NASCAR race results: Denny Hamlin wins first playoff race at Darlington

The radio chatter was full of words not fit for print Sunday at Darlington Raceway. For all but one driver, Denny Hamlin, the track lived up to its “Too Tough To Tame” nickname during NASCAR’s first playoff Cup race of 2021.

Only 15 drivers ended the race on the lead lap and four playoff drivers crashed out before the end of 367 grueling laps. Three of those drivers — Michael McDowell, Kyle Busch and William Byron — were out of the race before the end of the second stage. Defending Cup champion Chase Elliott joined them on the sidelines in the final stage after he hit the wall racing three-wide.

But for Hamlin, a three-time Darlington winner prior to Sunday, the laps looked easy. He cruised to his first win of the 2021 season and fourth victory at the South Carolina oval. Hamlin led 146 laps, which was the second-most of the race behind regular season champion Kyle Larson (156 laps led).

“I’m not gonna downplay the significance of it,” Hamlin said. “It’s not just another win.”

Hamlin and Larson, two top drivers through the regular season, exchanged the lead throughout the evening, with Hamlin winning the first stage and Larson winning the second stage. Eventually, Hamlin assumed the top spot on pit strategy and with some luck when his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Martin Truex Jr. was penalized for speeding on pit road to send him from first to the back of the pack. Truex apologized to his team on his radio, with some expletives sprinkled in his comments, as Hamlin stayed steady.

Truex’s misstep was quickly followed by the exit of another playoff driver. Elliott and his team dropped a few curse words after he hit the outside wall racing hard in the top-10. His car went spinning out, then to the garage, as a late caution flew. Elliott finished 31st, but remains ranked 10th, above the cutoff for the next Round of 12, while Alex Bowman, Busch, Byron and McDowell are all in jeopardy of missing the cut based on points heading to Richmond.

With the win, Hamlin moves to first in the postseason standings after relinquishing the regular season championship to Larson, a driver he said he’s battled with all season. The dueling between the two played out in the final 30 laps as Larson hunted down Hamlin, and Trackhouse Racing driver Ross Chastain lurked behind both of them in third.

By the final 10 laps, Hamlin’s lead was down to half a second, but he was able to maintain a gap until Larson made a big move coming to the line. Larson moved up on Hamlin’s bumper, but he couldn’t get by him before the checkered flag waved. He said he tried to “video game it.”

“I wasn’t going to be able to run the bottom to get to his inside so I decided to wall ride and see what would happen,” Larson said. “I thought if I rode the wall, I could squeeze his outside and who knows what would have happened on the front stretch. I actually got to his bumper too early and he protected the wall. It was wild. I hope the fans enjoyed the desperation.”

Larson settled for second and Chastain finished third. Truex rallied for a fourth place finish and three-time Darlington winner Kevin Harvick finished fifth. Half of the 16-driver playoff field finished at least a lap down for a smattering of issues, with flat tires, penalties and wrecks among them.

“Darlington is one of those places that creates chaos,” Harvick said. “There are a lot of places you can make a mistake (here). It is the first race of the playoffs and everyone always loses their mind on the first race of the playoffs. It happens every year. If it is not the first race, then it will be one of the first three … or at some point they all lose their mind.”

Logano put it bluntly: “A lot of people self-destructed today.”

The steady driving from Hamlin, the speed of the No. 11 Toyota from the start and a final stage pit strategy that gave the Joe Gibbs Racing team the advantage put Hamlin in Victory Lane for the first time since October of last year. It sets the No. 11 team up to focus on the next round of the playoffs, where Hamlin said he’ll focus his energy on improving at the Roval. Despite the early exit for Busch, JGR team owner Joe Gibbs said he couldn’t be happier with the winning result, calling it a “hard fought” victory for Hamlin.

Crew chief Chris Gabehart highlighted the team’s execution.

“Denny and I have been here the last two years,” Gabehart said. “We’ve experienced the fact that it’s not enough just to be fast. You have to execute clean each and every lap of the next nine races. And you see a lot of teams that weren’t able to do that at Darlington.”

He called the Southern 500 “the true quintessential NASCAR race.”

“In that the endurance really is the test,” Gabehart said. “Man, machine, for 500 miles, and you saw that tonight.”

Unlike many others, Hamlin’s night didn’t end with any censorship, but with a smile.

“This one is big for us and our team and the momentum,” he said.

Lou Bezjak contributed to this report.

This story was originally published September 5, 2021 at 10:43 PM.

Alexandra Andrejev

The Charlotte Observer

NASCAR and Charlotte FC beat reporter Alex Andrejev joined The Observer in January 2020 following an internship at The Washington Post. She is a two-time APSE award winner for her NASCAR beat coverage and National Motorsports Press Association award winner. She is the host of McClatchy’s podcast “Payback” about women’s soccer. Support my work with a digital subscription