DARLINGTON, S.C. — While Christopher Bell jumped from sixth to second in the Chase standings with his first win of the season, two of his fellow contenders fell victim to significant issues at Darlington Raceway.
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Both William Byron and Denny Hamlin lost crucial points due to issues out of their control. Now, they face more challenges as the Chase continues. Byron, in particular, is likely eliminated from championship contention.
Byron had the biggest problem of the night, despite scoring points in the first two stages. He suddenly spun with 52 laps remaining in the race and brought out the caution.
Initially, it appeared that Byron had just spun due to a flat tire. Yet, the team quickly realized that all four tires remained inflated. He then headed down pit road after saying that he felt something seriously wrong with the left rear.
TROUBLE FOR WILLIAM BYRON LATE IN THE RACE. 🫣
📺 /📱 : USA Network pic.twitter.com/UsxCMxXekd
— NASCAR on USA (@NASCARonUSA) September 7, 2026
The No. 24 team of Hendrick Motorsports examined the car and changed the tires. They didn't see anything majorly wrong, so Byron headed back out onto the track. However, the two-time Daytona 500 winner said that he felt something dragging on the left rear as he circled the track.
Suddenly, smoke began pouring from the left front of the Chevrolet, which caused Byron to say that he was blowing up. He ultimately took the car to the DVP area in the garage, where the team attempted to diagnose the problem and get him back on track.
They were not able to achieve this goal. Byron's night ended on Lap 319 due to an engine failure, and he left Darlington Raceway with a 37th-place finish. He is now last in the Chase standings and 114 points back of Hamlin, the points leader.
"I've never had that happen," Byron said after exiting the race. "I felt like I had a flat left-rear tire in (Turns) 1 and 2, so I slowed down quite a bit and I was going to pit and try to be early on the cycle. I'm not sure, it was super odd.
"I don't know if I was blowing up in that process and got oil on my tire or what. We had an eighth or ninth-place run going, but it was just an unfortunate end to the evening for this No. 24 Valvoline Restore & Protect Chevrolet team."
Hamlin, for comparison, did not have a mechanical issue. He hit the wall after contact from Michael McDowell, which broke a toe link.
Hamlin and McDowell get together coming out of Turn 4.
The No. 11 will drop back to 20th place. pic.twitter.com/ivimzKrWZ0
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) September 6, 2026
The incident unfolded early in the final stage, after a slow pit stop had dropped Hamlin from third in the field to well outside the top 10.
He raced to the inside of McDowell exiting Turn 4, and then he slid up in front of the Spire Motorsports driver. McDowell then hit Hamlin from behind, which spun the No. 11 Toyota into the outside wall.
"It's a professional sport, so you gotta... you can't have big mistakes," Hamlin said. "And we just had a tough pit stop there that set us back from third to about 20th.
"And once once we got back there, you're with guys that are a little bit more aggressive and don't really care about the points or anything like that. And so you just... sometimes you don't get cut a break, and that's the way it goes."
Hamlin continued in the race, but he immediately said over the radio that he had damage. He then later said that his toe links were gone. Yet, he couldn't risk coming to pit road for repairs, as it would drop him at least three laps behind the leaders.
He just continued limping the No. 11 around the track until a caution came, and then the team had a chance to work on the car. They made some improvements, but Hamlin still could only just work on logging laps and trying to avoid other incidents.
He ultimately closed out the night with a 16th-place finish and 35 points, largely due to his 16 stage points scored earlier in the race. It was a serviceable recovery, but it hurt Hamlin.
He fell from 25 points up on the field to only 12 points over Bell, the race winner. Now, he has to try to get back on track at World Wide Technology Raceway, a track where he has one win in four starts.
"I mean, we're still leading, so we got to just go to the next racetrack and execute at a high level and it starts at practice," Hamlin said about moving forward in the Chase.
"And you know, we'll do our best to execute a much better day next week than what we did this week."
