Coke Zero Sugar 400 August 28th | RESULTS Darlington Raceway Cook Out Southern 500 September 5th, 2021 Federated Auto Parts 400 Salute to First Responders September 11th | RESULTS Race Lap Times Race OVERALL OVERALL 5 LAP 10 LAP 15 LAP 20 LAP 25 LAP 30 LAP Lap 25 Lap 1 Lap 2 Lap 3 Lap 4 Lap 5 Lap 6 Lap 7 Lap 8 Lap 9 Lap 10 Lap 11 Lap 12 Lap 13 Lap 14 Lap 15 Lap 16 Lap 17 Lap 18 Lap 19 Lap 20 Lap 21 Lap 22 Lap 23 Lap 24 Lap 25 Race Qualifying Raw Feed Stage 1 of 3 367 / 367 Laps / Total 367 / 367 Time Elapsed 12:10:04 Lead Changes 18 Leaders 10 Cautions 11 Best Speed 169.537 RESULTS START POS FINAL STATUS LAPS COMPLETED LAPS LED POINTS PLAYOFF POINTS 1 Denny Hamlin 11 | 2 Running 367 146 57 6 2 Kyle Larson 5 | 6 Running 367 156 54 1 3 Ross Chastain 42 | 23 Running 367 1 44 0 4 Martin Truex Jr 19 | 10 Running 367 1 38 0 5 Kevin Harvick 4 | 9 Running 367 20 44 0 6 Kurt Busch 1 | 3 Running 367 13 44 0 7 Brad Keselowski 2 | 16 Running 367 0 30 0 8 Joey Logano 22 | 11 Running 367 0 34 0 9 Chris Buescher 17 | 34 Running 367 0 28 0 10 Austin Dillon 3 | 21 Running 367 0 27 0 11 Cole Custer 41 | 31 Running 367 0 26 0 12 Ryan Preece 37 | 18 Running 367 0 25 0 13 Daniel Suarez 99 | 26 Running 367 0 24 0 14 Ryan Newman 6 | 19 Running 367 0 23 0 15 Corey Lajoie 7 | 25 Running 367 0 23 0 16 Aric Almirola 10 | 8 Running 366 0 24 0 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr 47 | 29 Running 366 0 20 0 18 Tyler Reddick 8 | 7 Running 366 0 23 0 19 Chase Briscoe 14 | 24 Running 366 0 18 0 20 Christopher Bell 20 | 13 Running 366 10 26 0 21 Bubba Wallace 23 | 17 Running 366 0 16 0 22 Ryan Blaney 12 | 1 Running 366 17 24 0 23 Matt DiBenedetto 21 | 30 Running 365 0 14 0 24 Anthony Alfredo 38 | 32 Running 364 0 13 0 25 Justin Haley 77 | 20 Running 364 0 0 0 26 Alex Bowman 48 | 5 Running 363 0 11 0 27 BJ McLeod 78 | 27 Running 359 0 0 0 28 Josh Bilicki 52 | 28 Running 359 0 9 0 29 Joey Gase 15 | 35 Running 357 1 0 0 30 Quin Houff 00 | 37 Running 355 0 7 0 31 Chase Elliott 9 | 4 Accident 327 0 9 0 32 Erik Jones 43 | 22 Engine 264 2 5 0 33 Cody Ware 51 | 33 Accident 209 0 0 0 34 William Byron 24 | 14 Accident 199 0 3 0 35 Kyle Busch 18 | 12 Accident 125 0 2 0 36 James Davison 53 | 36 Accident 50 0 1 0 37 Michael McDowell 34 | 15 Accident 30 0 1 0 RAW FEED EXPAND Stage 1 of 3 367 / 367 Laps / Total 367 / 367 Time Elapsed 12:10:04 Lead Changes 18 Leaders 10 Cautions 11 Best Speed 169.537 POS 1 | LEADER POS1 LEADER Denny Hamlin | POS 2 | 0.212 POS2 0.212 Kyle Larson | POS 3 | 1.948 POS3 1.948 Ross Chastain | Timeline Compare Live Standings Denny Hamlin holds off Larson at Darlington, opens playoffs with Southern 500 victory DARLINGTON, S.C. — Holding off regular-season champion Kyle Larson throughout a thrilling final green-flag run in Sunday‘s Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, Denny Hamlin is winless in 2021 no more.Hamlin maintained control of his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota as Larson buried his No. 5 Chevrolet into Turns 3 and 4 on the final lap. Larson gave Hamlin a tap, but Hamlin blocked the top lane and got to the finish line .212 seconds ahead of the runner-up.“He drove it in past the limit of the car and tires,” Hamlin said of Larson‘s banzai charge. “I knew he was coming. I was a little conservative on that last lap because I had that four-car-length lead.”RELATED: Race results | At-track photosThe victory was Hamlin‘s first of the year after a winless 26-race regular season. He won for the fourth time at Darlington and for the 45th time in his career to earn an automatic berth into the Round of 12 in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.“Yeah, it was a matter of time,” Hamlin said of the long-awaited win. “We can’t just keep leading inside 10 laps to go every week and not get a win.”Hamlin kept Larson at bay over the final two restarts but couldn‘t pull away to a comfortable lead.