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NASCAR Cup Series

Cook Out Southern 500

Darlington Raceway

September 4th, 2022

Race #27 of the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series Season

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Laps Scheduled: 367
Miles Raced : 501.3
Time of Race : 04 Hours 09 minutes 49 seconds
Average Speed: 120.406 mph
Margin of Victory : 00.252 seconds
Cautions: 9
Caution Laps: 58
Lead Changes: 21

Martin Truex Jr, William Byron and Christopher Bell race — Darlington, South Carolina - September 4th, 2022: Martin Truex Jr., driver of the #19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota, William Byron, driver of the #24 Valvoline Chevrolet, and Christopher Bell, driver of the #20 Yahoo! Toyota, race during 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
Erik Jones	15	6	4	1	1	16	7.5	+14	58	48	+10	46	8	99.2%	23	367	107.5	45
Denny Hamlin	11	2	8	2	1	21	5.4	+9	77	64	+13	59	22	99.7%	6	367	117.6	44
Tyler Reddick	4	9	3	3	2	20	8.5	+1	79	68	+11	56	9	92.4%	0	367	99.9	38
Joey Logano	1	10	7	4	1	19	6.9	-3	75	79	-4	51	25	98.9%	64	367	108.7	40
Christopher Bell	2	5	5	5	1	15	5.5	-3	54	58	-4	44	11	100.0%	0	367	109.3	44
Michael McDowell	10	13	6	6	5	24	11.2	+4	96	74	+22	60	6	89.9%	0	367	88.3	32
Brad Keselowski	25	19	11	7	1	32	16.1	+18	99	95	+4	27	4	33.8%	11	367	77.0	30
William Byron	3	3	12	8	1	17	5.4	-5	61	62	-1	50	24	99.7%	50	367	113.3	45
Bubba Wallace	8	17	9	9	1	20	9.9	-1	80	88	-8	53	3	91.6%	4	367	86.7	29
Alex Bowman	16	15	14	10	3	23	12.7	+6	78	78	+0	50	1	80.7%	0	367	83.1	31
Aric Almirola	22	21	17	11	11	28	20.0	+11	71	63	+8	5	2	6.5%	0	367	67.0	26
Kyle Larson	7	28	13	12	6	35	21.2	-5	80	90	-10	32	11	39.8%	0	367	78.5	25
Ryan Blaney	9	7	10	13	3	25	9.4	-4	83	82	+1	59	2	98.9%	0	367	89.1	34
Cole Custer	30	12	15	14	6	30	15.2	+16	93	97	-4	38	2	57.8%	0	367	73.8	23
Ty Gibbs	21	18	16	15	2	34	18.6	+6	140	132	+8	33	3	29.7%	0	367	62.8	0
Austin Cindric	6	14	18	16	5	25	15.3	-10	71	87	-16	24	2	44.4%	0	367	71.8	21
Austin Dillon	13	20	19	17	6	32	20.8	-4	64	72	-8	0	1	2.2%	0	367	55.7	20
Daniel Suarez	36	11	20	18	4	36	17.0	+18	111	91	+20	27	11	38.2%	0	367	72.1	22
Justin Haley	14	25	21	19	11	30	22.1	-5	73	74	-1	3	0	4.9%	0	366	56.5	18
Ross Chastain	12	32	26	20	1	33	18.3	-8	68	90	-22	32	49	43.3%	1	366	88.8	22
Harrison Burton	28	23	24	21	14	33	24.0	+7	88	90	-2	6	1	1.1%	0	366	48.2	16
Ty Dillon	29	22	27	22	18	33	25.7	+7	94	98	-4	0	1	0.0%	0	366	46.2	15
Daniel Hemric	24	26	22	23	20	35	26.7	+1	67	70	-3	0	0	0.0%	0	365	40.8	0
Corey Lajoie	34	16	25	24	1	36	19.5	+10	82	84	-2	7	1	13.9%	4	365	55.2	13
Landon Cassill	26	24	23	25	1	35	26.7	+1	65	74	-9	0	8	0.5%	1	365	39.0	0
Chris Buescher	27	27	28	26	20	36	27.6	+1	78	80	-2	0	2	0.0%	0	365	38.6	11
Chase Briscoe	19	31	29	27	18	33	28.6	-8	47	60	-13	0	0	0.0%	0	363	38.8	10
Todd Gilliland	31	34	30	28	8	34	28.1	+3	70	67	+3	2	1	0.5%	0	363	43.6	9
BJ McLeod	35	33	31	29	2	36	32.8	+6	29	25	+4	0	0	0.5%	0	361	28.8	0
Kyle Busch	5	1	2	30	1	11	4.0	-25	39	31	+8	26	35	94.0%	155	345	114.8	25
Martin Truex Jr	17	4	1	31	1	24	7.8	-14	80	82	-2	47	46	85.6%	48	336	98.8	21
Cody Ware	32	30	32	32	10	35	32.1	+0	52	61	-9	2	0	0.3%	0	331	29.2	5
Kevin Harvick	18	8	33	33	4	36	20.4	-15	62	38	+24	15	0	34.6%	0	274	57.8	4
JJ Yeley	33	29	34	34	28	35	33.1	-1	20	19	+1	0	0	0.0%	0	236	28.3	0
Ricky Stenhouse Jr	20	35	35	35	11	36	31.8	-15	12	27	-15	1	6	0.3%	0	164	36.9	2
Chase Elliott	23	36	36	36	12	28	30.3	-13	35	27	+8	9	0	17.2%	0	113	41.0	1

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Race Fast Facts

Darlington Raceway
73rd Annual Cook Out Southern 500
Race Winner: Erik Jones
Age: 26
Team : No. 43 - FOCUSfactor Chevrolet
Owner: Richard Petty
Crew Chief: David Elenz
Erik Jones won the 73rd Annual Cook Out Southern 500, his third victory in 210 Cup Series races.
This is his first victory and 10th top-10 finish in 2022.
This is his second victory and seventh top-10 finish in ten races at Darlington Raceway.
Denny Hamlin (second) posted his 16th top-10 finish in 21 races at Darlington Raceway. It is his eighth top-10 finish in 2022.
Tyler Reddick (third) posted his third top-10 finish in seven races at Darlington Raceway.
Austin Cindric (16th) was the highest finishing rookie.
Joey Logano leads the point standings by 6 points over William Byron.

