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  • Erik Jones wins the Southern 500 at Darlington

    Erik Jones wins the Southern 500 at Darlington

    DARLINGTON, S.C. – Erik Jones had the best car when it mattered most leading the final 42 laps to claim his first win this year in the 70th annual Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.

    The Joe Gibbs Racing driver also clinched his spot in the upcoming Playoffs with only one race remaining in the regular season. It was his second career Cup Series victory and his ninth top-five finish of the season.

    He not only grabbed the trophy but held off his teammate Kyle Busch, the current points leader.

    “It was a lot of pressure,” Jones said. “Kyle (Busch) is a great race car driver. I’ve raced him a lot, and obviously you want to beat him to win, right? I was just locked in, man. I stayed focused. I really thought it was our night when we got out front.

    “It’s amazing for me to be able to hold off Kyle. It’s really cool, just for the history we have with Kyle giving me my first opportunity in the Truck Series (at Kyle Busch Motorsports). To race him for the win in such a big race, that’s pretty cool and something I’m never going to forget.”

    Jones is also hoping the win will put an end to any questions about his place in the JGR organization.  

    “There’s been a lot of doubt and speculation, he continued. “I’ve put my heart and soul into this race team. This is my living and how I want to make a career and what I want to do. It doesn’t get any better than this. On my list, this race is really high and it’s going to look damn good to see my face on that trophy.”

    Chip Ganassi Racing’s Kyle Larson finished second after leading 44 laps to score his sixth top-five this year and secured his spot in the Playoffs on points.

    “Erik (Jones) did a good job on that last restart to get by me and I was better than him all throughout that run,” Larson said. “It’s just I couldn’t ever do anything with him, just because the dirty air was really bad. Wore out surface and the groove is already narrow, and it was just extra difficult. I felt like both the 18 (Kyle Busch) and I were a little bit better than he was at the end, but couldn’t do nothing with him.”

    Kyle Busch led a race-high 118 laps to finish third and clinched the regular-season championship. Kevin Harvick finished fourth as Brad Keselowski rounded out the top five. All three drivers have secured a place in the Playoffs with wins this season.

    Ryan Blaney, William Byron and Aric Almirola accumulated enough points to make it into the Playoffs which leaves two open spots.

    Clint Bowyer placed sixth and earned six stage points which should help secure his playoff hopes. He is currently in 15th place and has +8 points over Daniel Suarez (16th) and Ryan Newman (17th) while Johnson is -18 points.

    Suarez and Newman are tied in points but Suarez wins the tiebreaker leaving Newman on the outside looking in. Newman recorded a 23rd place finish after an eventful night that included tight handling conditions, mechanical issues and contact from other cars, including an incident with Suarez. With Newman and Suarez tied in points, things could get interesting next weekend at Indianapolis.

    Johnson’s No. 48 was strong, finishing second in Stage 1 and seventh in Stage 2, earning valuable points. But Johnson was caught up in a multi-car accident on Lap 275 and lost much of the advantage he had gained earlier in the race. He will probably need to win next week to advance to the Playoffs.

    Tune in to the Big Machine Vodka 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway Sunday, Sept. 8 as the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series regular-season concludes with two open spots undecided. 

    Follow @angiecampbell_ for the latest NASCAR news and feature stories.

  • Monster Energy Cup Series Playoff Preview/Clinch Scenarios–Darlington

    Monster Energy Cup Series Playoff Preview/Clinch Scenarios–Darlington

    With only two regular-season races remaining in the season, drivers who have not clinched a spot in the Playoffs, have everything to gain and nothing to lose this Sunday in the Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.

    Sixteen drivers will compete for the championship after the season finale at Indianapolis on Sept. 9. Twelve drivers have already secured a spot, leaving only four positions up for grabs.

    Kyle Bush, the current points leader with six wins, will be joined by Kevin Harvick, a seven-time winner. Martin Truex Jr. is in with four wins and Clint Bowyer raced his way in by capturing two checkered flags. Kurt Busch, Austin Dillon, Joey Logano, Chase Elliott and Erik Jones have all visited victory lane once this season and will move on to contend for the championship.

    Three drivers have clinched their spot based on points – Ryan Blaney, Brad Keselowski and Kyle Larson. That leaves only four open positions.