“We got to the white (flag), and I was like, ‘Well, I haven’t been able to gain on him now, I’m going to try something,\"” Larson said of the desperation try he labeled a “video-game move.” “Honestly, got to his bumper too quick. I was hoping he was going to run that diamond to kind of be safe and I could skirt to his outside, but gave everything I had.“I didn’t want to wreck him. I just wanted to try to get to his outside there, but he did a great job not really making any mistakes during the last run, and I was having to push really hard in second to try and just stay with him.”RELATED: Kyle Larson analyzes his last-lap move | Denny Hamlin reacts to first win of 2021Larson led 156 of the 367 laps to Hamlin‘s 146. Hamlin won the first stage and Larson the second.Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. caught a break when Ryan Blaney spun in Turn 4 on Lap 318 while the two JGR drivers stayed on the track trying to stretch the cycle of pit stops. Truex beat Hamlin off pit road but was flagged for speeding, and Hamlin held the top spot the rest of the way.Non-Playoff driver Ross Chastain finished third, followed by Truex, who recovered from the penalty and an earlier loose wheel to run fourth. Playoff drivers Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch, Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano were fifth through eighth, respectively, but for other title hopefuls, the race brought disaster.Two-time series champion Kyle Busch suffered an early exit and a blow to his hopes of winning a third title. Contact with the No. 3 Chevrolet of Austin Dillon sent Busch‘s No. 18 Toyota rocketing into the outside wall in Turn 2, causing irreparable damage.Busch fell out in 35th place and now faces an uphill battle to advance to the Round of 12.“It wasn‘t the 3‘s (Dillon‘s) fault,” Busch said. “Just take our lumps, you know. We were running like (crap), and that‘s what you get when you run like (crap). Shouldn‘t be there.”RELATED: Kyle Busch wrecks in Stage 2 | William Byron out after wreckThree-fourths of the Hendrick Motorsports armada took a major hit as well. Alex Bowman scraped the wall on Lap 14 and stayed on the track, hoping to make it to the competition caution on lap 25. But a tire rub proved disastrous, sending Bowman‘s Chevy into the Turn 4 wall, and damage the No. 24 Camaro of teammate William Byron in the process. Bowman was able to continue and finished 26th, but Byron wasn‘t as fortunate. After recovering to run in the top 10, Byron cut a left front tire on Lap 200, crashed hard into the Turn 1 wall and exited the race with a 34th-place finish. “That was a big hit,” Byron acknowledged. “It looked like on that (previous) pit stop, it looked like we dropped the jack and the left front was still finishing up. I took off and everything felt OK. I went to pass the No. 00 (Quin Houff) or somebody down the frontstretch and was just about to turn into (Turn) 1 and the left front went down. “There was nothing we could do. The guys did an awesome job to fix it. We were running like top-12, I think, even with all the (earlier) right rear damage, and it‘s just terrible. I don‘t know, man. That sucks.”Reigning series champion Chase Elliott fell out in 31st place after slamming the outside wall on Lap 327 in a three-wide melee in Turn 1 with Bubba Wallace and Christopher Bell.RELATED: Chase Elliott hits wall late in race | Michael McDowell exits early An early wreck put a dagger to Michael McDowell‘s slim championship chances. On Lap 31, McDowell‘s No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford broke loose behind Erik Jones‘ Chevrolet in Turn 2, smacked the outside wall and careened nose-first into the inside SAFER barrier.McDowell exited the race, his car destroyed and his title hopes hanging by a thread.