NO. 43 IN VICTORY LANE — Erik Jones, driver of the #43 FOCUSfactor Chevrolet, celebrates in Victory ane after winning the NASCAR Cup Series Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway on September 04, 2022 in Darlington, South Carolina.
XFINITY WIN — Noah Gragson, driver of the #9 Bass Pro Shops/TrueTimber/BRCC Chevrolet, celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Xfinity Series Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help A Hero 200 at Darlington Raceway on September 03, 2022 in Darlington, South Carolina.
NO. 43 IN VICTORY LANE — Erik Jones, driver of the #43 FOCUSfactor Chevrolet, celebrates in Victory ane after winning the NASCAR Cup Series Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway on September 04, 2022 in Darlington, South Carolina.
XFINITY WIN — Noah Gragson, driver of the #9 Bass Pro Shops/TrueTimber/BRCC Chevrolet, celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Xfinity Series Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help A Hero 200 at Darlington Raceway on September 03, 2022 in Darlington, South Carolina.
Both races this weekend at Darlington Raceway had wild endings, interesting beginnings and emotional middles, too. Once again, Mother Nature was trying her best to ruin everyone’s fun again for the third week in a row. However, NASCAR and its’ fans didn't let the rain dampen their spirits. NASCAR waited it out, dried the track and off the drivers went. Between the “Mario Kart-esk” finish of the Xfinity Series race and the unexpected but long-time coming return to Victory Lane in the Cup Series, it’s a good thing NASCAR did wait.
The action kicked off Saturday afternoon with the Xfinity Series 147-lap “Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help a Hero 200” which took two hours, two minutes and 58 seconds to complete at an average race speed of 97.979 mph, if fans don't count the two hours, 37 minutes and 23 seconds of red flag on lap 68 for rain delay in the middle of the second stage.
With all of NASCAR’s weather technology, the officials could see the rain cell was moving out quickly and the second the rain stopped the air titans and jet dryers took to the raceway. Once the race reached its conclusion, there would be a total of five cautions and one red flag for a total of 39 caution laps. There were a total of 10 lead changes between six drivers.
The fight for the win and the trophy was a hard-fought one between the top three cars — Noah Gragson (No. 9), Sheldon Creed (No. 2) and Cup interloper Kyle Larson (No. 17). The battle for the win started about the same time the third and final stage began. Austin Hill (No. 21) spinning his tires on the stage three restart that helped give Creed the lead for much of the final stage.
After the final pit stops of the race and restart, Creed kept the lead over the next eight laps. Gragson slowly reeled Creed in and by lap 140 was on his bumper challenging for the lead, but on lap 144 Gragson got out of shape and checked up, letting Larson get by him for second. Larson tried to get both first and second positions in one swoop with a crossover move in turn four but had to check up to keep his car under control and made contact with Creed.
After messing up Creed’s line with the contact, Larson backed off and let Creed have the lead back. However, on the final lap, all bets were off as the No. 17 and No. 2 banged against one another through turns one and two, down the back stretch that contact cut Creed’s tire and blew it out. Sheldon put the car against the wall and stayed on the gas in an attempt to win and get in the playoffs. Gragson tried to pass Creed after getting around Larson on the back stretch, over drove turn three and bounced his car off the wall, but had enough control and momentum to keep it pointed in the right direction passing the wall riding Creed in turn four and on to his second Darlington victory with a .794 second margin of victory over second place Creed.
“All you fans, was that cool—did we put on a show for you guys?” Gragson shouted to the crowd from the Finish Line.
Noah told NBC Sports reporter Parker Klingerman, “Sheldon Creed was really fast… I watched, during that rain delay, him running the top in [turns] one and two, and I knew there was a lot of speed there. So I went up there (after a restart on Lap 134), and I found something, and Sheldon pinched me off, and the 17 [Larson[ got by me when it was like three [laps] to go, and I was like, ‘Oh, they’re going to get into each other—they’re racing too hard.’ [Sheldon’s] got nothing to lose, He’s racing his tail off, and Kyle’s going for a win.”
After that wild finish, fans might ask how that could be topped. Well, all folks had to do was wait until Sunday evening when the Cup Series took the track for playoff race number one, the 367-lap “Cook-Out Southern 500,” which took four hours, nine minutes and 49 seconds to complete at an average race speed of 120.406 mph.
As the field took the green flag, there was a small pop-up shower right outside turn two, which put the field under caution after just five laps of green. It was just a light rain and mist, so, rather than bring the cars down pit road, officials decided to keep those 36 sources of heat on the racetrack. With those warm race engines and hot exhaust pipes on the racing surface and a quick spritz by the track drying crew, the race went back green after only 10 laps of caution for rain. There would ultimately be nine cautions for a total of 58 caution laps and 21 lead changes among 11 different drivers.
This race seemed to turn in to a “which playoff driver will have problems next” race. Joey Logano (No. 22) pit from the lead under green on lap 7, had a slow pit stop and never regained the lead the rest of the race. Then, Kyle Larson (No. 5) pit with potentially his third straight week of engine issues. The issues resolved themselves but by then he was three laps down.
It wasn’t until right before stage one ended that the race’s first on track caution happened as Chase Elliott (No. 9) spun in turn one and collected fellow playoff driver Chase Briscoe (No 14). Elliott fell victim to the DVP clock while making repairs even though the DVP had been increased from six minutes to 10 minutes by NASCAR.
The next playoff driver on the hit list was Ross Chastain (No. 1) running fifth, who had to pit a second time after his green flag pit stop with a possible loose wheel. There was debris between the wheel and drive pins, putting Chastain four laps down.
Then there was repeat trouble for Larson as he spun off turn four from 28th place. Following the restart from the Larson spin, playoff driver Daniel Suárez (No. 99) got a “Darlington Stripe” as he scraps the wall exiting turn two.
Things settled down a while as Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Martin Truex Jr (No. 19), Kyle Busch (No. 18) and Denny Hamlin (No. 11) started to dominate the front of the field.
Then on lap 276, after previous right side contact, Kevin Harvick’s (No. 4) exhaust pipe melted the surrounding right front carbon fiber rocker panel, caught it on fire and ended Harvick’s day.
Fast forward to lap 333. Truex radios that he lost power steering while leading, which allowed Busch to retake the lead as Truex slows down due to engine overheating. Caution came out for Cody Ware (No. 51) hitting the wall in turn two. Truex then dropped out of the race as all the fan belts had come off his engine.
While under the Ware caution, Busch's engine failed and started blowing smoke out of the exhaust, ending his night. This handed the lead to non-playoff driver Erik Jones (No. 43) on the restart.
The next 20 laps go caution free as Jones checked out on the field, and left Hamlin and Tyler Reddick (No. 8) to battle it out for second place.
Fifty-five years to the day, Jones put Richard Petty’s historic number No. 43 back in Victory Lane at Darlington Raceway for Jones’ second "Southern 500" win with a .252 second margin of victory.
“Richard hasn't been to Victory Lane at Darlington probably since he last won here,” said Jones to the NBC Sports reporter Marty Snider. “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.”
After being asked about his move to Petty GMS Racing in 2020, Jones told NBC, “Well, I mean, I never lost any belief in myself through any of it. 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.”
Next up is a trip to Kansas Speedway, for all three of the top touring series: the Cup, Xfinity and Camping World Truck Series.
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