Posted on by Data Skrive

Paul Menard placed ninth in the Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway on Sunday. It’s Menard’s third top-10 finish of the season.

Erik Jones took the checkered flag in the race, with Kyle Larson following in second, and Kyle Busch placing third. Kevin Harvick brought home fourth place, followed by Brad Keselowski to round out the top five.

Kurt Busch picked up 10 bonus points by winning Stage 1, and Kyle Busch finished out front in Stage 2.

Menard earned 28 points over the weekend, giving him 548 on the year. He ranks No. 19 in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series points standings. Menard did not grab any playoff points Sunday and still is seeking his first playoff points of the season.

The 16-year driver qualified in 17th position at 170.324 mph.

Menard has tallied one career victory, 20 top-five finishes and has placed in the top 10 in 68 races.

Menard battled 38 other cars in the field and the race saw seven cautions and 35 caution laps. There were 13 lead changes before the checkered flag.

Paul Menard Driver Page | Get Paul Menard Gear | Race Center

Posted on by Data Skrive

Clint Bowyer finished sixth in the Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway on Sunday. It’s Bowyer’s 11th top-10 finish of the season.

Erik Jones took the checkered flag in the race, with Kyle Larson following in second, and Kyle Busch crossing the finish line third. Kevin Harvick brought home fourth place, followed by Brad Keselowski in the No. 5 spot.

Kurt Busch picked up 10 bonus points by winning Stage 1, and Kyle Busch took Stage 2 to pad his totals for the weekend.

Bowyer earned 36 points over the weekend, giving him 625 on the year. He ranks No. 15 in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series standings. Bowyer did not collect any playoff points Sunday and remains on the hunt for his first playoff points of the season.

The 15-year driver qualified in 13th position at 170.566 mph. He led for one lap but relinquished the lead for good after Lap 321.

Bowyer has tallied 10 career victories, 78 top-five finishes and has placed in the top 10 in 207 races.

Bowyer battled 38 others cars in the field and the race saw seven cautions and 35 caution laps. There were 13 lead changes before the checkered flag.

Clint Bowyer Driver Page | Get Clint Bowyer Gear | Race Center

Posted on by Data Skrive

Kyle Larson placed second in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series at Darlington Raceway on Sunday, 4.058 seconds off the winning pace.

Erik Jones finished out front in the race, with Kyle Busch placing third. Kevin Harvick brought home fourth place, followed by Brad Keselowski in the No. 5 spot.

Kurt Busch picked up 10 bonus points by winning Stage 1, and Kyle Busch won Stage 2 to pad his totals for the weekend.

Larson earned 49 points over the weekend, giving him 714 on the season. He ranks No. 9 in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series standings. Larson did not collect any playoff points and remains at four on the season.

The seventh-year driver qualified in the third position at 171.842 mph. He led on two occasions for a total of 44 laps.

Larson has tallied five career victories, 53 top-five finishes and has placed in the top 10 in 93 races.

Larson battled 38 other cars in the field and the race saw seven cautions and 35 caution laps. There were 13 lead changes before the checkered flag.

Kyle Larson Driver Page | Get Kyle Larson Gear | Race Center

Posted on by Terrin Waack

DARLINGTON, S.C. — Good wasn’t good enough. Jimmie Johnson needed to be great.

A 16th-place finish didn’t do the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet any postseason justice Saturday at Darlington Raceway. Nor did it accurately represent Johnson’s overall run in the Bojangles’ Southern 500. Because for a majority of the 367 laps, Johnson did run in the top five or 10.

“Great car. Great stops. Just bad luck,” Johnson said. “I guess I had 15 years of really good luck and the last two or three have been pretty bad.”

RELATED: Darlington results | Championship standings

Especially on Lap 276, when the seven-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion got caught in a multi-car wreck while running fourth. He never fully recovered after his left front took the brunt of the damage.

There were 86 laps to go when the field returned to green, with Johnson 13th.

“It sucks really bad,” crew chief Cliff Daniels said. “At that point, because the nose wasn’t ripped off the car, I knew we still had a fighting chance to either get a lead-lap finish or a top-20 finish. Our day wasn’t totally over. So, man, we kept fighting.”

Pit stops were the only reason Johnson ever made it back into the top 10. He was scored the leader with 43 laps to go but pitted himself three go-arounds later. Once everyone cycled through, he stayed put in the upper teens – and a lap down.

“It’s not the result we want,” Johnson said, “but we’re definitely going in the right direction.”

Or at least staying stagnant.

