Kyle Larson has been dominant at Darlington Raceway throughout his NASCAR Cup Series career, leading 715 laps at the track and earning five top-three finishes in 11 starts.
He’d yet to win at the track, though — that is, until Sunday’s Southern 500, when Larson emerged victorious on a night that had a number of plot twists late in the going.
Larson led only 55-of-367 laps, but they were the most important ones as he held off Tyler Reddick, Chris Buescher and William Byron in a race that lasted more than four hours.
Denny Hamlin had the dominant car of the evening, leading 177 circuits and winning the first two stages. But he couldn’t stay up front as nightfall set, with a loose wheel and then a late accident ending his hopes for a win.
Reddick inherited the lead following Hamlin’s issues, while Kevin Harvick, looking for his first win of his farewell season, closed in fast. That’s when they both slowed to make a pit stop under green and as they did, Ryan Newman spun to avoid hitting Reddick, which trapped Harvick on pit road as the caution flag came out.
Larson’s pit crew gave him the lead during said caution and the driver did the rest of the work by holding on the rest of the way. It’s Larson’s third win of the year and he has locked himself into the next round of the playoffs.
In typical fashion when it comes to NASCAR’s 500-mile marathons, the action was fairly uneventful early on but heated up for a cinematic conclusion. There were only two cautions in the first 200 laps, with Stage 1 going entirely green, but then six additional yellow flags in the final 150 circuits.
Tempers flared between Alex Bowman and Daniel Suarez, who previously had an altercation at Circuit of the Americas earlier this year. Bowman threw a block on Suarez that led to both drivers crashing along with Harrison Burton, and Bowman had some harsh words following the incident.
All in all, it was everything you’d expect from the Southern 500. It was a test of both man and machine, with plenty of twists and turns as track conditions changed throughout the evening. And in the end, it was the driver whose stamina endured the night who emerged victorious. That driver was Kyle Larson.