    Currently, Denny Hamlin, Aric Almirola, Jimmie Johnson and Alex Bowman make up the rest of the championship 16-driver field. Will they be able to hold on to those spots? Let’s take a look at what each competitor must do at Darlington.

    Denny Hamlin only has to score eight points and he will clinch a spot in the Playoffs. If there is a repeat winner, he will automatically advance to the Playoffs, regardless of points. Hamlin has an impressive history at the track with 10 top-10 finishes in 12 career starts and the best driver rating (110.3). He’s the defending race winner and he also won in 2010.

    Aric Almirola can clinch if there is a repeat winner and he accumulates 25 points during the race. If there is a new winner, he could still secure a spot but would need help.

    Jimmie Johnson could clinch if he wins the Southern 500. He could also claim a position in the Playoffs if there is a repeat winner but he would also need help. Johnson has three previous wins at Darlington.

    For 14 drivers there is only one way to move up into the top 16 and that’s with a win on Sunday. This includes Bowman, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ryan Newman, Daniel Suarez, Paul Menard, William Byron, Jamie McMurray, Chris Buescher, AJ Allmendinger, David Ragan, Darrell Wallace Jr., Kasey Kahne, Michael McDowell and Ty Dillon. Matt DiBenedetto could clinch with a win but he would have to maintain a position in the top 30.

    Tune into the Bojangles’ Southern 500 Sunday at 6 p.m. on NBCSN to catch all the racing action as the countdown to the Playoffs continues.

    Follow @angiecampbell_ for the latest NASCAR news and feature stories.

     

  • Full weekend schedule for Darlington Raceway

    Full weekend schedule for Darlington Raceway

    Staff Report | NASCAR.com

    The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series will be in action at Darlington Raceway, while the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series is off this weekend. Check out the full schedule below, which is subject to change.

    Note: All times are ET

    FRIDAY, Aug. 31
    1:05-1:55 p.m.: NASCAR Xfinity Series first practice, NBCSN/NBC Sports App (Follow live)
    2:05-2:55 p.m.: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series first practice, NBCSN/NBC Sports App (Follow live)
    3:05-3:55 p.m.: NASCAR Xfinity Series final practice, NBCSN/NBC Sports App (Follow live)
    4:05-4:55 p.m.: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series final practice, NBCSN/NBC Sports App (Follow live)

    PRESS PASS (Watch live)
    11:10 a.m.: Derrike Cope and Bojangles’ President Randy Poindexter
    11:30 a.m.:  NASCAR partnership announcement
    11:45 a.m.: Justin Allgaier and Christopher Bell
    12:05 p.m.: Denny Hamlin
    12:30 p.m.: Kyle Larson
    1:00 p.m.: Kurt Busch
    1:15 p.m.: Matt Kenseth

    SATURDAY, Sept. 1
    12:35 p.m.: NASCAR Xfinity Series Pole Qualifying, NBCSN/NBC Sports App (Follow live)
    2 p.m.: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Busch Pole Qualifying, NBCSN/NBC Sports App (Follow live)
    3:30 p.m.: NASCAR Xfinity Series Sport Clips Haircuts VFW 200 (147 laps, 200.8 miles), NBC/NBC Sports App (Follow live)

    PRESS PASS (Watch live)
    2:45 p.m.: Post-Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series qualifying
    5:15 p.m.: Post-NASCAR Xfinity Series race

    SUNDAY, Sept. 2
    6 p.m.: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Bojangles’ Southern 500 (367 laps, 501.3 miles), NBCSN/NBC Sports App (Follow live)

    PRESS PASS (Watch live)
    2 p.m.: STP and Richard Petty Motorsports
    10:15 p.m.: Post-Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race

  • Upon Witnessing the Southern 500

    Upon Witnessing the Southern 500

    Posting from the great state of South Carolina today. I slept during the Bojangles’ Southern 500 race and awoke late to chronicle the iconic race. It seems like the throwback idea is going to last awhile. The crowd was large and everywhere you looked, the 80s were apparent. Does that show that NASCAR fans want to go back to the 1980s? Maybe. The jury is still out on whether the Lucky Dog, the Wave Around, and double file restarts are the reason for the swoon in attendance.

