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.