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Loop Data Box Score

NASCAR Cup Series

Cook Out Southern 500

Darlington Raceway

September 3rd, 2023

Race #27 of the 2023 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 47 seconds
Average Speed: 120.906 mph
Margin of Victory : 00.447 seconds
Cautions: 8
Caution Laps: 51
Lead Changes: 13

Denny Hamlin and Tyler Reddick race — Darlington, South Carolina - September 3rd, 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. 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
Kyle Larson	18	3	1	1	1	31	4.5	+17	103	88	+15	40	30	96.5%	55	367	127.9	57
Tyler Reddick	3	5	3	2	1	20	2.6	+1	71	63	+8	41	27	99.5%	90	367	125.4	51
Chris Buescher	8	13	2	3	2	25	7.4	+5	89	87	+2	36	6	99.2%	0	367	108.3	36
William Byron	23	2	5	4	1	33	9.0	+19	94	86	+8	27	22	69.8%	0	367	101.9	39
Ross Chastain	27	20	7	5	2	34	18.3	+22	128	122	+6	16	11	36.2%	0	367	76.3	32
Brad Keselowski	5	12	4	6	3	26	9.0	-1	148	139	+9	62	9	94.0%	0	367	100.8	38
Bubba Wallace	19	16	6	7	3	24	12.3	+12	120	106	+14	48	5	66.5%	0	367	91.9	30
Chase Elliott	13	8	10	8	4	27	11.3	+5	116	99	+17	59	8	89.7%	0	367	89.1	33
Ryan Blaney	4	7	11	9	3	29	10.0	-5	131	123	+8	38	1	77.4%	0	367	95.4	38
Erik Jones	20	6	13	10	2	30	10.2	+10	114	109	+5	53	3	88.0%	0	367	91.2	35
Kyle Busch	11	9	19	11	2	36	15.1	+0	184	161	+23	48	5	58.9%	0	367	75.8	31
Joey Logano	6	22	17	12	5	31	15.1	-6	127	118	+9	27	1	51.8%	0	367	78.2	25
AJ Allmendinger	16	17	9	13	1	30	13.9	+3	156	152	+4	64	3	71.7%	0	367	79.0	24
Aric Almirola	10	10	14	14	2	31	14.5	-4	144	148	-4	39	1	72.8%	0	367	71.7	24
Chase Briscoe	12	11	8	15	6	34	16.5	-3	114	147	-33	27	1	46.3%	0	367	65.6	22
Ricky Stenhouse Jr	25	25	16	16	3	35	26.1	+9	163	150	+13	7	3	3.5%	0	367	52.3	22
Carson Hocevar	15	18	15	17	10	29	19.6	-2	139	155	-16	11	1	5.2%	0	367	59.6	0
Martin Truex Jr	31	26	23	18	2	32	22.4	+13	146	143	+3	14	8	15.3%	0	367	59.5	19
Kevin Harvick	7	4	20	19	1	28	7.6	-12	101	95	+6	37	13	85.0%	1	367	99.1	25
Austin Dillon	28	14	21	20	8	35	19.9	+8	135	119	+16	17	1	16.1%	0	367	55.6	20
Ty Gibbs	17	19	12	21	4	30	17.9	-4	143	162	-19	30	1	24.8%	0	367	62.7	16
Corey Lajoie	22	33	18	22	1	33	23.7	+0	154	157	-3	17	4	4.9%	3	367	47.2	15
Christopher Bell	1	23	24	23	1	30	16.5	-22	101	136	-35	29	21	39.0%	40	366	69.7	17
Justin Haley	29	27	26	24	8	33	28.0	+5	131	127	+4	2	9	0.5%	0	366	43.0	13
Denny Hamlin	2	1	25	25	1	30	8.1	-23	50	72	-22	21	47	74.1%	177	366	115.8	32
Todd Gilliland	30	30	22	26	14	36	27.2	+4	97	114	-17	0	1	0.3%	0	366	40.2	11
Ryan Newman	35	32	28	27	19	36	30.9	+8	77	71	+6	0	1	0.0%	0	365	34.2	10
Ryan Preece	34	34	29	28	24	36	32.2	+6	40	38	+2	0	6	0.0%	0	364	34.0	9
Ty Dillon	26	35	30	29	3	36	33.1	-3	57	66	-9	3	30	0.5%	0	364	35.4	8
JJ Yeley	33	31	31	30	1	36	32.0	+3	109	111	-2	7	0	0.8%	1	362	30.6	0
Austin Cindric	14	21	32	31	6	35	21.2	-17	84	84	+0	31	0	42.2%	0	361	54.5	6
Michael McDowell	9	29	27	32	9	34	25.9	-23	104	118	-14	5	10	8.5%	0	329	40.6	5
Alex Bowman	24	28	33	33	2	35	22.6	-9	118	119	-1	29	16	24.3%	0	322	62.2	4
Daniel Suarez	21	15	34	34	6	30	20.5	-13	113	118	-5	16	1	32.4%	0	320	51.2	3
Harrison Burton	32	24	35	35	3	35	25.7	-3	126	120	+6	7	0	4.1%	0	318	43.2	2
BJ McLeod	36	36	36	36	5	36	35.6	+0	52	54	-2	3	0	0.5%	0	210	23.2	1

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Race Fast Facts

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.

Race Recap

Kyle Larson wins Cook Out Southern 500 to advance in NASCAR Cup Playoffs

September 3rd, 2023

By Reid Spencer - NASCAR Wire Service

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 22^nd 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 23^rd 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 25^th.

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 19^th.

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 32^nd place.

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

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 23^rd, 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 18^th) lost four spots after brushing the wall late in the stage and ran 17^th 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. (16^th) 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.