![\"nascar](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/52076346-c9c2-4353-bc24-94eda05358ad.jpeg\" "\\"NASCAR")
Jonathan Bachman\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\nThroughout Sunday\u2019s Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway, it was obvious that the cars piloted by eventual winner Tyler Reddick, runner-up Brad Keselowski, and nineth-place finisher Chris Buescher were the class of the field.<\/p>\n
Keselowski was the 293-lap race\u2019s top lap leader, setting the pace on six occasions for 142 laps. Reddick led 77 laps and Buescher 41. However, it was an incident with 52 laps remaining that possibly cost Buescher a shot at victory. Reddick didn\u2019t know Buescher was headed for pit road and when he attempted to pass him on the inside, he clipped him and sent the RFK Racing driver into the wall. <\/p>\n
Related Story<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just racing,\u201d Buescher said. \u201cThe 6 (Keselowski) had just gotten by us and he (Reddick) probably was gonna go to the bottom and dive through there and pull a slider. That was probably what was on his mind and we kind of turned down last second to take that (entrance to pit road) and it\u2019s hard to check up that fast. It was nothing intentionally and I know that from where I\u2019m at without ever having to talk to him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reddick confirmed Buescher\u2019s supposition during his post-race interview. <\/p>\n
\u201cI knew he had a bad corner off of (turn) two, and I made my mind up that I was going to make the slide job into (turn) three,\u201d Reddick said. \u201cI hit the brake, but I was up his back bumper. I just completely ran him over. It\u2019s just one of those things that didn\u2019t need to happen. I don\u2019t know if he waved or not. If he didn\u2019t wave, I get it, because he\u2019s not trying to broadcast to me, he\u2019s going to pit because maybe I pit with him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pit Road Problems for Blaney<\/p>\n
Ryan Blaney posted a third-place finish in the Goodyear 400 for his fourth top-10 finish in six races and his second top-five in the last three events, but pit road issues forced him to have to drive through the field on several occasions on the tough Darlington track.<\/p>\n
Jonathan Bachman\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Ryan Blaney.<\/p>\n
The Team Penske driver cited pit road performance as definitely something where his team needed work. During his pit stop at the end of Stage one, the lug on the left front didn\u2019t get tightened and he had to stop in another Team Penske pit to get it tightened as he left pit road. <\/p>\n
\u201cI thought our car was pretty good, we just got set back too many times and it was hard to make it back up,\u201d Blaney said.<\/p>\n
Blaney said the high horsepower, low downforce package used in the Darlington race was a \u201chandful.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can crap the bed quickly if you were kind of rough on your stuff\u2026 so that part was good,\u201d Blaney said. \u201cThere was tons of fall off. I think you saw guys kind of get too much early and then they were done. <\/p>\n
Related Story<\/p>\n
\u201cVery rarely in my Cup career have I just let guys go, whether it\u2019s on restarts or green flag runs and say to myself, \u2018I\u2019m gonna see you in about 20,\u2019 and that was kind of the way it went today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hocevar, Suarez Snare Best Career Darlington Finishes<\/p>\n
Spire Motorsports teammates Carson Hocevar and Daniel Suarez posted their best-ever finishes at Darlington Raceway in Sunday\u2019s Goodyear 400, and they couldn\u2019t have been happier.<\/p>\n
Hocevar finished fourth to winner Tyler Reddick while Suarez placed seventh. Previously in six starts at the historic 1.366-mile track, Hocevar\u2019s best finish had been ninth, while Suarez\u2019s had been 10th in 17 Darlington races.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt hasn\u2019t been a lack of effort, but just a lack of luck that takes us out of finishes, so it\u2019s nice to take one today,\u201d said Hocevar, who had to go to the rear at the start of the race due to unapproved adjustments on his Chevrolet. <\/p>\n
The 23-year-old Hocevar said the 750 horsepower and less downforce package with a softer right-side tire didn\u2019t feel \u201ccrazy different, but it seemed like it was way different for everyone else, and we were able to pass a lot of cars.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was beneficial for us, for sure,\u201d Hocevar said.<\/p>\n
After the 293-lap race in nearly 90-degree temperatures, Suarez said all he could ask for was for his team to get \u201ca little bit better\u201d each week. <\/p>\n
Related Story<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not trying to hit home runs right now, we\u2019re just putting one step in front of the other, and that\u2019s how progress happens,\u201d Suarez said. <\/p>\n
Suarez said when he was watching Spire Motorsports from the outside, he viewed them as \u201cthe fastest growing team.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI was always curious, what are they doing to grow that quick?\u201d Suarez recalled. \u201cBut as the year (2025) went along and we put a deal together, I started to understand more and more. The culture of the team is pretty incredible. The best part is that they just continue to grow. We\u2019re not even close to our full potential, so we just have to keep doing our thing; keep building and get better and better.\u201d<\/p>\n
After six races, Hocevar is 13th in the driver point standings and Suarez is 14th. <\/p>\n
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A North Carolina native, Deb Williams is an award-winning motorsports journalist who is in her fourth decade covering auto racing. In addition to covering the sport for United Press International, she has written motorsports articles for several newspapers, magazines and websites including espnW.com<\/a>, USA Today, and The Charlotte Observer. Her awards include the American Motorsports Media Award of Excellence, two-time National Motorsports Press Association writer of the year, and two-time recipient of the Russ Catlin award. She also has won an award in the North Carolina Press Association\u2019s sports feature category.\u00a0 During her career, Deb has been managing editor of GT Motorsports magazine and was with Winston Cup Scene and NASCAR Winston Cup Scene for 18 years, serving as the publication\u2019s editor for 10 years. In 2024 she was inducted into the NMPA Hall of Fame.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Throughout Sunday\u2019s Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway, it was obvious that the cars piloted by eventual winner Tyler…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,782,215490,784,1642,634,215489,82,183339],"class_list":["post-556102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-content-type-news","tag-contentid-c049eecb-1481-4cfe-9926-e985ab318220","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-locale-us","tag-nascar","tag-shorttitle-nascar-darlington-notebook-battle-ends-with-twist","tag-sports","tag-subsection-nascar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}