Larson Opens Cup Playoffs With Southern 500 Win

Kyle Larson won out in a duel with Tyler Reddick over the closing laps of Sunday night’s Southern 500 to score the victory in the opening race of the NASCAR Cup series Playoffs.

With the laps clicking off, Larson and Reddick tried different lines around the venerable Darlington Raceway. Larson came under fire on the final restart from Reddick, but was up to the task as he drove to his first career series win at the historic South Carolina speedplant.

“This has been one of my favorite tracks my whole career and been really, really fast here my whole career, just usually get in the wall,” said Larson. “Finally we have the Next Gen car that’s tough enough to allow me to hit the wall, so was able to make some mistakes and get a win.”

It marks Larson’s third win of the season, and the 22nd of his series career. More importantly, it gives him a lock into the Round of 12 of the Playoffs.

“Adding this trophy to the collection is going to be amazing, it’s just such a prestigious race.” Larson said. “This is one of three or four crown jewels, and I feel like besides the (Daytona) 500, maybe the only one I haven’t won yet. We get to hopefully go back to the Brickyard next year on the oval and would love to win that one, too.”

It didn’t come easy for Larson. A less than stellar performance in qualifying saw him roll off from the 18th starting spot. A mixture of speed on the track and a choice to pit early to undercut those ahead of him on green flag pit stops moved him into contention. By the time the second set of green flag pit stops were complete on lap 72, Larson found himself running in third place behind Reddick and Denny Hamlin.

Larson moved his way to second, and was working to chase down leader Hamlin as the first round of pit stops after the end of the race’s first segment was completed. He would hold onto the second spot through much of the second segment of the race, finishing behind Hamlin as the segment ended.

It was soon after the restart that Larson suffered another setback. While running in second place on lap 258, his No. 5 Chevy got into the outside wall, allowing Reddick to get by. He continued to slip back, with his team finally stabilizing his car on a subsequent green flag pit stop.

Larson’s luck turned for the better at the expense of another strong competitor. Kevin Harvick was challenging Reddick for the lead when Harvick’s team made the call to bring him to pit road with just over 50 laps to go. Seeing Harvick’s move, Reddick tried to counter and come down pit road as well.

In doing so, Reddick ended up brake checking the lapped car of Ryan Newman, sending Newman’s car spinning off turn four. While Harvick was committed to pit road, Larson was able to pull back on the track before getting to the commitment line. That left Harvick with a pit road penalty.

“The caution came out and the light was on, and I didn’t think I could turn right,” Harvick said afterwards.

Meanwhile, under the next round of pit stops under caution, Larson beat Reddick off pit road to take the lead. From there, Larson held the point over the closing laps to score the win.

“Just proud of this bunch again,” said Larson. “Pit crew came in clutch there at the end to get us out in the lead. Had some things work out – staying out when that car (Newman) was spinning out, too, so just kind of fell in our lap there, and we were able to take advantage of it.”

Reddick had a fast car all night, but in the end had to settle for a second place finish.

“Man, I don’t know maybe just a little bit longer run,” Reddick said. “It had just gotten short enough to where you didn’t save a whole lot I don’t think. Kyle (Larson) and I were pretty close the majority of the day, honestly. He just got ahead of us there unfortunately on pit road, but all in all this is the day that we needed to have.”

Chris Buescher, on a hot streak over the last several weeks with three victories, continued his strong run with a third place effort.

“It feels good and it hurts a little bit at the same time,” said Buescher. “To be this close and watch it right there in front of us and to watch the 45 go up there and slap the fence over and over I’m like, ‘Man, surely we can get by.’ And the 5 car didn’t make any mistakes. It ended up being a hard day to pass, for sure. We definitely had big aero issues as we tried to get by cars. We worked hard on that and our team did a great job.”

William Byron finished in fourth, with Ross Chastain in fifth.

Brad Keselowski finished in sixth, with Bubba Wallace in seventh. Dawsonville, Georgia’s Chase Elliott was the highest finishing non-Playoff driver in eighth. Ryan Blaney and Erik Jones rounded out the top 10.

While Larson celebrated the win, the man who had dominated the event was left to think about what might have been. Denny Hamlin held a stranglehold on the field for much of the event, leading 177 laps on the night while winning the first two race segments.

But it all went south after a round of green flag pit stops on lap 270. Hamlin had to return to pit road two laps later with what he said felt like a loose wheel. He would lose a lap getting a fresh set of tires. Hamlin was unable to get in position to get his lap back, and then got caught up in a crash with 37 laps to go. In the end, he finished in 25th on the night.

“It looked like the left rear was still tightening as we were gone,” Hamlin said. “It’s close enough to where it didn’t matter. What I felt, I was in a crash. I had to bring it in and just turned the day upside down.”

Racing at the tough Darlington track is always filled with attrition, and Sunday was no exception. A pair of crashes left several drivers shaking their heads at the end of the night.

The first occurred with 48 laps to go, when Alex Bowman tried to block a pass by Daniel Suarez coming down the frontstretch as the two raced inside the top 10. When Suarez moved back up the track, Bowman threw a second block, and the two made contact, sending Bowman into the outside wall. Suarez spun as well, and his car was hit solidly by the oncoming Ford of Harrison Burton.

Another multi-car crash occurred just a few laps later, when Kyle Bush shoved Todd Gilliland up the track and into Austin Dillon off turn four. Michael McDowell and Hamlin were also gathered up, with McDowell coming away with heavy damage.