    Anyway, the only thing that didn’t take fans back 30 years was the race was one of those dusk-dark features. Start in daylight and end in the dark. Until nearly 11:00! In former times, the race was on Labor Day and was over by at least 5 p.m. but TV and the sanctioning body, as well as the tracks, like this schedule. It’s up to conjecture whether the fans like it, but it’s what we have. And it was good except one little thing.

    After a slow start, Joe Gibbs Racing and its six Toyotas are domination. I say six because it’s obvious the two at Furniture Row Racing are part of the Gibbs team somewhat like Wood Brothers Racing is part of Team Penske. I’ve even seen the No. 21 in the Penske shop alongside the other two Penske cars. Somewhat like Hendrick Motorsports in the 90s and up until recently. Harvick on the pole? Only temporary. Once the race starts, the Gibbs cars take over the show, while the fast Chevys and Fords fall behind.

    Why is this? Lots of theories are out there. One contends that the domination is a money thing—that Toyota is spending more on development. Another says it’s a driver talent advantage. Still, another believes that it’s just luck. This writer is in two of the three camps. It’s obvious Toyota has the coffers open for whatever their team needs or wants as well as the luck argument. Racing luck is always a part of the sport. Some make their own luck, however, but luck is always on the table. Driver talent? No. No one can tell me the talents of Jimmie Johnson, Brad Keselowski (two noted champions) and many others are inferior to the ones driving the Gibbs cars. They’re all good, and to rate them would be insulting.

    NASCAR believes in parity (at least they say that), but until guilt is found, if indeed it exists, it’s up to Hendrick, Penske, Childress, Roush, SHR, and others to get better. Ford has their Performance Center in Concord, NC, and you cannot tell me Team Chevy isn’t also working on the problem. Until the performance improves from Ford and Chevy teams, this is what we have.

  • Truex Finishes Eighth after Blowing Tire in Closing Laps

    Truex Finishes Eighth after Blowing Tire in Closing Laps

    DARLINGTON, S.C. — Martin Truex Jr. put on a strong drive in the Bojangles’ Southern 500 and had the race in check as the laps wound down, but the defending race winner blew a tire in Turn 3, costing him the win, and nursed his damaged car around to an eighth-place finish.

    After the completion of the final cycle of green flag pit stops, Kevin Harvick cycled to the head of the field, with Kurt Busch and Truex in tow. Busch snagged the lead from his teammate with 47 laps to go, then lost it when Truex made a banzai move into Turn 1 with 42 to go.

    The race was in his control from that point on. But then Denny Hamlin, who lost the lead with 55 to go when he overshot the entrance to pit road, moved his way through the running order on much fresher tires and took second with 20 to go. With 10 to go, the gap from Truex to Hamlin was less than two seconds. Coming to five to go, Hamlin was on Truex’s tail.

    Entering Turn 3, Truex suffered a right-front tire blowout and hit the wall.

    He said after the race that it wasn’t a hard hit.

    “It was literally at the end of the backstretch. I was so high getting in the corner anyway that I only had six inches to go to hit it,” Truex said. “I literally stepped on the brake. The car turned right. I was a foot from the wall when the tire popped, and I just kind of glanced off it and glanced around the track. It really wasn’t bad at all, and I was actually able to make two laps with the thing on the inner liner and finish eighth. Not bad, just disappointing more than anything.”

    Hamlin ducked underneath him to take the lead and drive on to victory. Truex, meanwhile, rode out the remaining two and a half laps and brought his car home to eighth.

    While a solid finish nonetheless, Truex said it was “bittersweet” to come up two laps short. Especially on a night when he swept the stages, including edging out Kyle Larson to the line on the final lap of the first stage, which clinched him the regular season championship (and an extra 15 playoff points).

    “Yeah, I mean, it was definitely a bittersweet night for us, to come up just two laps short there, blow a tire at the end after having no issues with tires all night and having such a good race car,” Truex said. “I don’t know if that last run was the longest one we made all night. I’m not really sure to be honest. I was kind of out there caught up driving my guts out at the end trying to hang on. It’s unfortunate we blew the tire, but really proud of everybody on this team for an amazing season so far, and to lock up the regular season points is a huge accomplishment for us, for our team. I feel like we’ve come a long way in just a few years together and continue to climb. Proud of everybody. Wish we could have won, but that’s the breaks. Sometimes they go your way, sometimes they don’t, and tonight we come up a little short. But definitely a lot to be proud of.”

