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2022 NASCAR Cup Series Cook Out Southern 500 Live Coverage

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2022 NASCAR Cup Series Cook Out Southern 500 Live Coverage 6 photos
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2022 NASCAR Cup Series Cook Out Southern 500 Live Coverag2022 NASCAR Cup Series Cook Out Southern 500 Live Coverag2022 NASCAR Cup Series Cook Out Southern 500 Live Coverag2022 NASCAR Cup Series Cook Out Southern 500 Live Coverag2022 NASCAR Cup Series Cook Out Southern 500 Live Coverag
The 2022 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs will start with the first race from the round of 16. We are talking about the Cook Out Southern 500, where Joey Logano will start from the pole position.
Joey posted a lap of 29.181 seconds, 168.521 mph (271.208 kph) in the final round of qualifying, claiming the pole over Christopher Bell by a tiny margin.

In winning the pole for the Cook Out Southern 500, Logano became the first driver to win the pole for both Darlington races in a single season since Sterling Marlin did so in 1992.

William Byron, Tyler Reddick, and Kyle Busch complete the top five for today's race. Meanwhile, Daniel Suarez's No. 99 Chevrolet failed pre-qualifying tech inspection three times. As a result, Daniel Suarez was not allowed to make a qualifying attempt and will have to serve a pass-through pit road penalty at the start of the race.
Live updates (ended):

02:38 UTC  A crazy race with a lot of unexpected moments. Jones is our winner here at Darlington.

02:37 UTC 

02:35 UTC 

02:35 UTC  Hamlin can't get passed Jones. Erik is the winner of the Cook Out Southern 500!

02:33 UTC  Denny Hamlin is there! It's two carlengths between Jones and Hamlin! White flag!

02:33 UTC  More lapped traffic incoming for the leaders. Three laps to go.

02:31 UTC  Tyler Reddick is starting to challenge Hamlin again. Four to go.

02:31 UTC  Jones open up to half a second on Hamlin once more.

02:30 UTC  Lapped traffic is a factor now. Five to go.

02:29 UTC  Half a second between Jones and Hamlin.

02:28 UTC  With less than ten to go, Jones is pulling away.

02:27 UTC  However, Tyler Reddick is closing on Hamlin so let's see if he will attack Jones or just stay to defend against Reddick.

02:26 UTC  Hamlin is much faster than Jones.

02:26 UTC  Jones receives a great push from Denny Hamlin to get clear to the lead.

02:22 UTC  As a result, Erik Jones is the new leader of the race.

02:22 UTC 

02:21 UTC  Kyle Busch has led 155 laps of the Southern 500. He was leading under caution, when a plume of smoke came out, and now the engine is gone.

02:21 UTC  Incredible scenes as Kyle Busch is blowing up. His car engine has let go.

02:20 UTC  Kyle Busch beats Erik Jones, Tyler Reddick, Denny Hamlin, and Christopher Bell off pit road.

02:16 UTC 

02:16 UTC  Meanwhile, Martin Truex Jr.'s car has been pushed to the garage and he'll be done for the night. How unfortunate.

02:16 UTC  This ruins Denny Hamlin's strategy, as he'll have to get on the same tire strategy as the rest of the leaders now.

02:15 UTC  Cody Ware again slams into the wall at Turn 2. This time he broke the right front toe link.

02:15 UTC  Caution is out with 28 to go!

02:13 UTC  Denny Hamlin (P4) is closing fast on Kyle Busch.

02:13 UTC 

02:12 UTC  Truex is coming to pit roadafter being overtaken by Busch, and it looks like his chances of winning the Southern 500 have come to an end.

02:12 UTC  Martin Truex Jr. has just reported that he's lost power steering on his car. He's lost a huge chunk of his lead to Kyle Busch.

02:10 UTC 

02:07 UTC  Cody Ware did a Ricky Stenhouse and slamed into the wall at Turn 2. No caution needed.

02:07 UTC  Meanwhile Truex is back in the lead after the final session of pit stops.

02:06 UTC  Denny Hamlin pitted much later than the entire field. He has the freshest tires now but he lost so much time.

02:06 UTC  Martin Truex Jr. now pits from the lead.

02:01 UTC  Green flag pit stops have begun once again.

02:01 UTC  Erik Jones continues to run fourth, and if he stays there it would be the first time his car finishes in the top five in 35 years.

01:56 UTC  Truex is driving off in the distance. He has now almost two seconds over Kyle Busch. Meanwhile Busch needs to be careful with Hamlin who is right behind him.

01:51 UTC 

01:48 UTC  Truex catches Busch and overtakes him with a bit over 70 laps to go until the end of the race.

01:44 UTC  Truex Jr. overtakes Hamlin for second place.

01:44 UTC  Green flag is out with 84 laps to go.

