Denny Hamlin finally wins in 2021 in wild Southern 500 victory

The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs are officially underway with Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, yet many drivers quickly found themselves in holes. Multiple playoff contenders were involved in wrecks, including three Hendrick Motorsports drivers, as six such drivers finished outside the top twenty. The fourth HMS racer, Kyle Larson, was the last one standing and fought with Denny Hamlin for the win, but a last-ditch effort in the final corner was not enough as Hamlin finally scored his first win of the season.

Larson started on the pole but quickly lost the lead to last week’s winner Ryan Blaney, who led until misfortune befell Larson’s Hendrick team-mate Alex Bowman as he hit the wall; Bowman’s woes also extended to Hendrick ally William Byron when the former’s tyre went down and caused him to hit the latter. Michael McDowell also wrecked and finished last for the second straight race to drop him to the bottom of the sixteen-driver playoff standings.

Another first-stage incident came on lap 48 involving Rick Ware Racing team-mates Cody Ware and James Davison, both of whom had tangled at Martinsville in April, and Ware would retire later in the race due to carbon monoxide poisoning after the contact resulted in crush panel damage. Hamlin took the lead shortly after the ensuing caution and held it to the stage win ahead of Larson, Kurt Busch, Blaney, Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Jr., Tyler Reddick, Aric Almirola, Ross Chastain, and Joey Logano; all but Chastain were playoff eligible.

Kyle Busch was the next victimised playoff driver when he was clipped by Austin Dillon and slid into the wall on lap 125. Busch immediately went to the garage, knocking over cones and forcing those in the infield to dodge him as he did not slow down to appropriate speeds, and ending his night.

“It wasn’t the #3’s fault. Just take our lumps,” Busch told NBCSN. “We were running like shit and we got wrecked, so that’s what you get when you run like shit. […] I don’t know what our problem is. Every time we go to the sim, a new sim, and think we have a good sim session, we go to the race track and we suck. I’m done with that.”

Besides a debris yellow on lap 164, Byron would be responsible for the next race-related caution when he slammed the turn one wall on lap 200. Meanwhile, Larson and Christopher Bell sparred for the lead throughout the stage, with the former ultimately winning out. Bell, Chastain, Hamlin, Harvick, Kurt Busch, Logano, Chase Elliott, and Corey LaJoie closed out the top ten; Chastain and LaJoie were non-playoff drivers.

Larson continued to lead to begin Stage #3 until Hamlin claimed the position shortly before the 300-lap mark. On lap 320, another playoff racer in Blaney went around to result in a caution. Elliott would be the final playoff casualty when he cut a tyre eight laps later after contact with Bell.

Hamlin would lead the rest of the way, while Larson was forced to give chase alongside Chastain. Larson was able to catch Hamlin on the final lap and reach his bumper in the last turns, where he slammed into Hamlin’s rear but could not complete the pass. With Larson not finding any overtaking opportunities, Hamlin pulled off to score his first win of the year and fourth at Darlington.

The desperation move drew comparisons to Carl Edwards‘ own last-corner, full-speed charge on Jimmie Johnson at Kansas in 2008, an attempt that also backfired for the overtaker as he instead slammed into the wall. Both Edwards and Larson’s actions were compared to those made in racing games, and Larson even remarked he had tried to “video game it.”

“[Larson] drove it in past the limit of the cars and the tyres,” Hamlin commented in his post-race interview. “I knew he was coming. I was a little bit conservative on that last lap because I had that four-car-length lead. I didn’t think it was going go that deep, but yeah, still a great race. It’s been back and forth with me and him most of the year. He’s just been a little bit faster on these type of race tracks, and luckily the caution came when it did and the strategy worked out great for the team, but man, I’m really happy.”

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	2	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	367	Running
2	6	5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	367	Running
3	23	42	Ross Chastain	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	367	Running
4	10	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	367	Running
5	9	4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	367	Running
6	3	1	Kurt Busch	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	367	Running
7	16	2	Brad Keselowski	Team Penske	Ford	367	Running
8	11	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	367	Running
9	34	17	Chris Buescher	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford	367	Running
10	21	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	367	Running
11	31	41	Cole Custer	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	367	Running
12	18	37	Ryan Preece	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	367	Running
13	26	99	Daniel Suárez	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	367	Running
14	19	6	Ryan Newman	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford	367	Running
15	25	7	Corey LaJoie	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	367	Running
16	8	10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	366	Running
17	29	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	366	Running
18	7	8	Tyler Reddick	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	366	Running
19	24	14	Chase Briscoe	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	366	Running
20	13	20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	366	Running
21	17	23	Bubba Wallace	23XI Racing	Toyota	366	Running
22	1	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	366	Running
23	30	21	Matt DiBenedetto	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	365	Running
24	32	38	Anthony Alfredo	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	364	Running
25	20	77	Justin Haley*	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	364	Running
26	5	48	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	363	Running
27	27	78	B.J. McLeod*	Live Fast Motorsports	Ford	359	Running
28	28	52	Josh Bilicki	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	359	Running
29	35	15	Joey Gase*	Rick Ware Racing	Chevrolet	357	Running
30	37	00	Quin Houff	StarCom Racing	Chevrolet	355	Running
31	4	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	327	Accident
32	22	43	Erik Jones	Richard Petty Motorsports	Chevrolet	264	Engine
33	33	51	Cody Ware*	Rick Ware Racing	Chevrolet	209	Accident
34	14	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	199	Accident
35	12	18	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	125	Accident
36	36	53	James Davison	Rick Ware Racing	Chevrolet	50	Accident
37	15	34	Michael McDowell	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	30	Accident

Bold – Currently in playoffs
Italics – Competing for Rookie of the Year
* – Ineligible for Cup points