    Truex leaves Darlington with a 107-point lead over Kyle Busch.

  • Hamlin Rallies from Pit Road Overshoot to Win Southern 500 at Darlington

    Hamlin Rallies from Pit Road Overshoot to Win Southern 500 at Darlington

    DARLINGTON, S.C. — Denny Hamlin overcame a botched pit road entry, resulting in him missing the pits entirely, and took advantage of Martin Truex Jr. collecting the wall with three laps to go to win the Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.

    As the field started hitting pit road on Lap 298 for the final round of green flag stops, Hamlin waited until 55 before making his final stop. He came in too hot and turned his car out onto the track to avoid hitting the sand barrels that line the leading edge of the pit walls.

    However, the high number of cars lapped kept him in contention. As a result, he used his fresher tires to run down the cars in the running order, culminating with his late battle with Truex.

    Entering Turn 3 with three to go, Truex suffered a right-front tire blowout and slammed the wall. This allowed Hamlin to moezie on by and score his 31st career victory in his 423rd Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series start.

    “Drove our ass off. That’s as hard as I could drive. We got ‘The Flying 11.’ It’s flying.

    “This track is just amazing. I love this race track.

    “This was weird. To go through the adversity we did right there, missing pit lane. I knew I had to drive my tail off to get it back.

    “It’s good to see the entire state of South Carolina in the stands. Thank you so much,” Hamlin said.

    Kyle Busch finished second and Kurt Busch rounded out the podium.

    Austin Dillon and Erik Jones rounded out the top-five.

    Matt Kenseth, Ryan Newman, Truex, Kevin Harvick and Jamie McMurray rounded out the top-10.

    RACE SUMMARY

    Kevin Harvick led the field to the green flag at 6:20 p.m. After caution flew for the first time on Lap 15 for a two-car wreck in Turn 1, Kyle Busch exited pit road with the race lead. Kyle Larson took the lead going into Turn 1 on the ensuing restart. Truex ran down and passed Larson exiting Turn 4 on the final lap of the stage to win the first stage.

    Exiting pit road with the race lead, Larson led the field to the green on Lap 107. Truex took it back on Lap 148, only to lose it to Denny Hamlin on pit road under caution, a result of a two-car wreck in Turn 2 on Lap 155. But Truex forced a three-wide battle down the backstretch to take the lead exiting Turn 4, and with caution flying for Gray Gaulding spinning out in Turn 2 on Lap 197, the second stage ended with Truex winning the stage.

    Hamlin exited pits with the lead and led the field back to green on Lap 204. A cycle of green flag stops sent Truex to the front, only for a caution for debris in Turn 2 to give the lead back to Hamlin, and setting up the run to the finish.

    CAUTION SUMMATION

    Caution flew first on Lap 15 when Trevor Bayne slammed the Turn 1 wall, followed moments later by AJ Allmendinger spinning and collecting the left-rear of Bayne. Caution flew for the second time on Lap 40 when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. slammed the frontstretch wall. The third caution flew for the end of the first stage on Lap 100. The fourth flew on Lap 125 when Daniel Suarez pounded the wall in Turn 1. Caution flew for the fifth time on Lap 155 for a two-car wreck in Turn 2. Gray Gaulding brought out the sixth caution on Lap 197. David Ragan brought out caution for the seventh time on Lap 206 with his spin in Turn 2. Debris in Turn 2 brought out the eighth and final time on Lap 260.

    NUTS & BOLTS

    The race lasted three hours, 46 minutes and 34 seconds, at an average speed of 132.761 mph. There were 20 lead changes among eight different drivers and eight cautions for 38 laps.

    Truex leaves with a 107-point lead over Kyle Busch, having mathematically clinched the 15-point regular season points bonus.