01:44 UTC 

01:34 UTC 

01:33 UTC  Kevin Harvick car is on fire at Turn 1!

01:29 UTC  A lot of cars in the pit road right now.

01:28 UTC  Austin Dillon and Tyler Reddick come to pit road to begin green flag stops.

01:28 UTC  While Kyle Busch is pulling away from the competitions, Logano and Truex are battling out for P2.

01:24 UTC 

01:20 UTC  Busch led over 100 laps in this race.

01:18 UTC  Busch, Logano, Truex and Suarez are the top four drivers, separated by a small margin.

01:11 UTC  Green flag is out at Lap 237. We still have 131 laps to go until the end.

01:07 UTC 

01:07 UTC  Joey Logano uses the No. 1 pit stall to his advantage. He goes from fourth entering the pits to second exiting them. Kyle Busch holds the lead.

01:02 UTC  Kyle Busch hold off Truex Jr. to take the win in Stage 2.

01:02 UTC 

01:02 UTC  Daniel Suarez gets put in the wall by Christopher Bell!

01:01 UTC  Green flag and Busch is able to survive multiple looks to the inside from Truex.

00:57 UTC  William Byron lost a bunch of spots on pit road.

00:57 UTC  Kyle Busch is the one who wins the race off pit road!

00:52 UTC  Truex Jr. increases his lead over Busch. Meanwhile a caution is out for a spin by Cody Ware in Turn 4.

00:47 UTC 

00:46 UTC  However, Martin Truex Jr. easily goes by Busch and we have a new leader with 15 laps to go in Stage 2.

00:45 UTC  With less than 20 laps to go in Stage 2, Kyle Busch is leading the race after overtaking LaJoie.

00:42 UTC  Green flag is out again at Lap 198.

00:39 UTC  LaJoie stays out under the caution and now he leads the race.

00:36 UTC 

00:36 UTC  Hamlin had a terrible stop, losing four places.

00:35 UTC  Kyle Busch beats William Byron off pit road.

00:33 UTC  Caution is out again for another one-car spin. This time, it's Kyle Larson.

00:28 UTC  Green flag is back out at Lap 187.

00:28 UTC 

00:24 UTC  William Byron takes third from Truex Jr.

00:23 UTC  Kyle Busch holds the lead off pit road.

00:23 UTC  Todd Gilliland has spun in Turn 2. Caution is out.

00:18 UTC  Chastain is back on track but he is four laps down.

00:18 UTC  Apparently the problem on Ross Chastain's car was the left rear drivepins.

00:17 UTC  Stenhouse has taken his car to the garage with heavy right side damage.

00:16 UTC  Ricky Stenhouse Jr. hit the wall HARD while letting Martin Truex Jr. put a lap on him. However, no caution is needed.

00:16 UTC  Brad Keselowski finally makes his pit stop.

00:15 UTC  Chastain is again back in the pit road.

00:15 UTC  Kyle Busch has taken the lead back from Brad Keselowski, who continues to run long on his set of tires.

00:14 UTC  Unscheduled pit stop for Ross Chastain. He thought that his car had a loose wheel, but apparently that's not the issue. He thinks it might be a suspension problem.

00:09 UTC  A lot of cars into the pit road right now.

00:09 UTC  Bubba Wallace comes to pit road after going long again.

00:09 UTC  Kyle Busch comes to pit road from the race lead. A bunch of drivers behind him as well.

00:08 UTC  Daniel Suarez has come to pit road as green flag stops begin.

00:05 UTC  Kyle Busch is doing okay in the lead keeping Hamlin at a respectable distance.

00:02 UTC 

23:59 UTC  Byron just lost third place to Ross Chastain.

23:59 UTC  William Byron reports that he might be having an engine issue. What a hit this would be for Hendrick Motorsports.

23:56 UTC  Intense battles in the middle pack between drivers like Cindric, Suarez and McDowell. Corey LaJoie has joined the battle as well.

23:50 UTC  Green flag is back out on Lap 122.

23:50 UTC 

23:50 UTC  The DVP clock has expired on Chase Elliott. The regular season champion will go to the garage and be done for the day.

23:49 UTC 

23:44 UTC  Chase Elliott's team is still working on the car. They have ten minutes to try and repair the car and get it back to minimum required speed.

23:43 UTC  William Byron drops from first to third on pit road. Kyle Busch wins the race off while Denny Hamlin holds second.

23:41 UTC 

23:40 UTC  Caution is out with two to go in Stage 1 because Chase Elliott and Chase Briscoe have both crashed. Elliott car has a broken rear toe link.

23:39 UTC 

23:34 UTC  With less than ten laps to go in Stage 1 William Byron extends his lead to more than two seconds over Busch.

23:30 UTC  While Logano is fighting Alex Bowman for P10, Kyle Busch is closing in on race leader William Byron.