Race Recap

Erik Jones holds off Denny Hamlin in action-filled Southern 500

September 4th, 2022

By Reid Spencer - NASCAR Wire Service

In a race that had more twists and turns than a Victorian melodrama, Erik Jones put the vaunted No. 43 Chevrolet back in Victory Lane for the first time since 2014.

In a remarkable run to the finish in the season's first NASCAR Cup Series Playoff race, Jones held off Denny Hamlin in a 20-lap run to the finish to win the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway for the second time.

The Sunday night race took its toll on more than a handful of Playoff drivers, as Jones became the first non-Playoff driver to win the first postseason event since NASCAR introduced the elimination format in 2014.

The victory was Jones' first of the season, the third of his career, and the first for Petty GMS Racing since that organization was former by merger before the 2022 campaign. The win was No. 200 for the 43 car number, which NASCAR Hall of Famer and car owner Richard Petty drove to seven series championships.

"Richard hasn't been to Victory Lane at Darlington probably since he last won here," said Jones, referencing Petty's 1967 victory in the Southern 500. "It's just awesome. Just so proud of these guys, Petty GMS and (sponsor) Focus Packer Crew.

"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."

The victory was the first in the Cup Series for crew chief Dave Elenz. Jones won his first Southern 500 in 2019, driving for Joe Gibbs Racing but was released after the 2020 season in favor of Christopher Bell. On Sunday night, Jones held off a former teammate in Hamlin, whoran out of time in his pursuit of Jones and finished in the runner-up spot, .252 seconds behind the race winner.

"Well, I mean, I never lost any belief in myself through any of it," Jones said. "I knew I could still do it, and I just knew we needed to grow the program to do it, and we have. We've brought on a lot of great people in the last year. Dave Elenz called a great race today. His first Cup win - that's pretty cool for him.

"I'm excited, man. We've been talking about this day a long time, and it is redemption in a lot of ways. Very fitting that it's here at this race again. I felt like this was the race that saved my job the first time around, and coming back here with this win, I guess it puts you back on the map."

Tyler Reddick ran third, followed by pole winner Joey Logano, who vaulted to the top of the Playoff standings, six points clear of second-place William Byron, who finished eighth on Sunday.

Jones got his chance at the front of the field when Kyle Busch, who had led a race-high 155 laps, suffered a blown engine as he prepared for the final restart. Busch had inherited the top spot when his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Martin Truex Jr., suffered a similar failure on Lap 333 of 367.

But those retirements barely scratched the surface of the drama that unfolded throughout the race. Disaster befell Chase Elliott and Kevin Harvick. Kyle Larson and his team accomplished an amazing salvage job.

And the Playoff picture remained just as uncertain as it had been entering the grueling 500-mile contest at the Lady in Black.

After a catastrophic Playoff opener, Elliott, the regular-season champion, is the series leader no more.

Elliott spun sideways in Turn 2 on Lap 113 - two laps short of the end of Stage 1 - cracked the back of his No. 9 Chevrolet and slid down the track into the path of Chase Briscoe, who couldn't avoid the collision.

Elliott nursed his car to pit road where his team tried in vain to repair the damage, but with the right rear toe link and upper and lower control arms broken, the task was hopeless. The 10-minute time allotment under NASCAR's damaged vehicle policy ran out, and Elliott retired from the race in last place (36th).

The 15-point advantage Elliott carried into the Playoffs was gone. Elliott scored the minimum one point for his efforts at Darlington and fell to ninth in the Playoff standings, 14 points ahead of 16th-place finisher Austin Cindric in 13th.

"I just hit the wall in (Turns) 1 and 2 and broke something in the right-rear," Elliott said succinctly. And how would he approach the next Playoff race at Kansas Speedway? "A lot better than we did today."

A solid run by 2014 series champion Harvick went up in flames on Lap 275. As he lost speed while running ninth, Harvick radioed to his crew, "My rocker panel's on fire."

Flames erupted on both sides of the car. Harvick parked the No. 4 Ford on the apron and scrambled from his smoke-filled cockpit. Harvick exited the race in 33rdplace and dopped to the bottom rung of the Playoff standings, 13 points below the current cut line.

Larson, the reigning series champion, brought his car to pit road on Lap 79, sensing his engine was about to expire. He lost three laps as his team worked under the hood of the No. 5 but returned to the track and the "gremlins" disappeared after a few laps.

Using wave-arounds and his status as beneficiary under caution to advantage, Larson regained the lead lap and finished 12th, averting a major hit in the standings.

Notes:

The last driver to win a race in the No. 43 was Aric Almirola, who took the car to Victory Lane on July 6, 2014 at Daytona.
Joey Logano led the first 37 laps from the pole and 64 overall, but an issue with the left front tire cost him valuable time during a green-flag pit stop on Lap 75, and he never regained the track position he lost.
Ross Chastain lost a lap when he returned to pit road for an unscheduled stop on Lap 160 to address a loose wheel. He finished 20th, one lap down.
Austin Cindric, Austin Dillon, Chase Briscoe and Kevin Harvick are the four drivers below the current cut line with two races left in the Round of 16.