Who… should you be talking about after the checkered flag?
Winning at Darlington Raceway is more about racing the race track than the other cars, and the track nicknamed the Lady in Black is unforgiving to drivers who think otherwise. Early on, it was Brad Keselowski who led the dance, winning both of the opening stages and leading a race-high 142 laps.
But the Lady is fickle, and handling changes is the name of the game. In the final stage, it was Tyler Reddick with the fastest car, and he made the most of it, winning the Goodyear 400 to take home his fourth trophy in six races this year.
Not only did Reddick join elite company (the only other drivers to win four of the first six races in a year were Hall of Famers Dale Earnhardt and Bill Elliott), he overcame alternator issues and a pit penalty to do it. Having to cut all extraneous equipment to help the battery problems, Reddick found himself not only without his cooling suit but actually with the now not-circulating water in the suit heating up to make him hotter. He was able to drain some of the hot water under caution, but it was another obstacle for him to overcome. Reddick beat Keselowski by 5.847 seconds, the largest margin of victory of the year by nearly two seconds.
It is Reddick’s fourth win of 2026 and the 12th of his Cup career. Notably, he does not have a stage win in 2026; the No. 45 team is playing the long game and making it work. In the Chase era 2.0, are they learning how to make a title run later on?
On the other hand…
It wasn’t a terrible day for Denny Hamlin behind the wheel; it just wasn’t the day expected of him, particularly coming off a win and especially at Darlington, where he has visited victory lane five times. A wheel issue in stage one and a tangle with Erik Jones on lap 111 set Hamlin’s day back, and a penalty for pitting too early because of the crash put him at the back of the field. Hamlin climbed back to finish 11th, but for the driver who has tamed the Lady so often, no stage points and zero laps led is definitely not the expectation.
What… is the big question everyone should be asking after the race?
With 20 weeks left until the Chase and no guaranteed spots, it’s too early for anyone to be hitting the panic button. But it’s definitely time to start asking questions, and the team that should be searching for answers this week is the No. 22 of Joey Logano.
What’s going on for the three-time champ … and is it a bigger issue for Team Penske?
It’s hard to call it an organization-wide problem. Ryan Blaney currently sits second in points with a win and four top 10s. Austin Cindric only has one top 10, but that’s actually on pace to come out ahead of last year’s season total.
But Logano’s team should be concerned. Since his third-place finish in the Daytona 500, Logano has finished no better than 15th. His 33rd-place finish at Darlington wasn’t because of a crash or a mechanical failure. Those things happen. He didn’t have a penalty to recover from, didn’t have to drop to the back at the start … he simply ran 33rd.
In the last five races, Logano has finishes of 18th, 15th, 31st, 15th and 33rd. The 31st at Phoenix Raceway was due to a crash after he started on the pole, so even looking past that, the pattern is worrisome. It’s time for the team to be asking — and answering — the hard questions.
The Underdog House: Carson Hocevar Earns Darlington Top 5 in Dale Earnhardt Colors
Where… did he come from?
After some self-made issues on Saturday learning the fastest way around Darlington, Carson Hocevar treated the Lady in Black just right on Sunday. After starting at the rear of the field for adjustments stemming from repairs, Hocevar did not make much progress in the first half of the race.
But in the final stage, he charged forward with lap times equal to or faster than Reddick’s. Ultimately, time and tires ran out before he could make a race of it, but Hocevar still had a strong fourth-place finish to show for it.
Of equal importance was the way he got there. Hocevar has the reputation of being overly aggressive, often to his own detriment, but his final run on Sunday wasn’t over the top and didn’t put him on a dozen different drivers’ lists of public enemy No. 1. Instead, the driver who has earned the nickname “Hurricane” for his style played it just right, taking advantage of mistakes and of the changing track to make his run work for him. That’s the type of racing that will earn him wins down the road.
When… are we going to talk about the points?
The more the season progresses, the more difficult it becomes to make up a lot of ground in a single race. On the flip side, a bad race doesn’t mean a freefall through the ranks either.
Winning, with the attached bonus, is the biggest difference-maker in terms of points, and winning two-thirds of the races so far in 2026 has given Reddick quite the points lead as he leaves Darlington with a 95-point advantage over Blaney, up from 61 points entering the weekend.
Part of that gain comes from teammate Bubba Wallace’s issues and subsequent 34th-place finish, as Wallace lost the second spot in points to Blaney, who moved up on the strength of his third-place result. Hamlin and Chase Elliott stayed put in fourth and fifth, respectively.
William Byron grabbed two spots to climb into sixth while Buescher also gained a pair to slot into seventh. Christopher Bell fell to eighth, Keselowski took over ninth and Kyle Larson tumbled three spots to round out the top 10.
Keselowski is the only driver to move into the top 10 this week, thanks to his two stage wins, replacing Ty Gibbs, who dropped to 11th despite a sixth-place run.
The biggest gain of the week came for Chase Briscoe, who moved up four positions to 22nd. Logano took the biggest tumble, falling five spots from 11th to 16th after his 33rd-place finish Sunday.
Why… should you be paying attention this week?
The high horsepower/low downforce package will get its first short-track test this weekend as the Cup Series makes the first of two trips to Martinsville Speedway. The Next Gen car has struggled to be competitive at Martinsville in particular, so the next race will be an important test.
Fans expect Martinsville to produce close-quarters racing and drivers having to use their bumpers to root their way past other cars. That’s been missing with the current car as the leader was able to use clean air to his advantage, something that had mostly been reserved for larger tracks.
If the racing is tighter, pay attention to the drivers who ran well at Martinsville before the Next Gen; this could very well play into the hands of veterans like Hamlin or Keselowski. If the changes don’t make enough of a difference, then keep an eye on Byron and Blaney along with Hamlin, who have all been successful with the previous Next Gen package.
How… did this race stack up?
It’s hard to distinguish a race where clean air rules the day to the detriment of the racing from one where one driver just has a car that’s better than the rest.
Sunday was the latter. Early on, it was Keselowski, and then as the track changed, Reddick had a car that was simply on another planet for the last run.
While neither scenario ends up with a thrilling finish, the way this one played out wasn’t a disappointment.
The updated package continues to yield some improvements in the racing, and the tire compound worked with a Darlington surface that’s notorious for eating up tires. Fresh rubber mattered, tire management was important, but tire failures didn’t take away from the show. Sure, a little more falloff would have been even better, but overall, the combination of tire and track worked.
Bottom line, maybe it wasn’t a Ricky Craven-Kurt Busch door banger, but the race played out organically and came down to the team that raced the track the best, which is how racing at Darlington should be. It was the kind of race fans should look at as a baseline during any given season — solid if unspectacular, and leaving the impression that the margin of victory was due more to a great car than simply clean air.
Nice analysis, Amy, and I’m in full agreement. As a BK fan, I was a little disappointed that he didn’t win, but finishing second to Reddick right now is almost the best that any of the other drivers can do. All in all, RFK had a great race, but that’s a topic for Dalton’s column this morning.
I have been impressed by Reddick since his days in what was the Xfinity series at the time. He’s aggressive, but man, is he talented. His team has given him the car to beat, and he has taking it to the checkers more times this season than not. That’s how you win championships, and I have no doubt that he’s a future champion,