Tag: Darlington

Miscues spoil another strong run for Bell

Christopher Bell was again left lamenting mistakes after a long night in the Southern 500 resulted in a 23rd-place finish. “Definitely got to work on it,” Bell said. “It’s been our Achilles’ heel for basically the whole summer. Definitely got to …

Christopher Bell was again left lamenting mistakes after a long night in the Southern 500 resulted in a 23rd-place finish.

“Definitely got to work on it,” Bell said. “It’s been our Achilles’ heel for basically the whole summer. Definitely got to work on it.”

Bell was the fastest driver at Darlington Raceway in practice and qualifying Saturday. But the first 33 laps of the race were the strongest and cleanest part of his night.

On the team’s first pit stop, the jack dropped on the right side of the car, which cost Bell the race lead. Under green flag conditions, he dropped to sixth in the running order. It was a disappointing turn of events for a team that was placed on Bell’s car earlier this week by Joe Gibbs Racing because of their strong performances all year while previously working with Ty Gibbs.

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With a fast enough car, Bell rallied to regain a few spots but then hit the wall in Turn 2 with a few laps to go in the stage. Bell dropped to eighth by the time the stage ended. The car was never the same after the contact and Bell struggled on track as the team tried to make repairs for it to be drivable.

“Just got in the marbles in Turn 2 and damaged the car, really,” Bell said. “That was pretty much the story of our night.”

Behind on their track position, the No. 20 team led by crew chief Adam Stevens tried different pit strategies to keep Bell in the game. But it never worked out in his favor, and the car was never strong enough to run as well as it did at the start of the race.

“If we don’t damage the car, I think it probably works out OK because we’re able to get them on the long run,” Bell said. “But (we’ve) got to limit mistakes, for sure.”

Bell dropped to the playoff grid cutline after Sunday night’s race. He is one point ahead of Bubba Wallace.

“We have speed,” Bell said looking ahead. “We’ve had speed a lot, and I know that in Kansas, we’re going to be fast again. That’s been a really good track for Toyota. I know that we have the speed to do it; we’ve just got to put it all together.”

Hamlin mulls a dominant night gone wrong at Darlington

Denny Hamlin had the dominant car in Sunday night’s Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, but concern over a left-rear wheel changed the course of his race. Hamlin was the race leader when he came to pit road for a green flag pit stop in the first …

Denny Hamlin had the dominant car in Sunday night’s Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, but concern over a left-rear wheel changed the course of his race.

Hamlin was the race leader when he came to pit road for a green flag pit stop in the first stint of the second stage. It was a smooth stop for the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team, but Hamlin reported he felt the wheel was loose, which forced him back down pit road on lap 273.

“It’s really tough to tell in anything, but they looked, and it looked like the left rear was still tightening as we were gone,” Hamlin said after finishing 25th. “So, it’s close enough to where it didn’t matter what I felt, I was going to crash if I kept going. So, had to bring it in and just turned the day upside down.”

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There was nothing visible on the wheel to indicate it was loose. However, crew chief Chris Gabehart said the left rear is the most sensitive on the car to be loose because of the load it experiences.

“So, if you can’t see it, it doesn’t mean it’s not real because it’s so sensitive,” Gabehart said.

It took time for the team to gather all the footage from the pit crew to review the stop after immediately assessing the wheel. Gabehart said once all the footage was reviewed, there was doubt the wheel was tight.

“It’s not for sure, but there is a doubt,” Gabehart said. “And again, when you’re looking at the video, there are a lot of things trained eyes are looking for, but the left rear, you need all the margin to go in your favor. If it was on the left front or on the right sides and you look at it and you’re like, maybe (it’ll be fine).

“But the left rear has to have load. So, the video was (a) maybe and at that minute, my guy’s won 50 of these things, and he’s been doing it for nearly 20 years. He knows what he feels. So, live on TV, it probably looked uncertain, but I’m certain. Denny knows.”

Gabehart isn’t sure what would have happened if Hamlin had taken the chance and stayed on track. With teams still learning the Next Gen car, there hasn’t been a similar situation to what Hamlin experienced at Darlington. On the previous car, the lug nuts would have worked themselves off, and there is a locking mechanism on the single center-locking lug nut.