“The 43 (Jones) kind of got everybody jammed up,” McDowell said after exiting the infield care center. “I think he started on the front there without tires, which is a tough spot to be in, and I just went three-wide underneath him and just got into the patch (of new asphalt in Turn 2) with my left sides just a little bit low. “I got loose enough into the wall and that was about it. I‘ll have to see the replay, but just heartbreaking for everybody on this Front Row team. We had high hopes coming into the Playoffs and this is not how we wanted to start it.”Bowman, Kyle Busch, Byron and McDowell fell below the current cut line for the Round of 12. Elliott leaves Darlington 10th in the Playoff standings.The Cup Series’ next race is the Federated Auto Parts 400 Salute to First Responders, scheduled Saturday (7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Richmond Raceway. Two events remain in the three-race Round of 16, the opening elimination phase of the 10-race postseason.Note: Post-race inspection confirmed the No. 11 Toyota of Hamlin to be the race winner. There were no issues. The Nos. 3 (Austin Dillon), 4 (Kevin Harvick), 19 (Martin Truex Jr.) and 42 (Ross Chastain) will be brought back to the R&D Center for further inspection and engine dyno.Contributing: Staff reports DRIVERS COMPARISON Position Speed Time Denny Hamlin (P) Kyle Larson (P) Flag State Fastest Lap #1 Denny Hamlin (P) Kyle Larson (P) Ross Chastain Martin Truex Jr. (P) Kevin Harvick (P) Kurt Busch (P) Brad Keselowski (P) Joey Logano (P) Chris Buescher Austin Dillon Cole Custer * Ryan Preece Daniel Suarez Ryan Newman Corey LaJoie Aric Almirola (P) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Tyler Reddick (P) Chase Briscoe # Christopher Bell (P) Bubba Wallace Ryan Blaney (P) Matt DiBenedetto Anthony Alfredo # Justin Haley(i) Alex Bowman (P) BJ McLeod(i) Josh Bilicki Joey Gase(i) Quin Houff Chase Elliott (P) Erik Jones Cody Ware(i) William Byron (P) Kyle Busch (P) James Davison Michael McDowell (P) #1 LAP SPEED 153.153MPH LEADER LEADER AVG RUNNING POS 2.283 BEST LAP TIME (SEC) 29.204 XFINITY FASTEST LAP (MPH) 168.388 LAPS LED 0 #2 Kyle Larson (P) Denny Hamlin (P) Ross Chastain Martin Truex Jr. (P) Kevin Harvick (P) Kurt Busch (P) Brad Keselowski (P) Joey Logano (P) Chris Buescher Austin Dillon Cole Custer * Ryan Preece Daniel Suarez Ryan Newman Corey LaJoie Aric Almirola (P) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Tyler Reddick (P) Chase Briscoe # Christopher Bell (P) Bubba Wallace Ryan Blaney (P) Matt DiBenedetto Anthony Alfredo # Justin Haley(i) Alex Bowman (P) BJ McLeod(i) Josh Bilicki Joey Gase(i) Quin Houff Chase Elliott (P) Erik Jones Cody Ware(i) William Byron (P) Kyle Busch (P) James Davison Michael McDowell (P) #2 LAP SPEED 154.35MPH 0.21199999999953 (Time Behind) 0.21199999999953 (Time Behind) AVG RUNNING POS 2.967 BEST LAP TIME (SEC) 29.006 XFINITY FASTEST LAP (MPH)) 169.537 LAPS LED 0 LIVE STANDINGS FAVORITES POINTS BEHIND DELTA STAGE ONE POINTS STAGE TWO POINTS STAGE THREE POINTS RACE POINTS 1 Brad Keselowski 2 | 999 -- 99.999 99 99 99 99 2 Brad Keselowski 17 | 999 -- 99.999 99 99 99 99 3 Martin Truex Jr. 17 | 999 -- 99.999 99 99 99 99 LIVE STANDINGS POINTS BEHIND DELTA STAGE ONE POINTS STAGE TWO POINTS STAGE THREE POINTS RACE POINTS 1 A.J. Allmendinger 17 | 999 -- 99.999 99 99 99 99 2 Brad Keselowski 17 | 999 -- 99.999 99 99 99 99 3 A.J. Allmendinger 17 | 999 -- 99.999 99 99 99 99 4 Martin Truex Jr. 17 | 999 -- 99.999 99 99 99 99 5 Brad Keselowski 2 | 999 -- 99.999 99 99 99 99 6 Brad Keselowski 41 | 999 -- 99.999 99 99 99 99 7 Brad Keselowski 2 | 999 -- 99.999 99 99 99 99 8 A.J. Allmendinger 2 | 999 -- 99.999 99 99 99 99 9 Brad Keselowski 41 | 999 -- 99.999 99 99 99 99 10 Martin Truex Jr. 2 | 999 -- 99.999 99 99 99 99 Listen to driver & spotter audio Access to Officials channel Tune-in to the radio broadcast New subscriptions can be purchased through the NASCAR Mobile app SUBSCRIBE NOW Already a Subscriber? LOG IN