WELLINGTON, New Zealand — NASCAR driver Shane van Gisbergen walked away from a multiple-car crash at a dirt track speedway meeting at Auckland in his native New Zealand on Thursday.
Van Gisbergen, who drives the No. 88 Chevrolet ZL1 for Trackhouse Racing in the NASCAR Cup series, was driving in a sprint car race at the Western Springs Speedway.
Cars driven by American Jonathan Allard and New Zealander Michael Pickens collided at the front of the field and van Gisbergen’s car was caught up in the subsequent melee and finished pinned against the wall.
All drivers were unhurt but a spectator was treated for minor injuries.
Van Gisbergen also was uninjured in a minor crash at the Baypark Speedway at Tauranga on Dec. 26.
DARLINGTON, S.C. — Denny Hamlin did his job so his pit crew could do its most stellar stop at the perfect time.
Hamlin came into the pits after a final caution in third place and told himself to hit every mark, then let his guys take over.
And that’s what the Joe Gibbs Racing group did, pulling off a perfect winning moment that sent Hamlin out with the lead. He took over on the final restart and held off William Byron to win the Goodyear 400 on Sunday.
It was Hamlin’s 56th career NASCAR win, his fifth at Darlington Raceway and his second straight this season
“When you think about 56 wins, that’s a huge deal,” said Gibbs, Hamlin’s longtime car owner.
Hamlin said he hung on throughout as Byron and others looked like they might pull out victory. Instead, Hamlin waited out his time and then pounced as he broke away during the green-white-checkered finish.
“I can still do it, I can do it at a high level and look forward to winning a lot of races this year,” Hamlin said.
Hamlin won for a second straight week after his success at Martinsville.
Hamlin chose the outside lane for a final restart and shot out to the lead and pulled away from series points leader Byron and NASCAR wins leader Christopher Bell.
Hamlin looked like he’d have a strong finish, but not a winning one as Ryan Blaney passed Tyler Reddick for the lead with three laps left. But moments later, Kyle Larson spun out forcing a final caution and the extra laps.
It was then time for Hamlin’s Joe Gibbs Racing pit crew to shine as it got him out quickly and in the lead.
Byron, who led the first 243 laps, was second with Hamlin’s JGR teammate Bell in third.
“There are two people I really love right now, my pit crew and Kyle Larson,” Hamlin said to a round of boos from those in the stands.
Reddick was fourth and Blaney was fifth. The rest of the top 10 finishers were Chris Buescher, Ross Chastain, Chase Elliott, Ty Gibbs and Kyle Busch.
Hamlin credited the past two victories to his pit crew.
“The pit crew just did an amazing job,” he said. “They won it last week, they won it this week. It’s all about them.”
Blaney had thought he was clear to his first-ever Darlington victory after getting by Reddick late. When he saw the caution flag for Larson’s spin, he said he thought, “Oh, no! I thought we had the race won.”
So did Byron, who sought was to become the first NASCAR driver in nearly 25 years to lead every lap on the way to victory. He got shuffled down the standings during the last round of green-flag pit stops and could not recover.
“It was looking like it was going to be a perfect race and we were going to lead every lap,” he said.
But once “we lost control, it was too late to get back up there,” Byron said.
Bad day
Kyle Larson, who won the Southern 500 here in 2023, had high hopes for a second Darlington win. But he slid into the inside wall coming off the second turn on lap three and went right to garage where his team worked the next couple of hours to get him back on track. Larson returned on lap 164 after falling 161 laps off the pace. Larson finished next to last in 37th.
Greg Biffle, the last NASCAR driver to win consecutive Cup Series victories at Darlington in 2006 and 2007, drove the pace car for the Goodyear 400 on Sunday. Biffle has had an eventful few months, flying rescue missions with his helicopter into areas of the Southeast affected by devastating Hurricane Helene in September.
Biffle was planning a weeklong trip to the Bahamas when his phone started going off about people stranded in parts of Western North Carolina.
“I went to the hangar and the power was out,” Biffle said. “We got the hangar down open with the tug and got the helicopter out. Once I got in the air, I realized what had taken place.”
Biffle then flew the next 11 days from “sunup to sundown.”
“It was incredible,” Biffle said. “It was pretty tough going for the first week.”
Biffle won the Myers Brothers Humanitarian Award for his work.
Up next
The series goes to Bristol on April 13 before taking its traditional Easter break.
In response to the preliminary injunctions granted to 23XI Racing — owned by Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin — and Front Row Motorsports, NASCAR filed a brief on Friday urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit to reverse the decision.
In the appeal, NASCAR contends that 23XI and Front Row sought and received injunctions binding them to the 2024 charter agreement despite contending that the charter violates antitrust law.
NASCAR asserted that U.S. District Judge Kenneth D. Bell misapplied antitrust laws and portrayed the release of claims as standard business practice, not anti-competitive conduct. NASCAR argued that businesses, per case law, have a right to choose the terms and conditions of their agreements and that it’s the teams’ choice to accept or decline those terms.
Per the appeal, NASCAR went on defend exclusivity agreements with racetracks and limited non-compete clauses, emphasizing their importance in cost control and consistency for race operations and media rights.
NASCAR presented 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports as investments by entrepreneurs such as Jordan, contrasting them with antitrust cases involving athletes restricted by monopolistic environments.
In the appeal, NASCAR explained its competitiveness in attracting capital, fans and owners, citing high turnover and the need for continual investment.
Meanwhile, 23XI and Front Row in court filings have maintained that NASCAR’s business practices are monopolistic and anticompetitive and deny teams a fair shake.
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Lamar Jackson-Dale Earnhardt Jr. trademark dispute resolved
Jamison Hensley
Apr 4, 2025, 01:33 PM ET
OWINGS MILLS, Md. -= It looks like Dale Earnhardt Jr. has waved the red flag in a short-lived trademark dispute with Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson.
The NASCAR legend announced Friday on social media that he has secured the right to use a stylized version of No. 8 and will abandon the original No. 8 logo used by Earnhardt’s JR Motorsports. This decision came two days after Jackson filed an opposition claim with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to stop Earnhardt from putting that JR Motorsports version of No. 8 on merchandising.
“We are looking forward to the remainder of an already successful season,” Earnhardt wrote on social media.