23:29 UTC  That bad pit stop sent Joey Logano from running second to all the way back in 11th. He is now trying to get back in the top ten.

23:25 UTC  Larson is told that the engine is running okay now for some reason. Unfortunately, Kyle is three laps down.

23:24 UTC  For the moment Larson is seven points below the playoff cutoff line.

23:22 UTC 

23:22 UTC  Kyle Larson has re-joined the racetrack. Team is just going to run the motor as-is for now.

23:20 UTC  Erik Jones had a huge save in Turn 1.

23:18 UTC  Kyle Larson is in the pits with some mechanical problems I believe. His team is checking the engine.

23:18 UTC  William Byron now leads Kyle Busch by seven tenths of a second after the pit stop period.

23:17 UTC  Bad pitstop by Logano! Took a long time to work on the left side of the car. A lot of time lost by Joey there.

23:16 UTC  Ricky Stenhouse Jr. came to pit road with a flat tire.

23:15 UTC  Green flag pit stops beginning.

23:13 UTC 

23:13 UTC  WIlliam Byron has now caught Logano. And moments later he passes him to take the lead. He made it look so easy.

23:10 UTC  Byron is now starting to close the gap a little from Logano. However, the gap stays around six tenths of a second.

23:08 UTC  Logano is constantly pulling away from Byron.

23:03 UTC  Further back we can see an intense battle between Ryan Blaney and Ross Chastain for the last spot in the top ten.

23:02 UTC  Check here the disastrous pit stop of Kevin Harvick:



23:01 UTC  Logano is starting to create a gap over Byron. After these two we have Bell, Reddick, and Wallace in the top five.

22:59 UTC  Coming to green once again.

22:58 UTC  Very slow pit stop for Kevin Harvick. His team had trouble getting the left front off, and then couldn't get it back on before Harvick tried to fire off. That's dropped him all the way outside the Top 20.

22:58 UTC  Logano holds serve and wins the race off pit road. Meanwhile, Byron moves from third to second.

22:56 UTC 

22:52 UTC  Competition caution is now out.

22:49 UTC  We are close to the competition yellow.

22:48 UTC  Logano's lead over Bell is now close a second.

22:44 UTC 

22:43 UTC  Logano is still ahead of Bell after the restart.

22:43 UTC  Green flag is out again at Lap 17.

22:39 UTC  NASCAR officials will move the competition caution from Lap 25 to Lap 35.

22:37 UTC  However, teams can't fuel their cars yet since we haven't reached the competition caution.

22:36 UTC  A couple of cars have chosen to come to pit road under this caution.

22:32 UTC 

22:27 UTC  As a result, Daniel Suarez will have a free pass under this caution and he will get back on the lead lap.

22:27 UTC  Caution is out for rain. Track is still in full sunlight but there's a popup shower just over the racetrack.

22:26 UTC 

22:26 UTC  And we have rain at Darlington Raceway ladies and gentlemen. Good news for Suarez who was a lap down.

22:25 UTC  Daniel Suarez has served his pass-through penalty and has gone a lap down.

22:25 UTC  Joey Logano finally clears Bell for the lead after a full two laps side-by-side.

22:25 UTC  Joey Logano and Christopher Bell were side-by-side for the lead, but Logano got the better of Bell.

22:24 UTC  Green flag is out, and the Southern 500 is underway.

22:22 UTC  With some rain coming through Darlington earlier today, there will be a competition caution at Lap 25 tonight.

22:19 UTC  There's been some talk of sprinkles in Turn 1, but the sun is bright avove the track.

22:18 UTC  There is some rain around the racetrack this evening. Flashbacks from last week anyone?

22:12 UTC  Engines fired for the Cook Out Southern 500.

22:07 UTC 

22:04 UTC  Pre-race ceremonies for the Southern 500 have now begun.

22:04 UTC  Terry Labonte serves as an honorary official today at the Darlington track where he won 23 years ago.

21:47 UTC  The top ten for today's race start:

  • 1 - #22 - Joey Logano
  • 2 - #20 - Christopher Bell
  • 3 - #24 - William Byron
  • 4 - #8 - Tyler Reddick
  • 5 - #18 - Kyle Busch
  • 6 - #2 - Austin Cindric (R)
  • 7 - #5 - Kyle Larson
  • 8 - #45 - Bubba Wallace
  • 9 - #12 - Ryan Blaney
  • 10 - #34 - Michael McDowell

21:46 UTC 

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About the author: Silvian Irimia
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Silvian may be the youngest member of our team, being born in the 2000s, but you won't find someone more passionate than him when it comes to motorsport. An automotive engineer by trade, Silvian considers the Ferrari F50 his favorite car, with the original Lamborghini Countach a close second.
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