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Loop Data Box Score

NASCAR Cup Series

Cook Out Southern 500

Darlington Raceway

September 5th, 2021

Race #27 of the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series Season

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Cook Out Southern 500
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Laps Scheduled: 367
Miles Raced : 501.3
Time of Race : 04 Hours 08 minutes 01 seconds
Average Speed: 121.279 mph
Margin of Victory : 00.212 seconds
Cautions: 11
Caution Laps: 52
Lead Changes: 18

Denny Hamlin and Ryan Blaney lead the field — Darlington, South Carolina - September 5th, 2021: Denny Hamlin, driver of the #11 Offerpad Toyota, and Ryan Blaney, driver of the #12 Menards/Richmond Ford, lead the field on a pace lap prior to the NASCAR Cup Series Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. Photo by Jared C Tilton | Getty Images

Driver	ST	50%	10%	FIN	HI	LW	AVG	PC D	Pass	Passed	PS D	Q PASS	Fast	%T15	TOT Led	Laps	Rating	TOT PTS
Denny Hamlin	2	2	1	1	1	15	2.3	+1	52	52	+0	35	43	100.0%	146	367	137.0	57
Kyle Larson	6	1	3	2	1	24	3.0	+4	78	76	+2	39	86	99.2%	156	367	135.8	54
Ross Chastain	23	6	4	3	1	30	8.8	+20	122	103	+19	52	18	78.2%	1	367	105.0	44
Martin Truex Jr	10	24	14	4	1	24	11.0	+6	142	102	+40	67	26	73.6%	1	367	102.4	38
Kevin Harvick	9	9	7	5	1	23	7.0	+4	107	107	+0	58	14	95.4%	20	367	110.1	44
Kurt Busch	3	3	2	6	1	20	5.0	-3	87	76	+11	53	30	99.2%	13	367	115.2	44
Brad Keselowski	16	13	8	7	3	24	13.7	+9	125	127	-2	47	4	67.3%	0	367	83.7	30
Joey Logano	11	5	5	8	3	25	7.6	+3	106	101	+5	57	3	97.8%	0	367	102.7	34
Chris Buescher	34	14	6	9	3	34	15.0	+25	125	117	+8	29	2	55.6%	0	367	75.3	28
Austin Dillon	21	22	10	10	4	32	16.8	+11	129	117	+12	29	1	42.2%	0	367	72.9	27
Cole Custer	31	21	11	11	4	31	20.2	+20	133	148	-15	16	1	15.3%	0	367	63.9	26
Ryan Preece	18	16	12	12	5	29	15.3	+6	129	131	-2	43	2	43.9%	0	367	76.8	25
Daniel Suarez	26	18	13	13	10	34	20.0	+13	139	131	+8	21	2	23.2%	0	367	65.6	24
Ryan Newman	19	20	9	14	3	31	17.0	+5	134	135	-1	32	4	42.0%	0	367	70.4	23
Corey Lajoie	25	19	15	15	3	25	13.3	+10	122	115	+7	47	1	76.8%	0	367	77.7	23
Aric Almirola	8	15	18	16	4	22	12.5	-8	93	105	-12	45	4	71.9%	0	366	79.4	24
Ricky Stenhouse Jr	29	12	17	17	9	34	17.7	+12	135	140	-5	31	3	27.0%	0	366	64.7	20
Tyler Reddick	7	11	16	18	3	23	10.1	-11	93	107	-14	56	1	80.4%	0	366	83.9	23
Chase Briscoe	24	23	20	19	5	34	22.8	+5	114	139	-25	9	0	2.2%	0	366	54.0	18
Christopher Bell	13	4	22	20	1	24	12.6	-7	108	104	+4	45	19	66.5%	10	366	79.7	26
Bubba Wallace	17	17	19	21	10	30	18.7	-4	108	125	-17	11	0	11.2%	0	366	58.3	16
Ryan Blaney	1	8	21	22	1	23	9.6	-21	81	77	+4	48	20	76.0%	17	366	91.1	24
Matt DiBenedetto	30	28	23	23	10	35	23.4	+7	84	85	-1	4	1	6.5%	0	365	49.9	14
Anthony Alfredo	32	29	26	24	11	34	27.7	+8	72	80	-8	2	1	0.3%	0	364	41.6	13
Justin Haley	20	26	25	25	19	35	26.8	-5	49	59	-10	0	3	0.0%	0	364	44.7	0
Alex Bowman	5	25	27	26	1	36	26.3	-21	84	78	+6	6	3	4.6%	0	363	47.2	11
BJ McLeod	27	30	29	27	3	35	29.0	+0	58	73	-15	5	0	1.6%	0	359	40.2	0
Josh Bilicki	28	31	28	28	1	36	29.8	+0	60	58	+2	6	0	1.9%	0	359	36.2	9
Joey Gase	35	32	31	29	1	37	32.1	+6	27	24	+3	0	0	1.1%	1	357	31.5	0
Quin Houff	37	33	30	30	11	37	32.8	+7	20	21	-1	0	0	0.3%	0	355	30.2	7
Chase Elliott	4	10	24	31	2	34	12.4	-27	115	104	+11	46	3	76.3%	0	327	78.9	9
Erik Jones	22	27	32	32	1	35	27.7	-10	58	79	-21	1	0	1.4%	2	264	44.8	5
Cody Ware	33	34	33	33	8	36	32.7	+0	47	62	-15	4	0	0.0%	0	209	32.7	0
William Byron	14	7	34	34	6	36	25.1	-20	101	73	+28	19	3	22.3%	0	199	61.8	3
Kyle Busch	12	35	35	35	6	24	26.9	-23	34	40	-6	25	1	33.0%	0	125	54.2	2
James Davison	36	36	36	36	26	36	35.5	+0	2	9	-7	0	0	0.0%	0	50	24.7	1
Michael McDowell	15	37	37	37	6	22	35.1	-22	17	4	+13	11	2	6.0%	0	30	33.2	1

