For much of Saturday afternoon (March 21), it looked like Kyle Larson would lead every lap.
He won the pole earlier that morning, and with stellar pit stops and an exceptional short-run car, he looked unbeatable by leading the first 94 laps and sweeping the first two stages.
He lost the lead after a slow pit stop at the end of stage two, and while he was eventually able to get back to the lead, he wasn’t able to recover from a second slow pit stop with 20 laps to go that dropped him to fourth.
Meanwhile, Justin Allgaier restarted second with 15 laps to go and passed Brandon Jones for the lead into turn 1 to score his second NASCAR O’Reilly Series win of the season, his fourth at Darlington Raceway and the 30th of his career. Allgaier ties Joey Logano for seventh on the series’ all-time win list, and he’s one win away from tying NASCAR Hall of Famer and two-time series champion Jack Ingram for sixth.
The win also extended Allgaier’s points lead, as he now sports a 52-point advantage over defending series champion Jesse Love.
The Winners
A runner-up finish is a much-needed result for defending Darlington spring race winner Brandon Jones after a best finish of 10th in the first five races of 2026. He started the race in eighth, ran top five all day and capitalized on great pit stops to finish second. It’s been a sluggish start for Joe Gibbs Racing’s O’Reilly program as a whole, as JGR’s three full-time O’Reilly drivers had failed to record a single top five in the first five races. Jones’ runner-up should help stop the bleeding.
Viking Motorsports continues to be the biggest surprise to start the season, as the team ran toward the front all day and put both cars in the top 12 at the finish. Parker Retzlaff led the way with an eighth-place finish, and he now sits ninth in series points with five top-15 finishes in the first six races. Teammate Anthony Alfredo finished 12th for his second top-15 result in the last three races.
JR Motorsports continues to dominate the 2026 season, as the team scored its fourth consecutive win, put three cars in the top five and put four in the top 10. Carson Kvapil finished fifth and now sits third in the point standings, while Sammy Smith finished ninth to score his fifth top-10 in the first six races.
Viking Motorsports Ends Impressive Darlington Performance Near Valhalla
The Losers
A fourth-place finish would be a solid day for just about anyone, but not when you have the dominant car by a country mile. Larson led 107 of the first 127 laps, but the final pit stop that dropped him to fourth was too much to overcome. Even with as dominant of a car that he had to start the day, he ended the race with a whimper, failing to gain a single spot back in the final 15 laps.
Austin Hill saw a promising day turn into a nightmare quick, as an unscheduled pit stop in the first stage dropped him from the top 15 to dead last and two laps down. With multiple cars one lap down and only three cautions the entire race, his chances of getting back on the lead lap were all but over.
The only caution for cause was for a multi-car crash on lap 123, and it was a crash that Hill was unable to avoid. He finished the day five laps down in 35th and dropped from third to fifth in series points.
If Viking Motorsports is the biggest surprise to start the year, Sam Hunt Racing is the biggest disappointment. Harrison Burton made the playoffs a year ago with AM Racing, and he now sits 26th in points with just one top 20 in his first six starts with SHR. Teammate Dean Thompson has also regressed, as he sits 24th in points with one top 15 and an average finish seven spots lower than last year.
Fuel for Thought
JRM keeps rewriting the record books.
The team is on a streak of four consecutive O’Reilly wins with three different drivers, and they’ve won an absurd 18 of the last 30 races. The team entered the 2025 season with 88 wins, and they’re now at 109 wins after Darlington.
JRM passed Richard Childress Racing to become the third-winningest team in series history last fall, and it isn’t far behind second place RFK Racing’s mark of 138. Given JRM’s current pace and the fact that RFK hasn’t fielded a car in the series since 2018, JRM could become the second-winningest O’Reilly team by the end of 2027.
First place is well out of reach, as JGR leads the way with a whopping 221 victories. With a 112-win cushion over JRM, it’s safe to say that Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s team will have to (eventually) be satisfied with second.
Bad Pit Stop Tames Kyle Larson at Darlington
Paint Schemes of the Week
Darlington is no longer home to an official weekend for throwback paint schemes, but that didn’t stop a handful of teams from getting creative.
The absolute winner? Thompson’s SHR No. 26, which paid tribute to Greg Biffle’s 3M-sponsored NASCAR Cup Series cars in the late 2000s and early 2010s.
Brennan Poole also raced a Biffle tribute, throwing back to his National Guard paint schemes in the mid-2000s.
Austin Green ran a throwback to his father David Green’s 1994 championship-winning Slim Jim colors, while Garrett Smithley ran a throwback to himself, sporting the paint scheme of his former O’Reilly ride at JD Motorsports 10 years ago.
What’s Next?
The NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series heads to Martinsville Speedway, the shortest track on the schedule, for the NFPA 250 on Saturday, March 28. Coverage begins at 3:30 p.m. ET on The CW.