Before Darlington, Johnson was ranked 18th in the championship standings – 26 points below the 16-drive cutline. The placement remains the same, but now 18 points separate him and the postseason with one regular-season race left at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

“It’s so hard and also unfair to put pressure on this race and the next race,” Johnson said. “We’ve had however many to get here and made a lot of mistakes along the way. It might come down to just a few points. You look at any race this year, we could have strung a few more points together.”

Johnson did earn the most stage points among the bubble drivers (Clint Bowyer finished sixth and ranks 15th; Daniel Suarez finished 11th and ranks 16th; Ryan Newman finished 23rd and ranks 17th). The HMS driver wound up with 13, finishing Stage 1 in second and Stage 2 in seventh. Bowyer got five from his sixth-place Stage 2 showing. Newman and Suarez didn’t receive any.

Johnson also earned the second-most points total (34) in that group. Bowyer took the better mark at 36, while Suarez and Newman had 26 and 14, respectively.

RELATED: Johnson’s driver page | Shop Johnson gear

Still, the gap between Johnson and the others was too big to close. Only tighten.

“I know that we actually ended up gaining just a little bit of points in the total picture, whatever that means,” Daniels said. “To be honest, Jimmie and I have had a lot of conversations about it, and we’re just trying to methodically make sure we’re building this team the right way rather than stab and steer and try to go for a Hail Mary. That’s not always the best approach. We’re definitely going to be methodical as we approach Indy, which is exactly what we did for here.”

And it almost worked.

Ten drivers have won a race this season, now including Erik Jones at Darlington. They’re all guaranteed a playoff berth. Kyle Larson, William Byron, Ryan Blaney and Aric Almirola then all clinched on points.

That leaves only two spots open.

“I didn’t even know who won,” Johnson said. “It is what it is. We’re going to keep digging.”

Posted on by Staff Report

The race-winning No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of Erik Jones has passed post-race technical inspection at Darlington Raceway with no issues.

The No. 20 was found to be compliant with the 2019 NASCAR Rule Book after Sunday night’s Bojangles’ Southern 500. Additionally, no cars are headed back to the R&D Center after the race. There was one lug nut found to be not secure on the Nos. 24 (William Byron), 42 (Kyle Larson), 88 (Alex Bowman) and 95 (Matt DiBenedetto).

With post-race teardown complete, the race results are official.

RELATED: Full Darlington results | Darlington stage winners

The post-race process is part of a new, more timely approach to inspection for all three NASCAR national series. Competition officials announced in February that thorough post-race inspections would take place shortly after the checkered flag at the track instead of midweek at the NASCAR Research & Development Center in Concord, North Carolina.

Those inspections come with a stiffer deterrence structure that includes disqualification for significant rules infractions — “a total culture change,” according to Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer. In the past, race-winning teams found in violation of the rules were penalized with post-race fines, points deductions and/or suspensions, but victories were allowed to stand.

Competition officials introduced the quicker post-race inspection timetable in an effort to make the results official on race day, aiming for a 90-minute target time frame to complete their scrutineering. The new post-race inspection process was also designed to deal with potential violations more promptly, avoiding any midweek news that might cloud the previous week’s results or the build-up to the following week’s event.

NASCAR will still inspect cars and parts at the R&D Center as needed, but the more comprehensive at-track inspection will take priority.

According to NASCAR statistical archives, the last time a premier-series driver was disqualified occurred in 1973, when early retiree Buddy Baker was demoted to last place in the National 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The last time an apparent race winner in NASCAR’s top division was disqualified came on April 17, 1960, when Emanuel Zervakis’ victory at Wilson (N.C.) Speedway was thrown out because of an oversized fuel tank on his No. 85 Chevrolet.

Posted on by Staff Report

Erik Jones won the Bojangles’ Southern 500 to punch his ticket into the NASCAR Playoffs, while Ryan Blaney, Kyle Larson, William Byron and Aric Almirola joined the Joe Gibbs Racing driver in the postseason via points.

All told, it was an eventful night in Darlington, South Carolina, where rain delayed the start of the 500-miler to 10 p.m. ET. Racing ended just before 2 a.m.

Those five drivers join the nine winners we’ve seen so far this season already in the field — Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr., Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski, Chase Elliott, Kurt Busch and Alex Bowman.

MORE: Race results

That means two playoff spots in the 16-driver field are up for grabs in next week’s regular-season finale at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Currently, Stewart-Haas Racing teammates Clint Bowyer and Daniel Suarez own the final two provisional spots. Ryan Newman and Jimmie Johnson are just below the cutoff line.

