Three big questions ahead of the Goodyear 400 at Darlington

Through five races of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season, the picture is becoming clearer as to who the contenders and pretenders are. 

Denny Hamlin won Sunday's race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and now heads to Darlington, where he won in April 2025. 

Here are three big questions ahead of the Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway on March 22. 

Will Alex Bowman race?

This will be a major storyline every week until Bowman, the driver of the No. 48 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, returns to one of the fastest cars in the series. After a disastrous start to the season, Bowman missed the last two races at Phoenix and Las Vegas with vertigo and is last (36th) in the Cup Series standings. 

His status is still up in the air for Darlington as well. Bowman was initially slated to drive the No. 88 Jr Motorsports Chevrolet in the March 21 NASCAR O'Reilly Series race, but was not on the series' entry list on Monday. 

That doesn't guarantee that he'll miss the Cup Series race, but it does put his status for the weekend into question. 

How does increased horsepower affect the racing?

As an oval under 1.5 miles in length, Darlington will see the Cup Series cars race with 750 horsepower under the hood this weekend rather than the standard 670. 

That increase did provide a noticeably better racing product at Phoenix on March 8, and coupled with the extreme tire wear that Darlington always provides, the first of two races at the 'Lady in Black' this year could be a barnburner. 

Is Denny Hamlin due for a repeat?

Not only is Hamlin the defending spring race winner at Darlington, but he's also coming off a fifth-place finish at Phoenix and a dominant performance at Las Vegas in which he led 134 laps en route to his first win of 2026. 

There's every reason to believe that Hamlin will be in contention at Darlington, and given how quick Toyota and Joe Gibbs Racing have been to start the season, back-to-back wins aren't at all out of the question for the 45-year-old veteran.