Loop Data Box Score

Cook Out Southern 500

Sunday, September 3rd, 2023

Darlington Raceway, Darlington, SC

  • 16 Chevrolet
  • 14 Ford
  • 6 Toyota

  • Darlington Raceway
  • Cook Out Southern 500
  • Busch Pole Award Pole Winner: Christopher Bell
  • Age: 28
  • Team : No. 20 - Yahoo! Toyota
  • Owner: Joe Gibbs
  • Crew Chief: Adam Stevens
  • Christopher Bell won the Pole Award for the Cook Out Southern 500 with a lap of 29.065 seconds, 169.193 mph.
  • This is his seventh pole in 135 NASCAR Cup Series races.
  • This is his third pole and 17th top-10 start in 2023.
  • This is his first pole in nine races at Darlington Raceway.
  • Denny Hamlin (second) posted his 13th top-10 start of 2023 and his 18th in 23 races at Darlington Raceway.
  • Tyler Reddick (third) posted his sixth top-10 start at Darlington Raceway. It is his 17th in 27 races this season.
  • Ty Gibbs (17th) was the fastest qualifying rookie.

  • Sunday, September 3rd, 2023
  • NASCAR Wire Service - Reid Spencer
Kyle Larson wins Cook Out Southern 500 to advance in NASCAR Cup Playoffs

Welcome back, Kyle Larson.

The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion held off a desperate charge from fellow Playoff driver Tyler Reddick at sold-out Darlington Raceway to claim victory in Sunday night’s Cook Out Southern 500 and earn an automatic berth in the Round of 12.

Larson entered the Playoff opener with an undistinguished average finish of 17.5 in his previous six races, but he weathered a transmission momentary stuck in neutral and a disconcerting brush with the wall to register his third victory of the season, the 22nd of his career and his first at the famed Lady in Black.

"Yeah, finally from start to finish," Larson said of his ability to put together a complete race. "Eighteenth to third in the first stage, I didn’t think that was possible. Our race car was really good when the sun was out. Just had to work on it.

"I messed up once and it got hung in neutral, and I slid and hit the wall, and I think bent the toe link a little bit, so it was kind of a struggle from there. Definitely had to fight it more than I was earlier, but we kept our heads in the game. That was really important. This race is all about keeping your head in it…

"What a great way to start the Playoffs, and hopefully we can keep it going."

Larson took the lead for the first time during a quick pit stop on Lap 313 and held it for the final 55 circuits. Reddick rolled off pit road second but couldn’t find a way past the race winner.

"Kyle and I were pretty close the majority of the day, honestly, and he just got ahead of us there on pit road, but all in all, this is the day that we needed to have," said Reddick, who led 90 laps and crossed the finish line .447 seconds behind Larson.

"Really just thankful for the hard work from my pit crew, from the team, everyone at the shop. Days like this, with a car like this, we haven’t been able to get a second-place finish out of it, so really glad we were able to do that, and it was a really good points day on top of that, as well."

Chris Buescher ran a mistake-free race and finished third, followed by William Byron, who charged forward from his 23rd starting position. Ross Chastain ran fifth, with Brad Keselowski and Bubba Wallace behind him, as Playoff drivers claimed the top seven positions.

While Larson leaves Darlington with guaranteed admission to the Round of 12, Byron, his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, leads the Playoff standings by one point—over Larson. Reddick is 15 points behind Byron, followed by Buescher and Denny Hamlin, who trail by 18 points.

Catastrophes proved the undoing of several Playoff drivers who showed excellent speed but succumbed to a variety of pit road mistakes and errors in judgment.

Hamlin led 177 laps, swept the first and second stages and dominated the race—until he made an extra green-flag pit stop on Lap 274, believing he had a loose wheel. Hamlin lost a lap and any chance he had of starting the Playoffs with a victory. Hamlin’s night got worse when he was collected in a five-car wreck on Lap 330. He finished 25th.

After Hamlin’s demise, Kevin Harvick was chasing Reddick for the lead. Harvick steered his car toward pit road on Lap 309, causing Reddick to check up in front of Ryan Newman in an attempt to duplicate Harvick’s maneuver. Newman spun in Turn 4, causing the sixth caution, and the red light indicating a closed pit road caught Harvick just before he reached the entry line. The resulting penalty sent Harvick to the back of the field for a restart on Lap 317, with no time to recovered past 19th.