“But the driver, again, has been racing almost 20 years (and) it feels loose,” Gabehart said. “His mind says it’s getting worse, and I’m running 180 miles per hour at Darlington getting into Turn 1, your instinct is, I know I’ve got a problem, I got to come. Where would it have went if we tried to run another 10 or 15 laps, would the wheel have come all the way off, I don’t think so because of the retention mechanism. But it may have broke and started really damaging things.

“Either way, I hate it for the team. I hate it for Denny. I hate it for the pit crew. God, they had an amazing day. I think by any metric, they’re going to be a top-three team on pit road today, if not the best. But it’s NASCAR racing and in today’s world, even a fraction of an error is the difference. Today it was and it hurts a lot.

“It hurts to keep losing races these ways where you clearly have a car, in this case, the winning car. Denny had not shown his whole hand, I’m confident. It’s not enough to be winners in your heart; you have to get it all right. Man, it is frustrating to keep missing out on opportunities.”

The driver, crew chief and other team members spent a good chunk of time debriefing on pit road after the checkered flag. Although disappointed in having a potential victory slip away, there was a lot of pride in the car the team brought to the racetrack.

“It’s part of it,” Hamlin said. “Everyone is all in on it trying to do the best they can and one little thing can obviously take you out. It obviously turned our day, but what a great car. Controlled the race and, like yesterday, controlling the pace, whatever the pace I wanted to run, and just didn’t work out.”

Hamlin never recovered the lost track position and then got caught up in a crash with 38 laps to go. Todd Gilliland was squeezed off Turn 4 and spun across the track into Hamlin’s path, and Hamlin was then run into from behind by fellow Cup Series playoff driver Michael McDowell.

Overall, the damage wasn’t too bad after the incident. But whenever the splitter is damaged, it hinders the car’s performance, and it drove significantly worse for Hamlin.

Hamlin won the first two stages to earn two playoff points. He led a race-high 177 laps.

Hamlin dropped to fifth on the playoff grid with a 27-point advantage on the cutline.

“All the work you put in and stages, regular season, it all matters,” Hamlin said. “I don’t know what the points are, really don’t care. Just I hate losing a race that definitely should have won.”

Gabehart spends a lot of time looking at the numbers, and Darlington will be another one that haunts him.

“As many races as we’ve won together – it’s been 19 – I can tell you, it could easily be in the 30s,” he said. “Well into the 30s. And this is just another one we’re going to have to put into that column, unfortunately.”

Larson outduels Reddick to win Darlington playoff opener

Welcome back, Kyle Larson. The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion held off a desperate charge from fellow playoff driver Tyler Reddick at sold-out Darlington Raceway to claim victory in Sunday night’s Cook Out Southern 500 and earn an automatic berth …

Welcome back, Kyle Larson.

The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion held off a desperate charge from fellow playoff driver Tyler Reddick at sold-out Darlington Raceway to claim victory in Sunday night’s Cook Out Southern 500 and earn an automatic berth in the Round of 12.

Larson entered the playoff opener with an undistinguished average finish of 17.5 in his previous six races, but he weathered a transmission momentary stuck in neutral and a disconcerting brush with the wall to register his third victory of the season, the 22nd of his career and his first at the famed “Lady in Black.”

“Yeah, finally from start to finish,” Larson said of his ability to put together a complete race. “Eighteenth to third in the first stage, I didn’t think that was possible. Our race car was really good when the sun was out. Just had to work on it.

“I messed up once and it got hung in neutral, and I slid and hit the wall, and I think bent the toe link a little bit, so it was kind of a struggle from there. Definitely had to fight it more than I was earlier, but we kept our heads in the game. That was really important. This race is all about keeping your head in it…

“What a great way to start the playoffs, and hopefully we can keep it going.”

Larson took the lead for the first time during a quick pit stop on lap 313 and held it for the final 55 circuits. Reddick rolled off pit road second but couldn’t find a way past the race winner.

“Kyle and I were pretty close the majority of the day, honestly, and he just got ahead of us there on pit road, but all in all, this is the day that we needed to have,” said Reddick, who led 90 laps and crossed the finish line .447 seconds behind Larson.

“Really just thankful for the hard work from my pit crew, from the team, everyone at the shop. Days like this, with a car like this, we haven’t been able to get a second-place finish out of it, so really glad we were able to do that, and it was a really good points day on top of that, as well.”

