamlin captured victory at Darlington Raceway on Sunday afternoon. It was his second consecutive win following last weekend’s triumph at Martinsville. The victory marked Hamlin’s fifth career win at Darlington, tying him for fourth on the all-time list at the track. It was also his 56th career Cup Series win, moving him to 11th on the all-time wins list.
“I mean, truthfully, I wanted to race until the end,” Hamlin said. “I thought third place (was) kind of what we had. This is just a quintessential race where you just put yourself in the right place, things will fall your way. They didn’t (really) fall our way – our pit crew won it. It comes down to these crunch time situations. I had to do my job on pit road executing, but I have to thank all my sponsors, TRD (Toyota Racing Development). My kids, my family, my fiancé. I mean, what a great day! I didn’t see that trophy before the race, but that’s awesome!”
- Denny Hamlin
Christopher Bell (third), Tyler Reddick (fourth) and Ty Gibbs (ninth) joined Hamlin inside the top-10 on Sunday.
Brandon Jones used a late-race restart to power his way to the front and capture victory at Darlington Raceway in the Xfinity Series. Jones started second on Saturday and was in the fight all afternoon long, taking the lead with 12 laps to go, after the last restart, and not looking back.
Saturday’s triumph is Jones’ first win of 2025, his sixth career Xfinity Series victory and his first since 2022.
“This is just one I wanted to make a statement in,” Jones said. “Christopher Bell, Chase Elliott; some extremely talented Cup drivers in this field today. Sam McAulay (crew chief), these Joe Gibbs Racing guys, this pit crew, unbelievable! That’s what it takes to win these races. Everyone needs to be bought in, everybody’s got to be at their highest level. I had a restart with some of the best there at the end and knew it was going to be tough on older tires and some of the guys up front. But what an insane couple years it’s been to get back over here; get back mentally to know I’m back in a really good race car to win races again. It feels really good. I have to thank everyone at Turtle Wax, everyone at Menards. John Menard (founder and owner, Menards), everyone over there. They’ve become such good friends to me and family over a 10-year stretch racing Xfinity Series cars. For them to stick with us, it means a lot. I know this win means a lot for Menards and their whole family. I feel like there’s definitely more to come, but all day, we were as fast as Xfinity mobile. I thought our qualifying run was great and that we were the car to beat in practice. It all just worked itself out. What kept me going during those last few laps was, just telling myself, ‘it’s going to work out. There won’t be a caution. It’ll be fine.’ Because how many times have you seen that, where there’s a caution right at the end with a few to go and then you get used up on a restart. Just nice to have it all work out. We fired on all cylinders today. Everybody did. This is huge momentum for us.”
- Brandon Jones
Christopher Bell, who ran double duty this weekend, started from pole on Saturday in search of a repeat Darlington Xfinity Series win. Bell led the first 27 laps of the race, his 80th career Xfinity Series start, and was in contention late before contact with another driver hindered his shot at victory, resulting in a 25th-place finish.
ARCA WEST
Tanner Reif captured victory in the ARCA Menards Series West race at Tucson Speedway in his No. 13 Toyota Camry. Saturday night’s win is the third of Reif’s ARCA Menards Series West career.
FORMULA DRIFT
Fredric Aasbø captured victory in the Formula DRIFT season opener on the streets of Long Beach, California – his first win in Long Beach since 2020. Aasbø had stiff competition on his way to the event win, including having to defeat fellow Toyota teammates, Ken Gushi and Ryan Tuerck.
WHAT'S NEXT
NASCAR heads to Bristol Motor Speedway for the first of two visits this season – with all three national series in action. The Truck Series kicks things off Friday, April 11, at 7:30 p.m. EST on FS1, followed by the Xfinity Series on Saturday, April 12, at 5 p.m. EST on The CW Network. The Cup Series completes the weekend on Sunday, April 13, with coverage on FS1 at 3 p.m. EST.
The NHRA is back in action next weekend at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the first Four-Wide Nationals of the 2025 season. Coverage of eliminations can be seen on FS1 at 6:30 p.m. EST on Sunday, April 13.