A driver with no margin for error entering the Round of 16, Michael McDowell didn’t have the speed to stay on the lead lap, but his Waterloo came in the same Lap 330 wreck that involved Hamlin and fellow Playoff driver and pole winner Christopher Bell. McDowell’s No. 34 Ford was too badly hurt to continue, and he fell out of the race in 32nd place.

McDowell heads to next Sunday’s Playoff race at Kansas Speedway in 16th place, 19 points behind Bell in 12th.

Late in the first stage, Bell slammed the outside wall and damaged the suspension on his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, ruining any chances of victory.

"I just got in the marbles and fenced it hard," Bell radioed to his team.

After the stage break, Bell dropped precipitously through the field and was soon lapped by leader Denny Hamlin.

"The toe is messed up—I’m having to turn the wheel a lot," Bell radioed to crew chief Adam Stevens.

Bell, who finished a lap down in 23rd, wasn’t the only Playoff driver who fell victim to mistakes in the first stage, which ran under the green flag from start to finish. Joey Logano scraped the wall at the apex of Turns 3 and 4 on Lap 86.

His No. 22 Ford bit the wall again on Lap 115—the final circuit of Stage 1—when the No. 23 Toyota of Wallace spun underneath him in Turn 4 and knocked the right rear of Logano’s car into the fence, after Hamlin had taken the green/checkered flag to win the stage and the accompanying Playoff point.

Martin Truex Jr. (who finished 18th) lost four spots after brushing the wall late in the stage and ran 17th in the first segment. Truex’s problems multiplied in Stage 2 when he had to make an unscheduled pit stop because of a loose wheel and lost two laps.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (16th) lost a lap serving a pass-through penalty for speeding on pit road during his first green-flag pit stop, as mistakes began to shape the Playoffs—as they invariably do.

  • Drivers Entered: 36
  • Laps Scheduled: 367
  • Margin of Victory: 0.447 Seconds
  • Time of Race: 4 Hours 8 Minutes 47 Seconds
  • Average Speed: 120.906
  • Cautions: 8 for 51 laps
  • Lead Changes: 13
  • Green Flag Passes: 4,079 (12.9 passes per green flag lap)