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Race Fast Facts

Darlington Raceway
72nd Annual Cook Out Southern 500
Race Winner: Denny Hamlin
Age: 40
Team: No. 11 - Offerpad Toyota
Owner: Joe Gibbs
Crew Chief: Christopher Gabehart
Denny Hamlin won the 72nd Annual Cook Out Southern 500, his 45th victory in 569 Cup Series races.
This is his first victory and 18th top-10 finish in 2021.
This is his fourth victory and 15th top-10 finish in 19 races at Darlington Raceway.
Kyle Larson (second) posted his seventh top-10 finish in eight races at Darlington Raceway. It is his 19th top-10 finish in 2021.
Ross Chastain (third) posted his first top-10 finish in five races at Darlington Raceway.
Chase Briscoe (19th) was the highest finishing rookie.

Race Recap

Denny Hamlin holds off Kyle Larson at Darlington for dramatic NASCAR Cup Playoff win

September 5th, 2021

By Reid Spencer - NASCAR Wire Services

DARLINGTON, S.C. – Holding off regular-season champion Kyle Larson throughout a thrilling final green-flag run in Sunday's Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, Denny Hamlin is winless in 2021 no more.

Hamlin maintained control of his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota as Larson buried his No. 5 Chevrolet into Turns 3 and 4 on the final lap. Larson gave Hamlin a tap, but Hamlin blocked the top lane and got to the finish line .212 seconds ahead of the runner-up.

"He drove it in past the limit of the car and tires," Hamlin said of Larson's banzai charge. "I knew he was coming. I was a little conservative on that last lap because I had that four-car-length lead."

The victory was Hamlin's first of the year after a winless 26-race regular season. He won for the fourth time at Darlington and for the 45th time in his career to earn an automatic berth into the Round of 12 in the NASCAR Cup Series

Hamlin kept Larson at bay over the final two restarts but couldn't pull away to a comfortable lead.