Chris Buescher ran a mistake-free race and finished third, followed by William Byron, who charged forward from his 23rd starting position. Ross Chastain placed fifth, with Brad Keselowski and Bubba Wallace behind him, as playoff drivers claimed the top seven positions.

While Larson leaves Darlington with guaranteed admission to the Round of 12, Byron, his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, leads the playoff standings by one point — over Larson. Reddick is 15 points behind Byron, followed by Buescher and Denny Hamlin, who trail by 18 points.

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Catastrophes proved the undoing of several playoff drivers who showed excellent speed but succumbed to a variety of pit road mistakes and errors in judgment.

Hamlin led 177 laps, swept the first and second stages and dominated the race — until he made an extra green-flag pit stop on lap 274, believing he had a loose wheel. Hamlin lost a lap and any chance he had of starting the playoffs with a victory. Hamlin’s night got worse when he was collected in a five-car wreck on lap 330. He finished 25th.

After Hamlin’s demise, Kevin Harvick was chasing Reddick for the lead. Harvick steered his car toward pit road on lap 309, causing Reddick to check up in front of Ryan Newman in an attempt to duplicate Harvick’s maneuver. Newman spun in Turn 4, causing the sixth caution, and the red light indicating a closed pit road caught Harvick just before he reached the entry line. The resulting penalty sent Harvick to the back of the field for a restart on lap 317, with no time to recovered past 19th.

A driver with no margin for error entering the Round of 16, Michael McDowell didn’t have the speed to stay on the lead lap, but his Waterloo came in the same lap 330 wreck that involved Hamlin and fellow playoff driver and pole winner Christopher Bell. McDowell’s No. 34 Ford was too badly hurt to continue, and he fell out of the race in 32nd place.

McDowell heads to next Sunday’s playoff race at Kansas Speedway in 16th place, 19 points behind Bell in 12th.

Late in the first stage, Bell slammed the outside wall and damaged the suspension on his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, ruining any chances of victory.

“I just got in the marbles and fenced it hard,” Bell radioed to his team.

After the stage break, Bell dropped precipitously through the field and was soon lapped by leader Denny Hamlin.

“The toe is messed up — I’m having to turn the wheel a lot,” Bell radioed to crew chief Adam Stevens.

Bell, who finished a lap down in 23rd, wasn’t the only playoff driver who fell victim to mistakes in the first stage, which ran under the green flag from start to finish. Joey Logano scraped the wall at the apex of Turns 3 and 4 on lap 86.

His No. 22 Ford bit the wall again on lap 115 — the final circuit of Stage 1 — when the No. 23 Toyota of Wallace spun underneath him in Turn 4 and knocked the right rear of Logano’s car into the fence, after Hamlin had taken the green/checkered flag to win the stage and the accompanying Playoff point.

Martin Truex Jr. (who finished 18th) lost four spots after brushing the wall late in the stage and ran 17th in the first segment. Truex’s problems multiplied in Stage 2 when he had to make an unscheduled pit stop because of a loose wheel and lost two laps.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (16th) lost a lap serving a pass-through penalty for speeding on pit road during his first green-flag pit stop, as mistakes began to shape the playoffs — as they invariably do.

RESULTS

‘We aren’t an underdog’ this playoff season – Buescher

Chris Buescher might be in the NASCAR Cup Series postseason for the second time in his career, but in a way, it feels like the first time. Buescher was a Cup Series rookie in 2016 when he made the playoffs through a weather-shortened race at Pocono …

Chris Buescher might be in the NASCAR Cup Series postseason for the second time in his career, but in a way, it feels like the first time.

Buescher was a Cup Series rookie in 2016 when he made the playoffs through a weather-shortened race at Pocono Raceway. Furthermore, he was driving for a team that was underfunded and just happy to be included in the postseason. No one, including Front Row Motorsports, expected them to go far.

That’s not the case beginning Sunday night at Darlington Raceway (6 p.m. ET, USA). Buescher and the. No. 17 RKF Racing group have won three of the last five races and begin the postseason as the fourth seed.

“In a lot of ways that was an amazing accomplishment to make our rookie season with Front Row, but also, we understood we were a massive underdog in that playoff season and were just hopeful to make it into the next round,” Buescher said. “We aren’t an underdog in this one. We are very competitive.

“We expect a lot more out of ourselves and so in that way, yes, it’s a completely different situation than we were in that year. We are going to be learning a lot for the first time or approaching things for the first time.”

