Kyle Larson holds off Tyler Reddick to win his first Southern 500 – Motorsports Monday
NASCAR Cup Series
Labor Day weekend means the start of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs and what better place to start the playoffs than one of most iconic races of the season. Darlington Raceway hosted the Cook Out Southern 500 Sunday evening. This race kicks off round one of the NASCAR Playoffs. This race is always a race of attrition as it’s 500 miles on maybe the toughest track on the NASCAR circuit. The Toyotas were able to start fast but early issues for the pole sitter Christopher Bell. Bell had a very slow first pit stop as the jack-man had trouble getting the car off the ground. This left Bell mired back in traffic where he stayed for the rest of the race.
Denny Hamlin was able to power past Tyler Reddick to take over the top spot after the first round of pit stops. Hamlin would go on to easily win Stage One after the pass.
Stage Two featured one of the more bizarre things to happen so far this season. The infield lights in turns three and four weren’t able to come on after sunset. This led to NASCAR red flagging the race to fix the issue. Thankfully the issue didn’t take long to fix and they were able to head back to racing after around 10-15 minutes.
Denny Hamlin continued his strong start sweeping Stage One and Stage Two. After the first round of pit stops in the final stage, Hamlin hot passed by Tyler Reddick and immediately relayed to his team that he believed he had a loose wheel. He had to head back to pit road and change tires once again, which took him out of contention to win the race.
Later on in the final stage, Alex Bowman was aggressively blocking Daniel Suarez and both collect in a wreck. Slow-mo replay showed Bowman threw two blocks on the Trackhouse Racing car of Suarez. Bowman and Suarez, both not in the NASCAR Playoffs, were very frustrated with each other following the wreck. Thankfully all drives involved in the crash, including Harrison Burton were okay. Just obviously not very happy with each other, especially Burton who was just an innocent bystander.
Kyle Larson was the control car on multiple late race restarts but was able to easily hold off Tyler Reddick. Larson lead the last 50 laps and was able to capture his first Southern 500 trophy. The win locked him into the next round of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. Tyler Reddick finished second, followed by Chris Buescher, William Byron, and Ross Chastain. Full results can be found on NASCAR’s website.
Kyle Larson was able to lock himself into the Round of 12 in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. William Byron has a comfortable 45 point cushion over the “cut line”. Bubba Wallace, Kevin Harvick, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Michael McDowell all find themselves below the elimination cut line as NASCAR heads to Kansas Speedway for the second race of the opening round of the playoffs. Here’s a look at the full NASCAR Cup Series playoffs leaderboard.
Local Dirt Racing
Thunder Mountain Speedway hosted “Mods on the Mountain” Saturday night. The Open Wheel Modifieds were racing for $3,000 in the feature race. Corbin’s Blake Brown won the 35 lap feature. Brown was followed by fellow local drivers Ben Petrey and Ben Harmon. Adam Ogle and Chris Rickett, both from Tennessee, finished fourth and fifth. Full results can be found on myracepass.com.
On Sunday, Lake Cumberland Speedway hosted the “Topless Pro Late Model Special.” Skylar Marlar won the 25 lap feature and the $2,000 check. Tommy Bailey, Logan Walls, Jeff Watson, and Ace Claborn round out the top five. Head to Lake Cumberland Speedway’s Facebook page to see the rest of Sunday night’s feature winners.
Sandy Adams Memorial
Rockcastle Speedway is hosting the Sandy Adams Memorial this Saturday, September 9th. Gates open at 4:30 p.m. and the Open Wheeled Modifieds will be racing for $5,000, making this race of the biggest modifieds races of the season here in Kentucky. Tune into Motorsports Monday next week for exclusive highlights from this race.