While eight of the top 10 finishers were Playoff drivers, some of the other title contenders had issues. Joey Logano suffered damage after contact with Wallace at the end of the first race segment. His team worked hard to get the car competitive again, eventually scoring a solid 12th place finish.

Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. suffered a speeding penalty on the first round of green flag pit stops, but made up enough time to run in the top 10 at one point. In the end, he finished 16th. Martin Truex, Jr. came into the race tied at the top of the standings as the regular season champion, but fought an ill handing car all night. He soldiered home to an 18th place finish.

After his pit road penalty, Harvick had to start at the tail end of the field, and finished 19th at the end of the day. Christopher Bell started the race on the pole, but suffered a myriad of issues that left him with a 23rd place finish. Michael McDowell was never in contention, and after his car was heavily damaged in the late race caution, he finished 32nd.

Heading to the second round of the Playoffs, Bell currently sits in the 12th and final transfer spot, with Wallace one point behind in 13th, Harvick two points behind in 14th, Rick Stenhouse, Jr. four points behind in 15th, and McDowell 19 points behind in 16th.

Sunday night’s race was also halted briefly on lap 179 when the lighting system on the inside of turns 3 and 4 failed to come on, leaving the corners dark. The race was red flagged for about seven minutes to allow track crews to fix the problem before the race resumed.

NASCAR Cup Series
Darlington Raceway – Darlington, SC
Cook Out Southern 500 – September 3, 2023

1. (18) Kyle Larson (P), Chevrolet, 367.
2. (3) Tyler Reddick (P), Toyota, 367.
3. (8) Chris Buescher (P), Ford, 367.
4. (23) William Byron (P), Chevrolet, 367.
5. (27) Ross Chastain (P), Chevrolet, 367.
6. (5) Brad Keselowski (P), Ford, 367.
7. (19) Bubba Wallace (P), Toyota, 367.
8. (13) Chase Elliott (P), Chevrolet, 367.
9. (4) Ryan Blaney (P), Ford, 367.
10. (20) Erik Jones, Chevrolet, 367.
11. (11) Kyle Busch (P), Chevrolet, 367.
12. (6) Joey Logano (P), Ford, 367.
13. (16) A.J. Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 367.
14. (10) Aric Almirola, Ford, 367.
15. (12) Chase Briscoe, Ford, 367.
16. (25) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. (P), Chevrolet, 367.
17. (15) Carson Hocevar(i), Chevrolet, 367.
18. (31) Martin Truex, Jr. (P), Toyota, 367.
19. (7) Kevin Harvick (P), Ford, 367.
20. (28) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 367.
21. (17) Ty Gibbs #, Toyota, 367.
22. (22) Corey LaJoie, Chevrolet, 367.
23. (1) Christopher Bell (P), Toyota, 366.
24. (29) Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 366.
25. (2) Denny Hamlin (P), Toyota, 366.
26. (30) Todd Gilliland, Ford, 366.
27. (35) Ryan Newman, Ford, 365.
28. (34) Ryan Preece, Ford, 364.
29. (26) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 364.
30. (33) J.J. Yeley(i), Ford, 362.
31. (14) Austin Cindric, Ford, 361.
32. (9) Michael McDowell (P), Ford, Accident, 329.
33. (24) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, Accident, 322.
34. (21) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, Accident, 320.
35. (32) Harrison Burton, Ford, Accident, 318.
36. (36) B.J. McLeod, Chevrolet, Engine, 210.

Average Speed: 120.906 mph.

Time of Race: 4 Hrs, 8 Mins, 47 Secs. Margin of Victory: .447 Seconds.

Caution Flags: 8 for 51 laps.

Lead Changes: 13 among 7 drivers.

Lap Leaders: C. Bell (P) 1-33;J. Yeley(i) 34;T. Reddick (P) 35-62;D. Hamlin (P) 63-67;C. Bell (P) 68-71;T. Reddick (P) 72-91;D. Hamlin (P) 92-150;T. Reddick (P) 151-153;C. Bell (P) 154-156;D. Hamlin (P) 157-269;K. Harvick (P) 270;C. LaJoie 271-273;T. Reddick (P) 274-312;K. Larson (P) 313-367.

Leaders Summary: (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led) Denny Hamlin (P) 3 times for 177 laps; Tyler Reddick (P) 4 times for 90 laps; Kyle Larson (P) 1 time for 55 laps; Christopher Bell (P) 3 times for 40 laps; Corey LaJoie 1 time for 3 laps; Kevin Harvick (P) 1 time for 1 lap; JJ Yeley(i) 1 time for 1 lap.

Stage #1 Top Ten: 11,45,5,4,12,6,9,20,17,10

Stage #2 Top Ten: 11,5,43,45,24,8,12,3,6,47

Playoff Standings: 1. Kyle Larson* – 2074 (3 Wins); 2. William Byron – 2075 (5 Wins); 3. Tyler Reddick – 2060 (1 Win); 4. Chris Buescher – 2057 (3 Wins); 5. Denny Hamlin – 2057 (2 Wins); 6. Martin Truex, Jr. – 2055 (3 Wins); 7. Kyle Busch – 2050 (3 Wins); 8. Brad Keselowski – 2048; 9. Ryan Blaney – 2046 (1 Win); 10. Ross Chastain – 2043 (1 Win); 11. Joey Logano – 2033 (1 Win); 12. Christopher Bell – 2031 (1 Win); 13. Bubba Wallace – 2030; 14. Kevin Harvick – 2029; 15. Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. – 2027 (1 Win); 16. Michael McDowell – 2012 (1 Win).

*Locked Into The Round of 12

(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series