Buescher even joked earlier this week, “I forgot about media day for the playoffs.”

Buescher goes into the postseason with momentum after winning the regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway. It was a 1-2 finish for RFK Racing.

“It’s really cool knowing we were locked in a while ago that it wasn’t a last-moment getting in,” he said. “We didn’t have the stresses of Daytona like we’ve had in years past, just doing everything we can to get in. It’s been a lot of fun the last several weeks, but [also] realizing we have a lot of racing ahead of us yet. What’s important for us to know is what worked for us this year, to know being consistent has been huge, but also to execute on a high level, to be clean, and to go to the racetrack to win races and do what that takes. Take some chances.

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“I think it’s important not to get caught up in the extra distractions of the playoffs, the extra pressures, I would say, for some. I think it’s important not to let it be extra pressure for us; just go to the racetrack trying to win another race and committing to that, I think, is the best way for us to keep moving forward. We’ve built up a nice cushion of playoff points through the last five weeks, most specifically, but it certainly gives us a little bit of breathing room early. I just want to make sure we don’t change what we’re doing. It’s been a very good season.”

Simply put, it’s a business-as-usual approach for Buescher & Co.

“This was one of our goals on the season, to make the playoffs,” Buescher said. “[We had] several goals – it was to win races, it was to make the playoffs, to get both cars in the playoffs, and to run for a championship. We set very similar goals last year. I think we said we wanted to win races and make the playoffs, and we didn’t quite reach that but felt like we were close to doing it. With that, we set hefty goals this season but felt like they were reasonable.”

The three-time winner isn’t just in the playoffs — Buescher might be playing with house money because he has the speed and the playoff points (21) to propel him through the rounds if the team executes. In five weeks, Buescher bagged 16 playoff points through his victories, and a stage win, and was then awarded five more playoff points for jumping to sixth in the championship standings at the end of the regular season.

“It did come quick,” Buescher said. “It’s certainly put us in a good spot to start. I look at it as it’s not really that many points, though. Days can shift so quickly. It’s not much cushion, but also, I think it’s equally important to me not to get too caught up in the points and not go to the track to points race. Again, go to win the race. You win a race in the round, the points take care of themselves, so keep doing what we’ve been doing.

“We’ve executed very well the last couple of weeks. We’ve had some luck go our way … and focus on what we can control. Maybe that little bit of cushion lets us take a little more chance at times, but I don’t want to get too caught up in trying to stage race or points race and give up the potential end-of-race opportunity to win.”

The RFK standout qualified eighth for Sunday evening’s Cook Out Southern 500.

Hamlin nets sixth Darlington win in fraught Xfinity overtime

Denny Hamlin resumed his NASCAR Xfinity Series mastery of Darlington Raceway on Saturday, winning the Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help a Hero 200 to raise his victory total at the track to six. Hamlin passed series leader Austin Hill after a lap 147 …

Denny Hamlin resumed his NASCAR Xfinity Series mastery of Darlington Raceway on Saturday, winning the Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help a Hero 200 to raise his victory total at the track to six.

Hamlin passed series leader Austin Hill after a lap 147 restart that pushed the race one circuit into overtime. Parker Kligerman’s consequential spin off Sam Mayer’s bumper on lap 141 brought out the seventh caution of the race and set up the final two-lap shootout.

“I really needed some long runs,” said Hamlin, who led 14 laps and didn’t make his move until the final stage. “But I didn’t really want to show everything that we had till the very end of the race there.

“We really did a good job of maintaining everything that we had.”

Hamlin, who was running his annual Xfinity Series race for Joe Gibbs Racing, picked up his 18th victory in the series. On Sunday, he starts his quest for the NASCAR Cup Series title in the Playoff-opening Cook Out Southern 500 (6 p.m. ET on USA, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

John Hunter Nemechek ran third after leading 99 laps and sweeping the first two stages. Cole Custer was fourth, followed by Josh Berry and Riley Herbst, who passed Parker Kligerman for the final Playoff-eligible position with one race left to decide the postseason field.

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Herbst holds a one-point lead over Kligerman, who finished 24th after contact from Mayer’s No. 1 Chevrolet sent him spinning from the 12th position with six laps left in regulation.

Kligerman was not pleased with Mayer and said so after the race, especially since the driver of the No. 48 Chevrolet had overcome a slow pit stop and a brush with the outside wall to gain on Herbst.