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  • Harvick Captures Coors Light Pole for Darlington Southern 500

    Harvick Captures Coors Light Pole for Darlington Southern 500

    DARLINGTON, S.C. — Kevin Harvick topped qualifying in all three rounds for the Bojangles’ Southern 500 in his No. 4 Busch Beer Throwback Ford winning his fourth Coors Light Pole Award this season with a speed of 177.730 mph. It’s his third pole at Darlington Raceway and his 21st career pole. The Stewart-Haas Racing driver also captured one win in 2014 after starting from the pole.

    “It feels pretty good,” Harvick said after winning the pole, “It’s been a good start to the weekend for us and the car is driving good and we’re able to put three laps together. Everything is going well.”

    When asked about the benefits of starting from the pole at Darlington, Harvick commented that “track position is never a disadvantage no matter if it’s high tire wear, low tire wear (track). The biggest advantage here is the first pit stall because the timing line is so close to the pit exit there with the first stall. So that’s really the biggest advantage. I think if your car is handling good, you can make your way through traffic, but having that first pit stall if your car is not handling good, it allows you to make up two or three spots if you have a decent pit stop and hopefully, keep that track position all night. That’s really the biggest advantage.”

    Martin Truex Jr. will start on the outside pole in his No. 78 Toyota after qualifying with a speed of 177.077 mph

    “That was definitely a good, successful qualifying session for us,” Truex said. “It – we thought we were off a little bit the first round then just kept working on the car and kind of adjusted the driving style a little throughout all three rounds and we ended up second. So seems like we’ve been second a lot this year and it’s been a good number for us and hopefully, it’ll be a good one tomorrow night.”

    Kyle Busch will start third after a 176.682 mph lap.

    Busch called his qualifying run, okay, saying, “You know, car felt really, really good first round, second round and then there just made the right adjustments – just the race track wasn’t quite what we expected it to be, so it was just a tick loose the last run and came home with a third, so we’ll take that and be happy with it and start up front.”

    Kyle Larson will begin the race from fourth place in his Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet.

    “I got through Turn Three and Turn Four better (than previous runs) but I was still too loose to commit to wide-open throttle, which hurt my overall speed,” Larson commented. “It’s a lot better than I’ve ever qualified here, so hopefully that will give us a better pit stall selection for tomorrow’s race. This is a fun place, but it’s definitely tough.”

    Jamie McMurray rounds out the top five in the No. 1 McDonalds Chevy.

    McMurray said, “Qualifying was pretty eventful.  It’s fun here to qualify and it’s maybe one of the funnier qualifying sessions we get to run with the exception of maybe a road course just because the corners are so different and so fast there is not a lot of grip. But, yeah, we were I think like third, fourth and fifth, we were kind of the same in all three sessions. The car was good though. I’m looking forward to tomorrow. I thought we were good in race trim.”

    Harvick will lead the field to green Sunday at 6 p.m. ET for the Bojangles’ Southern 500 on NBCSN. Radio coverage can be heard on  MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

    Follow @angiecampbell_ for the latest NASCAR news and feature stories.

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  • Truex Wins the Southern 500

    Truex Wins the Southern 500

    DARLINGTON, S.C. — After 500 miles around the lady in black, it was Martin Truex Jr. who found himself in Gatorade victory lane.

    Kevin Harvick led the field to the green flag at 6:26 p.m. under mostly sunny skies. The race was dominated by Harvick and ran caution free for over 90 laps. It came out for the first time on lap 92 after Trevor Bayne spun out trying to get on pit road. It trapped all but Chase Elliott, Brad Keselowski and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. down a lap or more, and forced them to take a wave around.

    The race got back underway on lap 103 and remained green for nine laps before Brian Scott went spinning in turn 2 to bring out the second caution.

    When the race returned green on lap 118, it settled into another green flag long run that saw Harvick take the lead from Keselowski on lap 141 and a cycle of green flag stops on lap 162.

    Just past halfway, Tony Stewart got into Scott and sent him into the backstretch wall on lap 205. This got Stewart called to the NASCAR hauler after the race.

    After it returned to green on lap 211, Jimmie Johnson got loose exiting turn 4, turned down the track and hit the wall head on.

    The race turned into more of a start and stop mode after it restarted on lap 218. Thirty-one laps later, the fifth caution flew after Jeffrey Earnhardt made contact with the wall. Matt Kenseth assumed the race lead after opting not to pit.

