The NASCAR Cup Series Southern 500 results are quite intense. After starting tonight’s “Cook Out Southern 500” at Darlington Raceway from the pole, Christopher Bell had his jack malfunction on his first pit stop handing the lead to Tyler Reddick and Denny Hamlin once pit stops cycled through. Bell fell back to the sixth position.
After tagging the wall, Bell’s No. 20 Toyota just wasn’t up to snuff and struggled the remainder of the race.
As Bubba Wallace spun off Turn 4, Hamlin would go on to capture the victory in Stage 1, his sixth stage win of the year.
About halfway through Stage 2, the yellow flag waved for something other than an on track incident. The lights in Turns 3 and 4 switched off, throwing a blanket of darkness on a portion of the track. Certainly an odd situation for the drivers.
After a little red flag delay, the lights came back on, and the race was able to resume with 40 laps to go in the second stage.
With four circles left in Stage 2, Austin Cindric squeezed Ty Gibbs into the wall, causing both the No. 2 and No. 54 to suffer significant damage. The accident set up a one lap sprint to the stage end with Hamlin again taking the victory.
Hamlin was dominating the night under the lights until he pitted with 95 circuits to go and lost the lead to the car he owns, the No. 45 of Tyler Reddick. After two more laps, Hamlin screamed on his radio that he had a loose wheel. The No. 11 had to make an extra stop, thus killing his chances at winning the race. Hamlin fell to the 31st position, one lap down.
With under 60 laps to go, Kevin Harvick was catching Reddick for the lead when Harvick decided to pit. Reddick slowed down to try and join the No. 4 in the pits but ended up getting in the way of Ryan Newman, causing Newman to spin around. That caution was deployed while Harvick was just about to hit pit road. Before he passed the commitment line, the pits closed. Harvick’s team still serviced the car while the pits were closed. A big mistake by the No. 4 team. Harvick had to restart in the back as a penalty.
On the restart, Alex Bowman attempted to block Daniel Suarez but ended up putting both in the wall. Unfortunately, the accident also collected the innocent driver of Harrison Burton. It was an early end for all three drivers.
Three playoff drivers would then be collected in an accident after Todd Gilliland spun after a little contact with Kyle Busch, collecting Denny Hamlin, Michael Mcdowell, and Christopher Bell.
While Mcdowell headed for the garage, Hamlin and Bell continued on.
The field would see the green flag with 32 laps remaining with Kyle Larson and Tyler Reddick surging ahead. Both Larson and Reddick would trade paint with the wall but continued to run the fastest laps of all the leaders.
In the end, it was Larson crossing the finish line first for his first-ever triumph at Darlington in the NASCAR Cup Series and his third victory of the season.
Larson is now locked into the round of 12 in the championship hunt.
This also marks the 299th victory for Hendrick Motorsports as an organization and the 500th victory for the HMS engine shop.
NASCAR Cup Series Southern 500 Results
- Kyle Larson
- Tyler Reddick
- Chris Buescher
- William Byron – LLI Pick 1
- Ross Chastain
- Brad Keselowski
- Bubba Wallace
- Chase Elliott
- Ryan Blaney
- Erik Jones
- Kyle Busch
- Joey Logano
- AJ Allmendinger
- Aric Almirola
- Chase Briscoe
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr
- Carson Hocevar – No. 42
- Martin Truex Jr
- Kevin Harvick
- Austin Dillon
- Ty Gibbs
- Corey Lajoie
- Christopher Bell – LLI Pick 2
- Justin Haley
- Denny Hamlin – Stage 1&2 🏁 – LLI Pick 3
- Todd Gilliland
- Ryan Newman
- Ryan Preece
- Ty Dillon
- JJ Yeley
- Austin Cindric
- Michael Mcdowell
- Alex Bowman
- Daniel Suarez
- Harrison Burton
- BJ McLeod
Playoff Points After NASCAR Cup Series Southern 500 Results
- Kyle Larson 🏆
- William Byron +45
- Tyler Reddick +30
- Chris Buescher +27
- Denny Hamlin +27
- Martin Truex Jr +25
- Kyle Busch +20
- Brad Keselowski +18
- Ryan Blaney +16
- Ross Chastain +13
- Joey Logano +3
- Christopher Bell +1
In Danger: - Bubba Wallace -1
- Kevin Harvick -2
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr -4
- Michael Mcdowell -19
NASCAR Xfinity Series Update – Denny Hamlin Wins Again
In his one and only Xfintiy Series race of the year, Denny Hamlin checked out on the final restart of Saturday’s “Sport Clips Haircuts 200” to capture his sixth victory at Darlington in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.
With his sixth win at the track “Too Tough To Tame,” he now sits second behind Mark Martin in all-time victories. Martin collected eight checkered flags at Darlington.
Austin Hill out raced John Hunter Nemechek in the two-lap shootout to take second place.
Cole Custer, Josh Berry, Riley Herbst, Justin Allgaier, Sheldon Creed, Kyle Busch, and Daniel Hemric completed the top ten.
With one race remaining until the Xfintiy Series playoffs, Riley Herbst sits 12th with 1 point separating him and Parker Kligerman.
Who’s going to be the final driver to make the chase for the championship?
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