“To come back from that and have to make a bunch of adjustments, then just get flat run over by the No. 1 car,” Kligerman said. “It’s so disappointing… He’s got to clean it up.”

Mayer, who finished 11th, took responsibility for the incident with the concise admission: “I effed up.”

On multiple occasions, Hill took the lead with quick work on pit road but couldn’t hold it through the restarts. Nevertheless, he leaves Darlington with a 23-point lead over Nemechek in the battle for the Xfinity regular-season championship.

“I just need to go back to the drawing board and figure out what I’m doing wrong on the restarts there, because that was really frustrating all day today,” Hill said. “It didn’t matter where I was restarting, I would buzz the tires really bad and just lose track position every time I’d do it.

“So I got to do a better job of that if I’m going to win a championship. All in all, solid for us. That’s kind of something that we’ve been preaching the last six races that if you can’t be first, be second. If you can’t be second, be third. We were second today, but it still stings a little bit when you want to win.”

RESULTS

Elliott gunning for personal improvements to finish the season

Chase Elliott does not have a chance to win the NASCAR Cup Series driver championship, but the mentality it takes to compete for one won’t change as the No. 9 Chevrolet is still in a championship hunt. Elliott needed to win to get into the 16-driver …

Chase Elliott does not have a chance to win the NASCAR Cup Series driver championship, but the mentality it takes to compete for one won’t change as the No. 9 Chevrolet is still in a championship hunt.

Elliott needed to win to get into the 16-driver postseason, which he failed to do last weekend in Daytona. A champion from 2020, it’s the first time Elliott has not been in the postseason, but it’s been an unexpected season from the start. He broke his leg in a snowboarding incident in early March, which resulted in him missing six weeks, and was suspended for one week in June after hooking Denny Hamlin in the Coca-Cola 600.

The car, of course, continued to race in Elliott’s absence. Through his performance when behind the wheel and the helpful efforts of substitutes Josh Berry and Corey Lajoie, the No. 9 car qualified for the owner’s playoff.

It is through the owner’s point standings that teams are paid — that’s what the charter system is tied to. While Elliott has nothing to personally race for over the next two months, he and his team can’t change direction.

“It’s a tough balance with the car still being in the (owners) deal,” Elliott said Saturday at Darlington Raceway. “I would love to just completely take a reset and try really hard to just do things way different, and I still am going to try and do some of that, but it is a fine line because the car is still in. We still have to go perform at a high level.

“It’s a tough balance, but there are definitely habits I would like to break. There are some things I want to do better, and these next 10 weeks are a great opportunity for me to do that. But it still has meaning, so [I’m] currently trying to find that balance.”

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Missing the playoffs, while disappointing, didn’t change anything for Elliott. There was no release of tension after chasing the postseason or any need to take personal time to decompress. He was adamant the pressure to perform during a season doesn’t change just because of his position.

“I’m really still treating it like we’re in the deal because the car is,” Elliott said. “We have to go and bring your best every week to advance it through the rounds.”

Elliott has run 19 of the season’s 26 races with 10 top-10 finishes, but the team has three DNFs, and Elliot has led an uncharacteristically small 41 laps.

“I want to be better,” he said. “I want to improve. There are just areas that I don’t feel like I’m doing a great job in, and I want to make that better. All I care about is improving.”

The former champ is putting it squarely on his own shoulders. Even if the No. 9 team would have been able to completely reset as he would have wanted, Elliott said the things he would want to do differently have nothing to do with the performance of his car.

“To be frank, and I don’t just say this, but I really don’t think the cars are the problem,” Elliott said. “I think I need to be better. You look at how William [Byron] and Kyle [Larson], and Alex [Bowman] have run throughout different points of the season — I just don’t think that’s an excuse. That’s just not how I work.

“I think I can be better, and I think can do more to extract pace out of our car, and that’s what I’m going to work on.”

Despite playoff berth, Bell says he’s missed lots of opportunities

Christopher Bell’s regular season was a bit deceiving. He and the No. 20 team from Joe Gibbs Racing finished fourth in the championship standings with a win on the Bristol dirt. There were also two stage wins and 259 laps led, but there were plenty …

Christopher Bell’s regular season was a bit deceiving.

