2022 Southern 500 From Darlington Race Review and Analysis

 

The Crown Jewel, Cookout Southern 500!  Also, how about that Jones boy? The Nascar Cup Series made its prestigious Labor Day weekend visit to Darlington Raceway.  Darlington, South Carolina is where Nascar made its first stop for the 2022 Nascar Cup Series playoffs.   Erik Jones captures the 200th win for the iconic #43 team.   This is Jones’ first win of the 2022 season and 3rd of his career.  Jones captures Nascar's oldest, and one of the most prestigious trophies for the second time in his career.  This is Jones’ 2nd Southern 500 trophy.  This is the first time Petty GMS Motorsports has been to victory lane since July 6th, 2014 with Aric Almirola. He also staples himself as the 17th different winner this season. Although this doesn’t count as a playoff spot win; Jones takes Nascar legend and Petty GMS Co-Owner Richard Petty to victory lane.  Jones plays spoiler, as he takes a race away from each of the 16 competitors running to advance to the Round of 12.

(Erik Jones on Track)

Let’s go through the playoff field.  Denny Hamlin finished 2nd, after trying to chase down Erik Jones.  Tyler Reddick applied pressure to Denny Hamlin in the closing laps, as he came home 3rd.  Joey Logano who started on pole, and dominated the first stage of tonight’s Southern 500 comes home 4th.  Christopher Bell held a pretty wheel all night long and finished 5th.  William Byron was the best out of Hendrick Motorsports tonight, as he finished 8th.  Alex Bowman finished 10th, after a solid run for Hendrick Motorsports.  Kyle Larson in a rebounding night finished 12th for Hendrick Motorsports.  Ryan Blaney finished for Team Penske in 13th after the fear of a loose wheel popped up towards the end of the race.  Austin Cindric, the rookie, finished 16th, for Team Penske followed by Austin Dillon in 17th for Richard Childress Racing.  Daniel Suarez, who started a lap down, finished 18th for Trackhouse Racing.  Ross Chastain for Trackhouse Racing, saw trouble tonight but finished 20th.  Chase Briscoe, for Stewart-Haas Racing, struggled all night and finished 27th.  Kyle Busch for Joe Gibbs Racing finished 30th, after a quick turn of events, with a blown engine that ended his night.  Martin Truex Jr. for Joe Gibbs Racing also saw engine trouble, as his #19 machine overheated.  Truex Jr. finished 31st.  Kevin Harvick’s #4 machine burst into flames, as he finished 33rd for Stewart-Haas Racing.  Lastly, Chase Elliott for Hendrick Motorsports finished 36th after a frustrating night. 

(Erik Jones Post-Race)

Let’s rewind to stage 1.  A quick shower of rain came to fruition but didn’t affect the race at all.  Playoff driver Kevin Harvick saw trouble on pit road during stage 1.  Joey Logano, who is also in the playoff field, had a slow pit stop which cost him many spots on pit road.  Harvick and Logano were both able to rebound from these pit stops.  Chase Briscoe struggled all evening long, in stage 1 he finished 27th.  Kyle Larson had engine issues on lap 80.  Larson also spun on lap 192 coming off of turn 4.  Larson rebounded and fought his way back up through the field.  Chase Elliott spun in the middle of the corner, collecting Chase Briscoe.  The 10-minute crash damage clock expired on Elliott’s team.  The issue was a broken toe-link on Elliott’s #9 Machine.  William Byron won stage 1.  Byron also reported a potential engine issue on lap 145.  Byron was able to continue after reporting an issue on his team radio.  Ross Chastain came over the radio and reported an issue to his #1 team on pit road.  Chastain was turning 32.40’s as his lap times, which was off the pace.  The pace of the race was in the 31-second range. The team discovered drive pins having debris caught up under the car, as the issue.  Chastain was able to continue.  Todd Gilliland had a similar spin to Chase Elliott’s resulting in a broken toe-link on his #38 car.  Gilliland finished 28th. The stage 2 winner was Kyle Busch.  Kevin Harvick’s car erupted into flames, after running out on track shortly after the pit cycle.  The flames started to come through the dashboard, and the brake lines were on fire as well.  Daniel Suarez was busted for speeding twice on pit road in the final stage.  Martin Truex Jr. had overheating issues, he pitted, as his race ended early.  Cody Ware slammed the wall multiple times tonight. Ware brought out the caution with under 30 laps to go.  Ware finished 32nd. Under pace laps, Kyle Busch’s engine expired, as he was the leader.  Ryan Blaney checked to make sure his wheel was tightened, as he back down pit road with 22 laps to go.  Erik Jones took the lead with Kyle Busch going to the garage.  The last time Petty GMS won at Darlington Raceway was September 4th, 1967.  

Let’s go through today’s top finishers.  Erik Jones of Petty GMS Motorsports picks up his first win of the 2022 season.  Denny Hamlin of Joe Gibbs Racing finished 2nd.  Followed by Tyler Reddick in 3rd for Richard Childress Racing.  Joey Logano of Team Penske finished 4th, followed by Christopher Bell of Joe Gibbs Racing in 5th.  Sixth place goes to Front Row Motorsports' Michael McDowell, followed by Brad Keselowski of RFK Racing in 7th.  Eighth place goes to William Byron of Hendrick Motorsports.  Bubba Wallace for 23XI Racing finished 9th.  Alex Bowman of Hendrick Motorsports finishes 10th.  Honorable mentions go out to Aric Almirola of Stewart-Haas Racing in 11th and Kyle Larson of Hendrick Motorsports in 12th.  Ryan Blaney of Team Penske in 13th, also Cole Custer for Stewart-Haas Racing in 14th.  Finally, Ty Gibbs for 23XI Racing in 15th. Justin Haley for Kaulig Racing finished 19th, in a impressive night for the #31 team.

(Erik Jones in Victory Lane)

In my opinion, tonight was great.  We saw the famed, tricky, prestigious, endurance testing, and man vs. Machine Southern 500.  We saw the 17th different winner, along with the next chapter being written for Petty GMS and who will be the 200th winner.  We can say Erik Jones won his 2nd Cookout Southern 500 and stapled himself as the 200th winner for Petty GMS Motorsports.  This is also the first time in eight years that the organization has been to victory lane in the Cup Series.  We saw just about everything in this race.  Taking all action into consideration, I’d rate the 73rd running of the Southern 500 a 9.8 out of 10. 

(The Playoff Standings Post-Darlington)

The heartland, Sunflower state of Kansas!  Kansas Speedway is up next, as Nascar heads out to the Midwestern state of Kansas for the final time this season.  All Nascar National Series will make the trip to Kansas.  The Truck Series will hold its first cutoff race.  Carson Hocevar and Christian Eckes are the two odd men out, as of right now.  That could change come Friday night, as eight drivers will advance.  Practice and qualifying will start at 3:00pm ET.  The Truck Series cutoff race will be Friday, 7:30pm ET only on FS1.  The Xfinity Series will have practice and qualifying starting at 5:05pm ET on Friday.  This is the second to last race before the playoffs start for the Nascar Xfinity Series. The Xfinity Series race will be at 3:00pm ET only on USA Network on Saturday.  The Cup Series will have practice and qualifying starting at 12:05pm ET on Saturday.  The second Cup Series playoff race will be at 3:00pm ET only on USA Network.

( All images credited to https://www.foxsports.com/nascar/cup-series.)

For next week's race information please view the link down below:

https://www.kansasspeedway.com/