Suarez and Newman technically are tied for the final position, but the driver of the No. 41 Ford owns the tiebreaker.

This is the fourth consecutive year in which Larson has advanced to the postseason, the third for Blaney and second for both Jones and Almirola.

William Byron, 21, qualified for the Monster Energy Series Playoffs for the first time in his second season at NASCAR’s top level, and first with Chad Knaus atop the pit box.

Posted on by Reid Spencer

DARLINGTON, S.C. – As the clock ticked toward 2 a.m. on Monday, in a race delayed by rain for nearly four hours, Erik Jones claimed the most important victory of his career in the Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.

With his contract status at Joe Gibbs Racing a source of speculation throughout much of the current Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season, Jones made an emphatic statement, holding off teammate Kyle Busch and charging Kyle Larson after taking the lead from Larson on Lap 283.

“It was a lot of pressure,” said Jones, who claimed his first victory of the season and the second of his career. “Kyle (Busch) is a great race car driver. I’ve raced him a lot, and obviously you want to beat him to win, right? I was just locked in, man. I stayed focused. I really thought it was our night when we got out front.

“It’s amazing for me to be able to hold off Kyle. It’s really cool, just for the history we have with Kyle giving me my first opportunity in the Truck Series (at Kyle Busch Motorsports). To race him for the win in such a big race, that’s pretty cool and something I’m never going to forget.” 

RELATED: Official race results
SHOP: Jones gear

Busch, in fact, got within a car-length of Jones in the closing laps but a late brush with the outside wall ended his chances.

“I killed it,” Busch radioed to his team. Having cut a tire with the contact, Busch hugged the outside wall for the final lap and a half and still managed to finish third after Larson charged past into the runner-up spot.

“When he started to inch out a little bit,” Busch said after the race, “I was trying to save my right front, because I knew my right front wasn’t going to make it the whole rest of the way without me knocking the wall down, and I was right.

“I hit the wall with about four to go and then I hit it again with three to go, and it killed it that time. Luckily, we were able to salvage a third, just dragging the fence for the last two laps.”

Larson had the lead for a restart on Lap 282, after a massive pileup in Turn 4 on lap 275 ruined strong runs by Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch and Denny Hamlin. But Jones grabbed the lead one circuit after the restart and held the top spot after a cycle of green-flag pit stops with 40 laps left.

RELATED: Johnson, Hamlin involved in big wreck

“Erik did a good job on that last restart to get by me, and I was better than him all throughout that run,” Larson said. “It’s just I couldn’t ever do anything with him, just because the dirty air was really bad. Wore out surface and the groove is already narrow, and it was just extra difficult. I felt like both 18 (Kyle Busch) and I were a little bit better than he was at the end, but couldn’t do nothing with him.”

Kurt Busch was the dominant driver in Stage 1, leading at the competition caution after Lap 35 and posting a convincing win in the first 100-lap stage, but Johnson was arguably just as big a winner–temporarily.

Desperate to make the NASCAR Playoffs, the seven time series champion finished second to Busch in the stage and scored nine points, doubly significant because none of the three drivers Johnson was chasing for a berth in the postseason—Ryan Newman, Clint Bowyer and Daniel Suarez–finished in the top 10. 

Excellent work in the pits, however, vastly improved Bowyer’s track position in Stage 2, and though he lost spots in traffic late in the run, he held sixth in the stage and edged Johnson by one spot. Suarez and Newman, on the other hand, tangled on Lap 140, with Suarez turning Newman off Turn 2 to cause the fourth caution of the night.

RELATED: Newman issues warning to Suarez  |  Suarez, Newman make contact

Neither Suarez nor Newman scored points in the stage, won by Kyle Busch, who was first off pit road after caution for Corey LaJoie’s spin on Lap 157. Brother Kurt was second in the stage after chasing Bowyer for 30 laps and finally grabbing the second position on Lap 187.

But both Kurt Busch and Johnson were innocent victims of the multi-car crash on Lap 275, and Johnson surrendered most of the margin he had gained over the other “bubble drivers” in the first two stages. Johnson ended the night 18 points out of the final Playoff-eligible position, with Newman (23rd in the Southern 500) and Suarez (11th) tied for the last berth.

Bowyer finished sixth and moved up to 15th in the standings, eight points to the good over Newman and Suarez. With one race left to decide the playoff field, Ryan Blaney, Larson, William Byron and Aric Almirola are now locked into the postseason, as is Jones with the victory.

“What a car—just bad luck,” Johnson radioed to his team on the cool-down lap. “Let’s go to Indy (next Sunday’s race) and kick some butt.” 

