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SHR Post-Race Report: Darlington

STEWART-HAAS RACING
Cook Out Southern 500

Date: Sept. 5, 2021
Event: Cook Out Southern 500 (Round 27 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Darlington (S.C.) Raceway (1.366-mile oval)
Format: 367 laps, broken into three stages (115 laps/115 laps/137 laps)

Race Winner: Denny Hamlin of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)
Stage 1 Winner: Denny Hamlin of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)
Stage 2 Winner: Kyle Larson of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)

SHR Race Finish:
● Kevin Harvick (Started 9th, Finished 5th / Running, completed 367 of 367 laps)
● Cole Custer (Started 31st, Finished 11th / Running, completed 367 of 367 laps)
● Aric Almirola (Started 8th, Finished 16th / Running, completed 366 of 367 laps)
● Chase Briscoe (Started 24th, Finished 19th / Running, completed 366 of 367 laps)

SHR Points:
● Kevin Harvick (7th with 2,046 points, 20 points ahead of top-12 cutoff)
● Aric Almirola (11th with 2,029 points, three points ahead of top-12 cutoff)
● Chase Briscoe (23rd with 484 points)
● Cole Custer (28th with 421 points)

Playoff Standings (with two races to go before Round of 12):
1. Denny Hamlin (2,072 points) 1 win
2. Kyle Larson (2,106 points) +80 points
3. Martin Truex Jr. (2,062 points) +36 points
4. Kurt Busch (2,062 points) +26 points
5. Ryan Blaney (2,048 points) +22 points
6. Joey Logano (2,047 points) +21 points
7. Kevin Harvick (2,046 points) +20 points
8. Brad Keselowski (2,038 points) +12 points
9. Christopher Bell (2,031 points) +6 points
10. Chase Elliott (2,030 points) +4 points
11. Aric Almirola (2,029 points) +3 points
12. Alex Bowman (2,026 points) +0 points
13. Tyler Reddick (2,026 points) -0 points
14. Kyle Busch (2,024 points) -2 points
15. William Byron (2,017 points) -9 points
16. Michael McDowell (2,006 points) -20 points

SHR Notes:
● Harvick earned his seventh top-five and 17th top-10 of the season, and his 12th top-five and 17th top-10 in 28 career starts at Darlington.
● Harvick’s 12 top-fives and 17 top-10s at Darlington are the most among active NASCAR Cup Series drivers.
● This was Harvick’s 12th straight top-10 at Darlington. He hasn’t finished outside the top-10 since a 16th-place result in May 2012.
● This was Harvick’s seventh straight top-15, a streak that began July 11 with an 11th-place finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
● Harvick finished fifth in Stage 1 to earn six bonus points and fifth in Stage 2 to earn six more bonus points.
● Harvick led once for 20 laps, increasing his laps led total at Darlington to 802.
● Harvick has now led 11,270 laps since joining SHR in 2014. He has led 15,604 laps in his entire NASCAR Cup Series career.
● Almirola finished eighth in Stage 1 to earn three bonus points.
● Briscoe was the highest finishing NASCAR Cup Series rookie for the 23rd time this season.
● Custer earned his sixth top-15 of the season and his second top-15 in five career starts at Darlington.
● Custer’s 11th-place result bettered his previous best finish at Darlington – 12th, earned in last year’s Southern 500.

Race Notes:
● Denny Hamlin won the Cook Out Southern 500 to score his 45th career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his first of the season and his fourth at Darlington. His margin over second-place Kyle Larson was .212 of a second.
● There were 11 caution periods for a total of 52 laps.
● Only 15 of the 37 drivers in the Cook Out Southern 500 finished on the lead lap.

Darlington Quotes

Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Busch Light Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:
“We finished on a flat tire. We had to pit for a loose wheel or a tire coming apart or something and got a lap down, and then got the lucky dog and just a lot going on. That’s pretty typical of this race, though. I just want to thank everybody on our Busch Light Ford Mustang. Our guys have done a great job. We led a bunch of laps early and had a fast racecar and were able to capitalize on a good day. This is just always one of those races that has a lot of stuff happen and you have to keep yourself rolling and keep your car clean, and that’s what we did tonight. We had a few little issues, but we worked through them and were able to have a fast enough car that we could run top-five and the rest of it, for us to run first or second we would need to be first or second like we were earlier in clean air. When we had the clean air we drove away, so it’s just kind of the way it is everywhere.”

Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 HighPoint.com/Founders Federal Credit Union Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:
“The HighPoint.com/Founders Federal Credit Union Ford Mustang was pretty good on the long run once we made some adjustments and the sun went down, but the handling just wasn’t where we needed it to be overall. We’ve still got time to get a win before the season’s over. This was just an off day that we’ll move on from and try to keep improving over the next nine races.”

Cole Custer, driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Demo Day Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:
“Today was an up and down day. Our Ford Mustang started to come to us there at the end. Mike (Shiplett, crew chief) made a great call to keep us out in that second-to-last caution and put us back in the race. That strategy worked out in our favor, and we scored another top-15 for this HaasTooling.com Demo Day team.”

Aric Almirola, driver of the No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:
“We had a good car today, and we had good speed. We had a great day and our pit crew was on fire until the caution came out late in the race and put us a lap down. The strategy just didn’t play out for us there, but that’s how it goes. We controlled as much as we could control and showed we’re serious contenders.”

Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Federated Auto Parts 400 Salute to First Responders on Saturday, Sept. 11 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway. The second race of the 10-race NASCAR Playoffs starts at 7:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by NBCSN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

-SHR-