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Darlington winners and losers

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Denny Hamlin holds off Kyle Larson down the stretch to win the NASCAR Cup Series playoff opener at Darlington Raceway to advance to the Round of 12.

A look at the winners and losers after a weekend of racing at Darlington Raceway

WINNERS

Denny Hamlin — Finally gets that first victory of the season after holding off Kyle Larson’s last-lap move.

Kyle Larson — Finished second for the third consecutive time at Darlington but made it exciting on the last lap with his video game move.

Ross Chastain — Placed third in his best finish since placing second at Nashville in June.

Noah Gragson — So within a few days of JR Motorsports announcing that Gragson will be back with the Xfinity team in 2022, he snaps a 49-race winless streak. His three career Xfinity wins have come at Daytona, Bristol and Darlington.

Austin Cindric — His third-place finish in Saturday’s Xfinity race moved him within one point of series leader AJ Allmendinger with two races left in the regular season. Said Cindric after the race: “It’s gonna be a fun two weeks.”

Sheldon Creed — Reigning series champ opens playoffs by winning the first two races.

LOSERS

Michael McDowell — His path to the second round was not going to be easy. That was before he crashed on Lap 31 and finished last Sunday.

Kyle Busch — Car didn’t perform well and then crash ended his night. He’s outside the cutoff line after the first playoff race.

Hendrick Motorsports (other than Kyle Larson) — William Byron finished 34th, Chase Elliott was 31st and Alex Bowman placed 26th. Byron and Bowman are outside the transfer spot.