He and the No. 20 team from Joe Gibbs Racing finished fourth in the championship standings with a win on the Bristol dirt. There were also two stage wins and 259 laps led, but there were plenty of misses along the way that, even as he’s qualified for the postseason as the seventh seed, leave him disappointed.

“Not ideal,” was how Bell described the first 26 races. “What’s crazy is we finished fourth in the regular season standings, which is amazing. If you would have told me from February 1st that you’re going to finish fourth in the regular season standings, I would be like, ‘Yeah, you know what, I’ll take that.’

“But after living it, there were so many more opportunities on the table that got left there. That was very disappointing and encouraging at the same time because I know that we have all of the pieces to not be underrated. [We] just have to put them all together, and if we do put them all together, I think greatness is ahead of us.”

Bell earned 13 top-10 finishes in the regular season, which is two less than the 15 that teammate Martin Truex Jr. put on the board. Truex leads the series in the category. Bell earned six top-five finishes.

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Those are numbers that Bell is unfamiliar with because he simply doesn’t look or keep track. but what he will emphatically say is that there were many more in “the palm of our hands” that they let slip away.

“I know that our success could be much greater,” Bell said.

The late summer stretch – the 10 races leading into the postseason – shows the inconsistency the team fought. Bell had four top-10 finishes, three finishes 20th or worse and three poles.

“It was not experimenting at all,” Bell said, not hiding from consistency being his team’s Achilles’ heel. “I can probably rattle off four or five races right now that were easy top fives and potential race wins if we just get to the end of the race. It certainly just comes down to execution.”

He hopes a reset with the start of the postseason will level things out and put the peaks and valleys behind the team. The good news is that he’s confident they’re headed in the right direction, and there were solid performances in the last few weeks that were enough of a boost that, despite the negatives, Bell said the team is postseason-ready.

“Indy road course was a good steppingstone,” Bell said. “We were able to get out there with a solid top 10. Watkins Glen was really good, so I feel really good about that. I like the schedule in the playoffs; it fits us really well.

“I think we are ready, yes.”

Joe Gibbs Racing swapped the pit crews for Bell and teammate Ty Gibbs going into the first race of the postseason at Darlington Raceway (Sunday, 6 p.m. ET, USA). Bell was the fastest driver in practice Saturday and followed it up by earning the pole for the Cook Out Southern 500.

Byron eyeing steady progression as Cup Playoff’s No. 1 seed

For the first time in his career, William Byron begins the NASCAR Cup Series postseason as the No. 1 seed with a series-leading five wins and the most playoff points. Regardless of how the next 10 weeks play out, it has been a career year for the …

For the first time in his career, William Byron begins the NASCAR Cup Series postseason as the No. 1 seed with a series-leading five wins and the most playoff points.

Regardless of how the next 10 weeks play out, it has been a career year for the driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Byron has accomplished multiple firsts throughout the season, from doubling his win total from last year to leading the championship point standings.

“Starting the season, we didn’t expect to win five races, to be honest,” Byron said ahead of the start of the playoffs at Darlington Raceway. “Winning three races was kind of the goal, and as we transitioned throughout the year, the expectations got higher. There was a little slump that came with that because we started to expect to run top three or top five every week, and it’s just not possible with this car. You’ve got way too many challenges.

“I feel like we got into a good place before the playoffs to where we feel like we’re comfortable and have a good mindset. Watkins Glen just felt really good. It felt like we had the right approach.”

In four previous playoff appearances, the highest Byron was ever seeded was fifth (2022) with 14 playoff points. He finished sixth in the overall standings after making it to the Round of 8 for the first time.

Byron and Truex each have 36 playoff points at the top of the playoff grid. The Hendrick driver got the No. 1 seed based on having more wins, though. Truex won the regular-season title, which Byron fell out of contention for because of a 60-point penalty early in the year for a greenhouse violation found on his Chevrolet.

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Every driver will admit that playoff points are like insurance and it’s nice to have them to fall back on. Byron is in unfamiliar territory with the amount he has, which should help make the rounds easier if the team continues to execute at a high level.

“It’s nice to have that; what would be really nice is if we build more of them,” Byron said. “Honestly, that’s where my goals come in… How do we build more playoff points? How do we go through the first round? Maybe win a stage or two. Maybe win a race if we have the pace and things line up to happen like that.

