Watch: Razor-thin pit stop move between Denny Hamlin and William Byron that made all the difference at Darlington

NASCAR Cup Series driver William Byron came short of his second win of the 2025 season after Denny Hamlin's pit crew nailed a fast 9.42-second pit stop. The Hendrick Motorsports driver won the Daytona 500 earlier this season and was on track to win his second race last Sunday at Darlington Raceway. Byron led the most, 243, out of the total at Goodyear 400, but the final pit stop cost him the chance at victory by a fraction of a second.

Hamlin and Byron pitted during a late caution after Kyle Larson spun out and hit the wall of the 1.366-mile oval in South Carolina. Byron had the better spot in pit road and seemed likely to come out ahead, but the Joe Gibbs Racing's No. 11 pit crew was faster. Hamlin left the pit road in front and secured his second consecutive win of the season after Martinsville.

NASCAR race mechanic and pit crew member Bozi Tatarevic shared the in-car footage of the pit stops for the No. 11 and No. 24 teams on X and wrote:

"The difference on the tire change on that last pit stop between the pit crews of [Denny Hamlin] and [William Byron] was just 0.15 seconds. Watch the pit stops side-by-side to see why the [Joe Gibbs Racing] jack move...was key here."

On the final restart, 23XI Racing's Tyler Reddick lined up beside Hamlin but struggled to get going. That gave Hamlin the lead, and Byron could not catch up and finished in second place ahead of Christopher Bell.

'This fuels the fire for the next few weeks' - William Byron after a dominant Darlington Cup race

William Byron had a strong race at Darlington and scored the most points, 56. The 27-year-old has four top-five finishes this season and leads the NASCAR Cup standings with 315 points.

Byron sported Jeff Gordon’s 2015 Homestead-Miami Speedway throwback paint scheme in the famous No. 24 car and was the fastest during the qualifying sessions on Saturday. He had a lap time of 28.774 seconds and beat Ryan Preece by just 0.084 seconds to claim his second pole position of this season. Byron also dominated the race until late pit stops. After the late crash caused a caution, Byron came out third and passed Reddick for second, but Hamlin was already too far ahead.

"I felt like we are a way stronger team this year. I don't think we ever had this performance in us last year. We had more wins but that was capitalizing on the end-of-the-race moments or having great track position. I wish we had it there but this fuels the fire for the next few weeks coming up," William Byron said via FrontStretch (01:45 onwards).

Byron won three races last year and finished the season in third place.