NASCAR Southern 500: Darlington highlights, updates, stage results

The Southern 500 is putting drivers through one of the stiffest tests in NASCAR, and we keep you in the loop with highlights, updates and stage results.

Denny Hamlin hasn’t won yet during the 2018 NASCAR season, and you know it’s eating at him. Good thing Darlington Raceway has arrived with the Bojangles’ Southern 500.

Though much has changed over the years, Darlington retains its reputation as The Track Too Tough to Tame, and for good reason. That said, Hamlin knows his way around this place, winning the race in 2017 — not coincidentally, the last NASCAR Cup Series event he won.

If he could pull off a repeat, it would help Hamlin out a lot, even though he’s going to be in the NASCAR Playoffs regardless. Other drivers aren’t so fortunate, so the likes of Daniel Suarez and Ricky Stenhouse Jr., to name a couple, would love to break through and shake up the postseason picture.

It will be hard for them to get past Hamlin and Kyle Larson, who start the race in Row 1. Some of this season’s big winners, Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch, are also in he first few rows. Kevin Harvick is not, and is likely still a little upset about his run-in with Ross Chastain during the XFINITY Series race on Saturday, but it’s not wise to count him out.

It’s also NASCAR Throwback Weekend, so it might take some time to get used to who’s driving what, but it should be both colorful and fun as is usually the case at Darlington.

Unfortunately, lightning close to Darlington Raceway prevented the race from starting on time. Just pushing the Southern 500 a little deeper into the night, but hey, no work or school for most people tomorrow …

Stage 1

As is the case with many a race start these days, pole-sitter Hamlin got a nice jump and led the early laps.

Larson wasn’t too far behind, though, and was threatening to make a challenge for P1. When Larson caught Hamlin, he was able to work his way by him, and Hamlin soon found himself under siege by Martin Truex Jr. for second place.

Green flag pit stops didn’t shuffle the lead at all, but it did bring problems for Jimmie Johnson. The seven-time Cup Series champion missed the commitment line for pit road, foiling his attempted pit stop and forcing a costly second attempt the next time around.

There was little question that Larson was going to win the stage if nothing went wrong. On the final lap, something did: Racing hard to avoid going a lap down, Austin Dillon came up the track and made contact with the left-front of Larson’s No. 42. While Larson did hold on for his second stage win of 2018, the question quickly became how much damage was done to his dominant car.

Stage 1 results

1. Kyle Larson: 10 points plus one bonus playoff point
2. Erik Jones: 9 points
3. Martin Truex Jr.: 8 points
4. Joey Logano: 7 points
5. Brad Keselowski: 6 points
6. Kevin Harvick: 5 points
7. Denny Hamlin: 4 points
8. Kurt Busch: 3 points
9. Kyle Busch: 2 points
10. Chase Elliott: 1 point

Stage 2

The damage did not, in fact, slow down Larson. With Erik Jones sent to the back due to an uncontrolled tire penalty, the restart was between the 42 and Joey Logano’s Steve Park Pennzoil throwback, but Larson prevailed early on.

The first caution for an on-track incident flew for the 23 driven by Joey Gase. Replays showed he and Kyle Busch made contact, with Gase getting the worst of it and spinning out into the inside wall.

For the first time, Larson wasn’t quickest on the ensuing restart, as both Truex and Kevin Harvick got out in front of him. As those two members of the Big 3 went back and forth trying to best each other for the lead, Larson eventually caught them and quickly put them in his mirror to get back out front.

Green flag pit stops led Truex to pit road, but trouble awaited him there. Specifically, an uncontrolled tire penalty on a very tight call by NASCAR was assessed to the 78 team, and Truex ended up a lap down because of it.

Meanwhile, the 42 team made an interesting call, choosing to stay out until the end of the stage. It worked out just fine, as not only did Larson win the stage, he got a measure of revenge on Dillon. Plus the last second pass prevented Truex from being in the free pass position, which could be important toward the end of the night.

Stage 2 results

1. Kyle Larson: 10 points plus one bonus playoff point
2. Brad Keselowski: 9 points
3. Joey Logano: 8 points
4. Chase Elliott: 7 points
5. Erik Jones: 6 points
6. Kurt Busch: 5 points
7. Ryan Newman: 4 points
8. Kyle Busch: 3 points
9. Jamie McMurray: 2 points
10. Kevin Harvick: 1 point

Final stage

Larson rode a solid restart to the lead again, but things were not so rosy for Daniel Suarez. He had a tire issue and hit the wall, but he made it back to pit road and no caution came out as no debris was detected.

Jimmie Johnson, already having a miserable night, had to have his 48 pushed back to the entrance to the garage after engine trouble.

The night had so far proceeded without a huge wreck of any kind, but that changed with less than 60 laps to go. With Ryan Newman apparently slowing down to go to pit road, Clint Bowyer didn’t see him and smashed into the back of his No. 31 Chevrolet. It was an even harder hit for Bowyer after the two cars got together, as his No. 14 Ford flew up into the outside wall.

The race went green again with 45 laps to go, but while Larson got the lead, he wasn’t able to drive away from Brad Keselowski. A caution for debris came out with 39 laps to go, increasing the likelihood that more drivers would take the wave-around after only four took it on the prior yellow.

Would there be more cautions? At least one more, as Jeffrey Earnhardt went around and brought another one with just under 25 laps to go. That brought the lead lap cars back down pit road and put the crews to the test again. It turned into quite the drag race off pit road between Keselowski, Larson and Logano, with the No. 2 just inching it out.

That proved to be critical, because Keselowski got himself a nice cushion on the restart, and though Larson settled into second, both Logano and Harvick were able to catch him. Logano made the pass, but Harvick had a harder time.

All of that was sweet for Keselowski. No one was able to get too close down the stretch, and despite leading just 24 laps to Larson’s 284, Keselowski took the checkered flag for the 2018 Bojangles’ Southern 500, completing the weekend sweep at Darlington.