“It’d be nice to get to that 40 (playoff points) number. … Talladega is a weak track for us right now, admittedly. We didn’t feel great about how Daytona went. We finished eighth but didn’t have a lot of up-front speed, so we just have to work on Talladega. The Roval I feel good about because we just won a road course race, so it’s just hopefully a steady progression.”

That steady progression is what Byron is counting on. He believes if his team takes a step further than they did last year in the postseason, this one will be his best yet in the series.

“Last year, we had the second-best average finish in the playoffs — finished sixth in the points, we just (were) basically one race shy of making it to Phoenix with a bad qualifying effort at Martinsville,” he said. “If we can build on what we did last year and improve some of the mistakes in the Round of 8 and improve some of the qualifying errors that we had at Martinsville, I think we’d already be ahead. It’s one step at a time, but if we learn from what we did last year, we can be better yet, and last year we were right there on the edge of making the final four.”

Bell stays fast and motors to Southern 500 pole at Darlington

Christopher Bell was the best of the NASCAR Cup Series playoff drivers Saturday at Darlington Raceway, backing up his fast practice time by earning the pole for the Cook Out Southern 500. Bell earned the top spot with a lap of 169.193mph (29.065s). …

Christopher Bell was the best of the NASCAR Cup Series playoff drivers Saturday at Darlington Raceway, backing up his fast practice time by earning the pole for the Cook Out Southern 500.

Bell earned the top spot with a lap of 169.193mph (29.065s). It’s his third pole in the last eight races and the seventh of his Cup Series career.

Denny Hamlin will join his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate on the front row. Hamlin qualified second at 169.042mph.

Tyler Reddick qualified third at 168.972mph, Ryan Blaney fourth at 168.273mph and Brad Keselowski completed the top five at 168.227mph.

Joey Logano qualified sixth at 168.152mph, Kevin Harvick seventh at 168.129mph, Chris Buescher eighth at 167.962mph, Michael McDowell ninth at 167.893mph and Aric Almirola 10th at 167.231mph.

Almirola was the only non-playoff driver who advanced to the final round of qualifying.

Kyle Busch qualified 11th (169.297mph), Kyle Larson 18th (168.411mph), and Bubba Wallace 19th (168.324mph).

For playoff drivers will start outside the top 20. William Byron qualified 23rd (168.089mph), Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 25th (167.802mph), Ross Chastain 27th (167.625mph) and Martin Truex Jr. 31st (166.913mph).

Carson Hocevar qualified 15th for Legacy Motor Club in the No. 42 Chevrolet. Erik Jones, another Legacy M.C. driver and the defending race winner, qualified 20th.

There are 36 drivers entered in the Cook Out Southern 500.

Bell leads tame practice session at Darlington

Christopher Bell was the fastest NASCAR Cup Series playoff driver in Saturday’s practice at Darlington Raceway, which was also good enough for fastest overall in the session. Bell, who ran 26 laps, led the way at 168.428mph (29.197s). His No. 20 Joe …

Christopher Bell was the fastest NASCAR Cup Series playoff driver in Saturday’s practice at Darlington Raceway, which was also good enough for fastest overall in the session.

Bell, who ran 26 laps, led the way at 168.428mph (29.197s). His No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was the only one to crack 168mph.

Michael McDowell was second fastest at 167.277mph, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. third at 167.049mph, William Byron fourth at 166.642mph and Bubba Wallace rounded out the top five at 166.591mph.

Austin Cindric was sixth at 166.433mph, Kyle Larson seventh at 166.349mph, Denny Hamlin eighth at 166.242mph, Chase Briscoe ninth at 166.017mph and Brad Keselowski completed the top 10 at 165.973mph.

Cindric and Briscoe were the only non-playoff drivers inside the top 10.

Martin Truex Jr. was 11th fastest (165.956mph), Tyler Reddick was 12th (165.956mph), Chris Buescher was 13th (165.659mph), and Kyle Busch was 15th fastest (165.359mph). Ryan Blaney was 16th (165.320mph), Kevin Harvick 19th (165.087mph), Ross Chastain was 23rd (164.898mph), and Joey Logano was 26th fastest (164.661mph).

Three of the playoff drivers bounced off the wall in practice: Larson, Busch and Truex.

Logano ran the most laps (37).

Erik Jones, the defending race winner, was 17th fastest.

In the best 10 consecutive lap average, it was Cindric fastest over Blaney, Hamlin, Truex and Bell.