Sep
The surprising part of a night full of them came from Erik Jones, who played playoff spoiler and won the Southern 500 on Sunday night at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway.
Kyle Busch, who had been running in the top-10 for the rest of the race, lost the lead on Lap 345 of 367 after his No. 18 Toyota engine abruptly blew while the race was still under warning. Jones, who had been running in the top-10 most of the race, took over the lead.
Jones subsequently took the lead after the resumption on lap 348 and spent the last 20 laps fending off Denny Hamlin’s determined attack. At the finish line, Jones edged Hamlin out by 0.252 seconds to claim the victory.
Jones’ triumph is his first of the year despite not making the 16-driver NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.
The triumph occurred 55 years to the day after Richard Petty, the current team co-owner, won the race in the Petty GMS Racing No. 43 at Darlington.
“I get a hat. He told me I get a hat if I win,” Jones said of Petty. “But Richard hasn’t been to Victory Lane at Darlington probably since he last won here. It’s just awesome. Just so proud of these guys.
“We’ve been so close all year, and I didn’t think today was going to be the day. It was going to be a tough one to win, I knew, but no better fitting place. I love this track. I love this race.
“On that trophy twice, man. I was pumped to be on it once, but to have it on there twice – pretty cool.”
Jones responded when questioned about the unpredictable finish, “We had a lot of good stuff go our way. We got the lead there with (Busch) losing a motor, and man, we’ve got a good shot if we can just get clear, and we had a good car, we just weren’t quite with the pace of some of those guys up front.
“We took the lead, I’m like 20 laps, I can just run hard, and those last two I was losing the balance a lot. I had been running really hard. But it was just enough. So, just really proud.”
With his triumph, Jones avoided giving one of the 16 playoff racers a victory that would have guaranteed them a spot in the second round.
Austin Cindric, Chase Briscoe, Austin Dillon, and Kevin Harvick are the bottom four in points and at risk of being eliminated with two races left in the first round.
Joey Logano finished fourth, Tyler Reddick third, and Christopher Bell rounded out the top five in the race.
Michael McDowell, Brad Keselowski, William Byron, Bubba Wallace, and Alex Bowman made up the final ten.
| Cla | # | Driver | Manufacturer | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | Laps Led | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 43 | Erik Jones | Chevrolet | 367 | 4:09’49.045 | 23 | |||
| 2 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | Toyota | 367 | 4:09’49.297 | 0.252 | 0.252 | 6 | |
| 3 | 8 | Tyler Reddick | Chevrolet | 367 | 4:09’49.969 | 0.924 | 0.672 | ||
| 4 | 22 | Joey Logano | Ford | 367 | 4:09’51.406 | 2.361 | 1.437 | 64 | |
| 5 | 20 | Christopher Bell | Toyota | 367 | 4:09’51.796 | 2.751 | 0.390 | ||
| 6 | 34 | Michael McDowell | Ford | 367 | 4:09’53.010 | 3.965 | 1.214 | ||
| 7 | 6 | Brad Keselowski | Ford | 367 | 4:09’55.120 | 6.075 | 2.110 | 11 | |
| 8 | 24 | William Byron | Chevrolet | 367 | 4:09’55.923 | 6.878 | 0.803 | 50 | |
| 9 | 45 | Bubba Wallace | Toyota | 367 | 4:09’56.786 | 7.741 | 0.863 | 4 | |
| 10 | 48 | Alex Bowman | Chevrolet | 367 | 4:09’57.405 | 8.360 | 0.619 | ||
| 11 | 10 | Aric Almirola | Ford | 367 | 4:09’58.727 | 9.682 | 1.322 | ||
| 12 | 5 | Kyle Larson | Chevrolet | 367 | 4:09’59.043 | 9.998 | 0.316 | ||
| 13 | 12 | Ryan Blaney | Ford | 367 | 4:10’01.400 | 12.355 | 2.357 | ||
| 14 | 41 | Cole Custer | Ford | 367 | 4:10’01.953 | 12.908 | 0.553 | ||
| 15 | 23 | Ty Gibbs | Toyota | 367 | 4:10’02.357 | 13.312 | 0.404 | ||
| 16 | 2 | Austin Cindric | Ford | 367 | 4:10’11.837 | 22.792 | 9.480 | ||
| 17 | 3 | Austin Dillon | Chevrolet | 367 | 4:10’17.195 | 28.150 | 5.358 | ||
| 18 | 99 | Daniel Suarez | Chevrolet | 367 | 4:10’17.733 | 28.688 | 0.538 | ||
| 19 | 31 | Justin Haley | Chevrolet | 366 | 4:09’50.596 | 1 Lap | 1 Lap | ||
| 20 | 1 | Ross Chastain | Chevrolet | 366 | 4:10’04.775 | 1 Lap | 14.179 | 1 | |
| 21 | 21 | Harrison Burton | Ford | 366 | 4:10’13.344 | 1 Lap | 8.569 | ||
| 22 | 42 | Ty Dillon | Chevrolet | 366 | 4:10’17.613 | 1 Lap | 4.269 | ||
| 23 | 16 | Daniel Hemric | Chevrolet | 365 | 4:10’02.725 | 2 Laps | 1 Lap | ||
| 24 | 7 | Corey Lajoie | Chevrolet | 365 | 4:10’08.942 | 2 Laps | 6.217 | 4 | |
| 25 | 77 | Landon Cassill | Chevrolet | 365 | 4:10’13.658 | 2 Laps | 4.716 | 1 | |
| 26 | 17 | Chris Buescher | Ford | 365 | 4:10’14.782 | 2 Laps | 1.124 | ||
| 27 | 14 | Chase Briscoe | Ford | 363 | 4:09’55.353 | 4 Laps | 2 Laps | ||
| 28 | 38 | Todd Gilliland | Ford | 363 | 4:10’18.133 | 4 Laps | 22.780 | ||
| 29 | 78 | B.J. McLeod | Ford | 361 | 4:09’56.181 | 6 Laps | 2 Laps | ||
| 30 | 18 | Kyle Busch | Toyota | 345 | 3:56’34.153 | 22 Laps | 16 Laps | 155 | |
| 31 | 19 | Martin Truex Jr. | Toyota | 336 | 3:46’44.198 | 31 Laps | 9 Laps | 48 | |
| 32 | 51 | Cody Ware | Ford | 331 | 3:47’48.433 | 36 Laps | 5 Laps | ||
| 33 | 4 | Kevin Harvick | Ford | 274 | 3:06’08.978 | 93 Laps | 57 Laps | ||
| 34 | 15 | J.J. Yeley | Ford | 236 | 3:13’35.741 | 131 Laps | 38 Laps | ||
| 35 | 47 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Chevrolet | 164 | 1:51’26.888 | 203 Laps | 72 Laps | ||
| 36 | 9 | Chase Elliott | Chevrolet | 113 | 1:14’20.403 | 254 Laps | 51 Laps |
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