    It restarted on lap 265. Harvick found himself back in the lead with 94 laps to go. The sixth caution flew with 87 laps to go for an incident with AJ Allmendinger and Ryan Blaney. Denny Hamlin exited pit road with the race lead.

    There was also the engine expiration of the 14 car with 48 laps to go and an accident with Kurt Busch and Paul Menard in turn 2.

    When the final caution flew with 17 laps to go after Clint Bowyer and Aric Almirola tangled in turn 2, Harvick was sitting in the lead. But as has plagued him for many recent races, he had a bad pit stop on top of other bad pit stops and Truex exited pit road with the race lead.

    Eventually, the race restarted, Truex pulled away and won the race.

    “This is just – this is unbelievable,” Truex said. “So many people to thank obviously. I’ve always loved this race track. I’ve led a lot of laps here in my career. I feel like just something always happened and just so proud to get to victory lane with this group. The pit crew was flawless tonight. They won us the race. They took a lot of heat from last week with what happened. I’m glad he’s (Ryan Newman) not riding home with me – he’d be waiting a while. But just a big weekend for us to – we’ve had a terrible string of back luck. We’ve had super-fast race cars. Auto-Owners Insurance, this is their second race with us and one more with us this year and really excited for them. They went a little retro. I’ve got my zoot suit. This is something here that’s really special to us – I ran this wheel today and it’s real special to take that thing to victory lane. We do a lot with our foundation for ovarian and pediatric cancer. It’s awareness month for both of those diseases, so big day for us there, but just can’t say enough about this team and Barney Visser (team owner) and Toyota and TRD (Toyota Racing Development) – the engines have been unbelievable this year – and Bass Pro Shops and Furniture Row, Denver Mattress and everybody that’s made this possible. Cole Pearn (crew chief) and these guys are just amazing. I knew when the bad luck would stop coming we’d start racking them off.

    “We do a lot with our foundation for ovarian and pediatric cancer. It’s awareness month for both of those diseases, so big day for us there, but just can’t say enough about this team and Barney Visser (team owner) and Toyota and TRD (Toyota Racing Development) – the engines have been unbelievable this year – and Bass Pro Shops and Furniture Row, Denver Mattress and everybody that’s made this possible. Cole Pearn (crew chief) and these guys are just amazing. I knew when the bad luck would stop coming we’d start racking them off and tonight we weren’t the best car for once and we actually won, so that was really cool and just couldn’t be more excited to win at Darlington, the Southern 500. I’ve been wanting to win this thing a long time and got to thank Sprint, the fans were great – tons of fans here today – and really excited. Glad they stuck around for a good finish and I don’t know – I could go on and on for hours I guess.”

    It’s his fifth career victory in 394 Sprint Cup Series starts, second of 2016, the 11th top-10 finish of the season, first win at Darlington Raceway and fifth top-10 at Darlington.

    “Well, it just was frustrating to lead laps here throughout my career and even in years when we didn’t run that well at teams I was on, we seemed to run well here and felt like we let a few slip away,” he added. “It was worth the wait for sure, so we’ll do some celebrating tonight and just can’t thank everybody enough again – everybody at (Joe) Gibbs (Racing), all those guys, great teammates – just so many people I need to thank. The pit crew – man, I can’t say it enough, what a job they did tonight. I appreciate them.”

    It’s also the first multi-win season of his career.

    Harvick led a race-high of 214 laps on his way to a runner-up finish in his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet.

    “Our team in the garage did a great job,” Harvick said. “They brought the fastest race car to the track once again and we just didn’t do a good job on pit road and gave it away.”

    It’s his 20th top-10 finish of the season and ninth in 20 starts at Darlington.

    Kyle Larson led 42 laps on his way to rounding out the podium in his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet.

    “It was long,” Larson said of how his race went. “My spotter said we were halfway and I was like ‘are you kidding me we still have however many to go?’ But it was a good night. We had to fight pretty hard to get to the top four or five. Our pit stops weren’t great there in the beginning, but they rebounded and we had some good stops there at the end to maintain. The last probably five or six stops I thought were pretty good. We were able to get past Denny (Hamlin) and get to the lead and lead some laps. We had a really good car out front. In traffic, I was just too tight for a little while and as we went I would get too loose on exit, but I found some lines that worked for me and that helped, but a tough race. It is good to come back after the win last week and finish third.”