Johnson likely will need a victory to advance to the postseason for the 16th straight season.

Jones, on the other hand, already has the win he needed.

“Is there anything more to say?” Jones asked rhetorically. “There’s been a lot of doubt and speculation. I’ve put my heart and soul into this race team. This is my living and how I want to make a career and what I want to do. 

“It doesn’t get any better than this. On my list, this race is really high, and it’s going to look damn good to see my face on that trophy.”

Posted on by Staff Report

Kyle Busch is the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Regular Season Champion, claiming the distinction for the second consecutive year following his third-place performance in the Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.

Clinching the regular-season title hands Busch a 15-point bonus heading into the 10-race playoffs, which begin Sept. 15 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The top 10 finishers in the regular-season standings receive bonus points on a sliding scale, starting with 15 for first and ending with one extra point for finishing 10th.

RELATED: Career highlights for Busch

“Obviously we set out to do that here a few weeks back,” Busch said. “We knew when (Logano) passed us and got the lead from us that it was going to be hard to get it back. But fortunately, we went back into stage racing a little bit more and tried to get some of the stage points, and that helped us. They weren’t able to capitalize on stage points. It’s good to get the regular-season championship, to get that 15 extra bonus points for the playoffs. That’s what we set out to do.”

Busch has been consistently excellent throughout 2019. His lowest position in the points standings all year was fourth after Las Vegas, the third race of the season. He was up to first the next week after his first win of the year, at ISM Raceway in Phoenix.

Joey Logano held the points lead following his win at Michigan International Speedway in June and managed to hold off Busch for seven races before “Rowdy” caught and passed the Team Penske driver in early August at Watkins Glen International.

With four victories and nine stage wins, the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing driver already had 29 playoff points entering Darlington — and he won Stage 2 on Sunday night to add another.

Martin Truex Jr. clinched the regular-season championship in 2017, its first year of inception.

Posted on by Staff Report

Which channels have NASCAR programming this week? We answer that and give the weekly NASCAR television listings here in the NASCAR TV schedule.

Note: All times are ET.

MORE: How to find NBCSN | Get the NBC Sports App | How to find FS1 | Get FOX Sports App

Monday, Sept. 2
Midnight, Racing Roots: Denny Hamlin (re-air), NBCSN/NBC Sports App
3 p.m., NASCAR 120: Darlington, NBCSN/NBC Sports App
5 p.m., NASCAR Victory Lap, NBCSN/NBC Sports App
6 p.m., IMSA Racing: Virginia International Speedway, NBCSN/NBC Sports App
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1/FOX Sports App

Tuesday, Sept. 3
5 p.m., Dale Jr. Download, NBCSN/NBC Sports App
6 p.m., Glory Road, NBCSN/NBC Sports App
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1/FOX Sports App
6:30 p.m., Glory Road, NBCSN/NBC Sports App

Wednesday, Sept. 4
5 p.m., NASCAR America: Motormouths, NBCSN/NBC Sports App
6 p.m., IMSA Racing: Virginia International Speedway, NBCSN/NBC Sports App
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1/FOX Sports App

Thursday, Sept. 5
5 p.m., NASCAR America: Motorsports Hour, NBCSN/NBC Sports App
6 p.m., Whelen Series: Toyota Mod Classic 150, NBCSN/NBC Sports App
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1/FOX Sports App
7 p.m., Beyond the Wheel (re-air), FS1/FOX Sports App

Friday, Sept. 6
Noon, IMSA Racing: Virginia International Speedway, NBCSN/NBC Sports App
2 p.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series first practice at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, NBCSN/NBC Sports App (Canada: TSN App)
4 p.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series final practice at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, NBCSN/NBC Sports App (Canada: TSN App)
5 p.m., NASCAR America, NBCSN/NBC Sports App

Saturday, Sept. 7
10 a.m., Dale Jr. Download, NBCSN/NBC Sports App
11 a.m., Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series first practice at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, NBCSN/NBC Sports App (Canada: TSN App)
noon, NASCAR Xfinity Series qualifying at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, NBCSN/NBC Sports App (Canada: TSN App)
1 p.m., Racing Roots: Denny Hamlin (re-air), NBCSN/NBC Sports App
1:30 p.m., Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series final practice at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, NBCSN/NBC Sports App (Canada: TSN App)
2:30 p.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series Countdown to Green, NBCSN/NBC Sports App
3 p.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series Indiana 250 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, NBCSN/NBC Sports App (Canada: TSN2)
5:30 p.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series Post Race, NBCSN/NBC Sports App

