The CookOut Southern 500 at Darlington 2023, and Playoff Opener:
What a race!
What began as a 367 lap, 501.3 mile race with Christopher Bell on the pole, ended with a four hour run, 13 lead changes, and a Kyle Larson win. Let’s go over what happened:
Darlington had standing room only, and was also the longest running green flag since 2013, with 115 laps, the whole of Stage One.
Stage One ended with a Denny Hamlin stage win. Hamlin led the most laps in this race at 117 laps. Our first caution comes out on lap 181 for a Pit Road stop for everyone. Shortly after, we had our first red flag for a power issue in turns 3 and 4.
Our next green flag didn’t come until lap 191. The next caution following this came on lap 225, for an incident with Austin Cindric and Ty Gibbs getting into the wall. The top-five at this point were Denny Hamlin in the lead, Kyle Larson in second, Eric Jones following in third place, and Tyler Reddick followed by William Byron. The end of Stage Two had another Hamlin win, however Stage Three began under a yellow flag.
Following Hamlin’s 117 lap lead, with less than 100 laps remaining, he pitted under the green flag for a loose wheel and to get fresh tires and fuel, and he fell all the way to the end in position 30 on lap 316.
The top-five read as Kyle Larson leading, Tyler Reddick, Chris Buescher, Brad Keselowski in fourth and rounding it out with William Byron in fifth place. The seventh caution of the night came on lap 319 after an altercation between the 99 of Daniel Suárez and the 48 of Alex Bowman.
All in all, it was a good race with lots of twists and turns, and thirteen different lead changes! The checkered flag came out on lap 367 and the 2023 CookOut Southern 500 came to a conclusion with Kyle Larson making it to Victory Lane. The top-five following Larson’s win consisted of Tyler Reddick in runner up position, followed by Chris Buescher, William Byron, and finishing out with Ross Chastain in fifth position. All five drivers will continue on to Kansas next weekend for another chance to stay in the Round of 16 Playoffs.
Photo Credits to NASCAR on Twitter.
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