NASCAR Darlington Southern 500 recap, finishing order: Larson dominates but Keselowski wins
By Nick Tylwalk
Brad Keselowski didn’t have the fastest car for most of the night at Darlington, but he did when it mattered most.
Kyle Larson has experienced just about every kind of frustration possible during the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season. Not only hadn’t he won through 24 starts after tasting victory four times in 2017, some of his close calls came in truly heartbreaking fashion. On Sunday at Darlington Raceway, Larson added perhaps his most agonizing moment to date, dominating most of the Bojangles’ Southern 500 but finding himself too slow and in the wrong position in the closing laps.
The big beneficiary was Brad Keselowski, who had never won at Darlington prior to taking the checkered flag at the NASCAR XFINITY Series race on Saturday. Sporting a Miller Genuine Draft paint scheme that called to mind Rusty Wallace, Keselowski pulled off the weekend sweep at The Track Too Tough to Tame, taking the trophy at the 69th Southern 500 for his first win of the season.
“This has got to be the biggest,” Keselowski said during his post-race TV interview when asked where the victory ranks among his 25 NASCAR Cup Series wins. “I didn’t know, coming into the day, if we were going to be fast enough to win, and as soon as they dropped the green flag, I knew this thing was flying.”
Despite that speed, Keselowski can thank the pit crew on his No. 2 Ford for coming up big in the most critical possible time. After seeing Larson take off on restart after restart — something Larson had plenty of chances to do while winning the first two stages and leading more than 200 laps — the 2 crew was able to get Keselowski off pit road first on the race’s final caution, by a matter of inches over both Larson and his own Team Penske teammate, Joey Logano.
“The 42 [of Larson] was really strong,” Keselowski said. “Probably whoever came off pit road first was going to win the race, but my team nailed the last pit stop. I have to give a lot of credit to everyone on this 2 team to have a fast Ford and a really fast pit stop at the end.”
While Larson struggled with the handling on his Chevrolet for one of the few times all night, engaging in battles with both Logano and Kevin Harvick, Keselowski opened up an insurmountable gap. Even catching some lapped traffic on the final lap never really posed a problem.
The win should ease the minds of Keselowski and his team, who have run well and were solidly in the playoff field on points. But as he mentioned in Victory Lane, the bonus playoff points and extra confidence should come in handy once the postseason races begin at Las Vegas.
The opposite is true for Larson, who could easily have multiple victories if things had broken his way a couple of times over the season, but instead will find himself pretty far down the pecking order once the playoffs start. Despite the disappointment, he tried to find some positives to take into the regular season finale at Indianapolis.
“It stings for sure to not get a win at a prestigious race like this,” Larson said. “I want to win every race, but I want to win the Southern 500 really bad. So it would have been cool to win that, but at the same time, to bring a car this weekend to the racetrack like we did is something to be proud of, and a big confidence booster going into the next 11 weeks.”
Both Keselowski and Larson will undoubtedly feel better about themselves after leaving Darlington, but only the former is leaving with a trophy. Such is the fickle nature of The Lady in Black.
Next. Full Bojangles' Southern 500 highlights, stage results. dark
2018 Bojangles’ Southern 500 finishing order from Darlington Raceway
- Brad Keselowski
- Joey Logano
- Kyle Larson
- Kevin Harvick
- Chase Elliott
- Kurt Busch
- Kyle Busch
- Erik Jones
- Jamie McMurray
- Denny Hamlin
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Chris Buescher
- Aric Almirola
- Ryan Blaney
- Austin Dillon
- Paul Menard
- David Ragan
- Ryan Newman
- Michael McDowell
- Ty Dillon
- AJ Allmendinger
- Alex Bowman
- Kasey Kahne
- Matt Kenseth
- Bubba Wallace
- Corey LaJoie
- Ross Chastain
- Daniel Suarez
- Landon Cassill
- JJ Yeley
- B.J. McLeod
- Derrike Cope
- Jeffrey Earnhardt
- William Byron
- Clint Bowyer
- Timmy Hill
- Matt DiBenedetto
- Jimmie Johnson
- Joey Gase