  • Darlington Raceway
  • Cook Out Southern 500
  • Race Winner: Kyle Larson
  • Age: 31
  • Team : No. 5 - HendrickCars.com Chevrolet
  • Owner: Rick Hendrick
  • Crew Chief: Cliff Daniels
  • Kyle Larson won the Cook Out Southern 500, his 22nd victory in 322 Cup Series races.
  • This is his third victory and 13th top-10 finish in 2023.
  • This is his first victory and eighth top-10 finish in 12 races at Darlington Raceway.
  • Tyler Reddick (second) posted his fourth top-10 finish in nine races at Darlington Raceway. It is his 12th top-10 finish in 2023.
  • Chris Buescher (third) posted his fourth top-10 finish in 13 races at Darlington Raceway.
  • Ty Gibbs (21st) was the highest finishing rookie.
  • William Byron leads the point standings by 1 points over Kyle Larson.
Denny Hamlin and Tyler Reddick race
Darlington, South Carolina - September 3, 2023 : Denny Hamlin, driver of the #11 Sport Clips Haircuts Toyota, and Tyler Reddick, driver of the #45 Jordan Brand Toyota, race during the NASCAR Cup Series Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.
Jared C TiltonGetty Images
Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway : Loop Data Box Score results
DRIVER ST MID CLO FIN HI LOW ARP PL DIF GFP GFxP PD QPS % QPS FST % T15 LED % LED LAPS DR TOT PTS
Kyle Larson 18 3 1 1 1 31 4.5 17 103 88 15 40 38.83 30 96.5 55 15.0 367 127.90 57
Tyler Reddick 3 5 3 2 1 20 2.6 1 71 63 8 41 57.75 27 99.5 90 24.5 367 125.40 51
Chris Buescher 8 13 2 3 2 25 7.4 5 89 87 2 36 40.45 6 99.2 0 0.0 367 108.30 36
William Byron 23 2 5 4 1 33 9.0 19 94 86 8 27 28.72 22 69.8 0 0.0 367 101.90 39
Ross Chastain 27 20 7 5 2 34 18.3 22 128 122 6 16 12.50 11 36.2 0 0.0 367 76.30 32
Brad Keselowski 5 12 4 6 3 26 9.0 -1 148 139 9 62 41.89 9 94.0 0 0.0 367 100.80 38
Bubba Wallace 19 16 6 7 3 24 12.3 12 120 106 14 48 40.00 5 66.5 0 0.0 367 91.90 30
Chase Elliott 13 8 10 8 4 27 11.3 5 116 99 17 59 50.86 8 89.7 0 0.0 367 89.10 33
Ryan Blaney 4 7 11 9 3 29 10.0 -5 131 123 8 38 29.01 1 77.4 0 0.0 367 95.40 38
Erik Jones 20 6 13 10 2 30 10.2 10 114 109 5 53 46.49 3 88.0 0 0.0 367 91.20 35
Kyle Busch 11 9 19 11 2 36 15.1 0 184 161 23 48 26.09 5 58.9 0 0.0 367 75.80 31
Joey Logano 6 22 17 12 5 31 15.1 -6 127 118 9 27 21.26 1 51.8 0 0.0 367 78.20 25
AJ Allmendinger 16 17 9 13 1 30 13.9 3 156 152 4 64 41.03 3 71.7 0 0.0 367 79.00 24
Aric Almirola 10 10 14 14 2 31 14.5 -4 144 148 -4 39 27.08 1 72.8 0 0.0 367 71.70 24
Chase Briscoe 12 11 8 15 6 34 16.5 -3 114 147 -33 27 23.68 1 46.3 0 0.0 367 65.60 22
Ricky Stenhouse Jr 25 25 16 16 3 35 26.1 9 163 150 13 7 4.29 3 3.5 0 0.0 367 52.30 22
Carson Hocevar 15 18 15 17 10 29 19.6 -2 139 155 -16 11 7.91 1 5.2 0 0.0 367 59.60 0
Martin Truex Jr 31 26 23 18 2 32 22.4 13 146 143 3 14 9.59 8 15.3 0 0.0 367 59.50 19
Kevin Harvick 7 4 20 19 1 28 7.6 -12 101 95 6 37 36.63 13 85.0 1 0.3 367 99.10 25
Austin Dillon 28 14 21 20 8 35 19.9 8 135 119 16 17 12.59 1 16.1 0 0.0 367 55.60 20
Ty Gibbs 17 19 12 21 4 30 17.9 -4 143 162 -19 30 20.98 1 24.8 0 0.0 367 62.70 16
Corey Lajoie 22 33 18 22 1 33 23.7 0 154 157 -3 17 11.04 4 4.9 3 0.8 367 47.20 15
Christopher Bell 1 23 24 23 1 30 16.5 -22 101 136 -35 29 28.71 21 39.0 40 10.9 366 69.70 17
Justin Haley 29 27 26 24 8 33 28.0 5 131 127 4 2 1.53 9 0.5 0 0.0 366 43.00 13
Denny Hamlin 2 1 25 25 1 30 8.1 -23 50 72 -22 21 42.00 47 74.1 177 48.4 366 115.80 32
Todd Gilliland 30 30 22 26 14 36 27.2 4 97 114 -17 0 0.00 1 0.3 0 0.0 366 40.20 11
Ryan Newman 35 32 28 27 19 36 30.9 8 77 71 6 0 0.00 1 0.0 0 0.0 365 34.20 10
Ryan Preece 34 34 29 28 24 36 32.2 6 40 38 2 0 0.00 6 0.0 0 0.0 364 34.00 9
Ty Dillon 26 35 30 29 3 36 33.1 -3 57 66 -9 3 5.26 30 0.5 0 0.0 364 35.40 8
JJ Yeley 33 31 31 30 1 36 32.0 3 109 111 -2 7 6.42 0 0.8 1 0.3 362 30.60 0
Austin Cindric 14 21 32 31 6 35 21.2 -17 84 84 0 31 36.90 0 42.2 0 0.0 361 54.50 6
Michael McDowell 9 29 27 32 9 34 25.9 -23 104 118 -14 5 4.81 10 8.5 0 0.0 329 40.60 5
Alex Bowman 24 28 33 33 2 35 22.6 -9 118 119 -1 29 24.58 16 24.3 0 0.0 322 62.20 4
Daniel Suarez 21 15 34 34 6 30 20.5 -13 113 118 -5 16 14.16 1 32.4 0 0.0 320 51.20 3
Harrison Burton 32 24 35 35 3 35 25.7 -3 126 120 6 7 5.56 0 4.1 0 0.0 318 43.20 2
BJ McLeod 36 36 36 36 5 36 35.6 0 52 54 -2 3 5.77 0 0.5 0 0.0 210 23.20 1