"We got to the white (flag), and I was like, ‘Well, I haven't been able to gain on him now, I'm going to try something,'" Larson said of the desperation try he labeled a "video-game move." "Honestly, got to his bumper too quick. I was hoping he was going to run that diamond to kind of be safe and I could skirt to his outside, but gave everything I had.

"I didn't want to wreck him. I just wanted to try to get to his outside there, but he did a great job not really making any mistakes during the last run, and I was having to push really hard in second to try and just stay with him."

Larson led 156 of the 367 laps to Hamlin's 146. Hamlin won the first stage and Larson the second.

Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. caught a break when Ryan Blaney spun in Turn 4 on Lap 318 while the two JGR drivers stayed on the track trying to stretch the cycle of pit stops. Truex beat Hamlin off pit road but was flagged for speeding, and Hamlin held the top spot the rest of the way.

Non-Playoff driver Ross Chastain finished third, followed by Truex, who recovered from the penalty and an earlier loose wheel to run fourth. Playoff drivers Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch, Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano were fifth through eighth, respectively, but for other title hopefuls, the race brought disaster.

Two-time series champion Kyle Busch suffered an early exit and a blow to his hopes of winning a third title. Contact with the No. 3 Chevrolet of Austin Dillon sent Busch's No. 18 Toyota rocketing into the outside wall in Turn 2, causing irreparable damage.

Busch fell out in 35th place and now faces an uphill battle to advance to the Round of 12.

"It wasn't the 3's (Dillon's) fault," Busch said. "Just take our lumps, you know. We were running like (crap), and that's what you get when you run like (crap). Shouldn't be there."

Three-fourths of the Hendrick Motorsports armada took a major hit as well. Alex Bowman scraped the wall on Lap 14 and stayed on the track, hoping to make it to the competition caution on lap 25. But a tire rub proved disastrous, sending Bowman's Chevy into the Turn 4 wall, and damage the No. 24 Camaro of teammate William Byron in the process.

Bowman was able to continue and finished 26th, but Byron wasn't as fortunate. After recovering to run in the top 10, Byron cut a left front tire on Lap 200, crashed hard into the Turn 1 wall and exited the race with a 34th-place finish.

"That was a big hit," Byron acknowledged. "It looked like on that (previous) pit stop, it looked like we dropped the jack and the left front was still finishing up. I took off and everything felt OK. I went to pass the No. 00 (Quin Houff) or somebody down the frontstretch and was just about to turn into (Turn) 1 and the left front went down.

"There was nothing we could do. The guys did an awesome job to fix it. We were running like top-12, I think, even with all the (earlier) right rear damage, and it's just terrible. I don't know, man. That sucks."

Reigning series champion Chase Elliott fell out in 31st place after slamming the outside wall on Lap 327 in a three-wide melee in Turn 1 with Bubba Wallace and Christopher Bell.

An early wreck put a dagger to Michael McDowell's slim championship chances. On Lap 31, McDowell's No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford broke loose behind Erik Jones' Chevrolet in Turn 2, smacked the outside wall and careened nose-first into the inside SAFER barrier.

McDowell exited the race, his car destroyed and his title hopes hanging by a thread.

"The 43 (Jones) kind of got everybody jammed up," McDowell said after exiting the infield care center. "I think he started on the front there without tires, which is a tough spot to be in, and I just went three-wide underneath him and just got into the patch (of new asphalt in Turn 2) with my left sides just a little bit low.

"I got loose enough into the wall and that was about it. I'll have to see the replay, but just heartbreaking for everybody on this Front Row team. We had high hopes coming into the Playoffs and this is not how we wanted to start it."

Bowman, Busch, Byron and McDowell fell below the current cut line for the Round of 12. Elliott leaves Darlington 10th in the Playoff standings.