    Denny Hamlin led 13 laps on his way to a fourth-place finish in his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Joey Logano rounded out the top-five in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford.

    When asked if that means anything at this point, he said “it just doesn’t matter if it isn’t a win. At this point, I guess momentum means something so I guess something matters. I disagree that I didn’t have anything for them. I did on the long run. We were the fastest car on the long run every time. We hit a lot of short runs at the end and that would kill us. I lost two or three spots every restart for the first five or six laps and then it would kick in and off I would go. I was fighting to get them back. We kind of hurt ourselves there with restarts tonight. We needed to go green from about 100 to go. We would have been good then.”

    Matt Kenseth led 10 laps on his way to a sixth-place finish in his No. 20 JGR Toyota. Kasey Kahne finished seventh in his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Ryan Newman led nine laps on his way to an eighth-place finish in his No. 31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. Brad Keselowski led 47 laps on his way to a ninth-place finish in his No. 2 Penske Ford. Chase Elliott rounded out the top-10 in his No. 24 HMS Chevrolet.

    Kyle Busch, who led one lap, finished 11th.

    Eighteen cars finished the race on the lead lap and 32 were running at the finish.

    The race lasted three hours, 57 minutes and 54 seconds at an average speed of 126.437 mph. There were 14 lead changes among eight different drivers and 10 cautions for 52 laps.

    Harvick leaves Darlington with a 43-point lead over Keselowski in the points standings.

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  • Keselowski Fastest in Final Darlington Cup Practice

    Keselowski Fastest in Final Darlington Cup Practice

    DARLINGTON, S.C. — Brad Keselowski topped the chart in final Sprint Cup Series practice at Darlington Raceway.

    The driver of the No. 2 Team Penske Ford was the fastest in the final practice session with a time of 28.157 and a speed of 174.649 mph. Kurt Busch was second in his No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet with a time of 28.257 and a speed of 174.031 mph. Jimmie Johnson was third in his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet with a time of 28.259 and a speed of 174.019 mph. Kasey Kahne was fourth in his No. 5 HMS Chevrolet with a time of 28.318 and a speed of 28.318 and a speed of 173.656 mph. Paul Menard rounded out the top-five in his No. 27 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet with a time of 28.351 and a speed of 173.454 mph.

    Greg Biffle was sixth in his No. 16 Roush Fenway Racing Ford. Carl Edwards was seventh in his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was eighth in his No. 17 RFR Ford. Denny Hamlin was ninth in his No. 11 JGR Toyota. Trevor Bayne rounded out the top-10 in his No. 6 RFR Ford.

    Biffle posted the fastest 10 consecutive lap average at a speed of 170.536 mph. Martin Truex Jr., whose fastest single lap was 15th fastest, was second at an average speed of 170.449 mph.

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  • Johnson Fastest in First Cup Practice at Darlington

    Johnson Fastest in First Cup Practice at Darlington

    DARLINGTON, S.C. — Jimmie Johnson topped the chart in first Sprint Cup Series practice at Darlington Raceway.

    The driver of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was the fastest in the first practice session with a time of 27.937 and a speed of 176.025 mph. Denny Hamlin was second in his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota with a time of 28.091 and a speed of 175.060 mph. Ryan Blaney was third in his No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford with a time of 28.147 and a speed of 174.711 mph. Kyle Larson was fourth in his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet with a time of 28.174 and a speed of 174.544 mph. Ryan Newman rounded out the top-five in his No. 31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet with a time of 28.178 and a speed of 174.519 mph.

    Brad Keselowski was sixth in his No. 2 Team Penske Ford. Chase Elliott was seventh in his No. 24 HMS Chevrolet. Martin Truex Jr. was eighth in his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota. Paul Menard was ninth in his No. 27 RCR Chevrolet. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. rounded out the top-10 in his No. 17 Roush Fenway Racing Ford.

    Johnson posted the fasted 10 consecutive lap average at a speed of 173.389 mph. Hamlin was second at an average speed of 173.144 mph.

    The Sprint Cup Series is back on track at 1:30 p.m. for final practice.

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