On PRN:
2:30 p.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series Indiana 250

Sunday, Sept. 8
7 a.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series Indiana 250 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (re-air), NBCSN/NBC Sports App
9:30 a.m., Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series final practice at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (re-air), NBCSN/NBC Sports App
10:30 a.m., Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Busch Pole Qualifying at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, NBCSN/NBC Sports App (Canada: TSN Ap)
11:30 a.m., Dale Jr. Download, NBCSN/NBC Sports App
12:30 p.m., NASCAR America, NBCSN/NBC Sports App
2 p.m., Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Big Machine Vodka 400 at the Brickyard at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, NBC/NBC Sports App (Canada: TSN1, 5)
6 p.m., Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Post Show, NBCSN/NBC Sports App
6:30 p.m., NASCAR Victory Lap, NBCSN/NBC Sports App

On PRN:
10:30 a.m., Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Busch Pole Qualifying
1 p.m., Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Big Machine Vodka 400 at the Brickyard

Posted on by Staff Report

Kyle Busch made it a Busch brothers sweep by beating Kurt Busch off pit road after a Lap 157 caution and taking Stage 2 of Sunday night’s Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. This came after Kurt won Stage 1 in dominating fashion.

For Kyle it was his 10th stage victory of the season, tops in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. Busch crossed the start-finish line under caution to get the green-white-checkered flag for the stage win.

Kurt Busch finished second in the stage, followed by Denny Hamlin in third place in the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Hamlin’s teammate Erik Jones was fourth, and Kyle Larson rallied for a fifth-place finish after a couple of perilous moments in the stage.

RELATED: Stage 2 results

Larson led the first 39 laps of the stage but lost 12 spots on a slow pit stop after a caution on Lap 140 for an incident involving Ryan Newman and Daniel Suarez, two of the drivers on the playoff bubble. With just a few laps to go in the stage, Larson wiggled in the No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet as a tire appeared to be in danger of going down.

Meanwhile, Joey Logano kissed the wall on Lap 117, then kissed the back of Chase Elliott’s vehicle a few laps later. Afterward, Elliott dropped back in the pack and was 11th at the end of the stage. The two drivers battled for track position later in the stage, as well.

Logano’s right-rear tire went down on Lap 173 and the No. 22 Team Penske Ford had to come down pit road. Logano emerged from the pit stop two laps down.

Finish Driver Team Points
1 Kyle Busch Joe Gibbs Racing 10
2 Kurt Busch Chip Ganassi Racing 9
3 Denny Hamlin Joe Gibbs Racing 8
4 Erik Jones Joe Gibbs Racing 7
5 Kyle Larson Chip Ganassi Racing 6
6 Clint Bowyer Stewart-Haas Racing 5
7 Jimmie Johnson Hendrick Motorsports 4
8 William Byron Hendrick Motorsports 3
9 Brad Keselowski Team Penske 2
10 Kevin Harvick Stewart-Haas Racing 1

STAGE 1

Kurt Busch took the lead from Chase Elliott on Lap 79 and held on through Lap 100 to win Stage 1 of Sunday night’s Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. Busch led two times for a total of 72 laps as the No. 1 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet showed plenty of speed through the first stage.

For Busch, it was his third stage win of the 2019 Monster Energy Series season. Busch finished 1.701 seconds ahead of Jimmie Johnson in the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Busch’s teammate Kyle Larson finished third as Chevrolets took the top three spots.

Busch’s brother Kyle was fourth after starting 33rd because of an engine change to the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Denny Hamlin rounded out the top five in the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.

RELATED: Stage 1 results

Pole winner William Byron was 11th in the opening stage, falling back seven spots because of a slow pit stop during the second of two cautions during the stage.

Sunday’s race got underway after almost a four-hour delay because of inclement weather. As a result, there was a competition caution at Lap 35 in order to check track conditions. Stage 1 was 100 laps of a scheduled 367 laps for the race.

Finish Driver Team Points
1 Kurt Busch Chip Ganassi Racing 10
2 Jimmie Johnson Hendrick Motorsports 9
3 Kyle Larson Chip Ganassi Racing 8
4 Kyle Busch Joe Gibbs Racing 7
5 Denny Hamlin Joe Gibbs Racing 6
6 Chase Elliott Hendrick Motorsports 5
7 Brad Keselowski Team Penske 4
8 Joey Logano Team Penske 3
9 Martin Truex Jr. Joe Gibbs Racing 2
10 Erik Jones Joe Gibbs Racing 1