Cook Out Southern 500: Bell snaps winless, runner-up streak in Darlington Chase opener

DARLINGTON, S.C. — After finishing in the runner-up position seven times this year in the NASCAR Cup Series, Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell finally found Victory Lane at Darlington Raceway, earning a crown-jewel win in the prestigious Cook Out Southern 500.

Bell, whose last win came last September at Bristol Motor Speedway, earned a much-needed 73 points after finishing fourth in Stage 1, first in Stage 2, earning the Xfinity Fastest Lap with a handful of laps remaining, and winning the 367-lap race. The driver of the No. 20 Mobil 1 Toyota jumped from No. 6 Seed in The Chase to the No. 2 Seed with his strong performance in South Carolina.

“It’s been too damn long,” Bell said. “Oh, my gosh, man. I’m just so, so proud of all of these guys on this No. 20 Mobil 1 Toyota, all the mechanics, all the pit crew members. They deserve it more than anyone. This has been a long time coming. Darlington has been one that I’ve always wanted to win since I got into the sport. This is the ultimate driver’s track. You fans, you guys are the best. That’s why we’re here.”

Bell’s JGR teammate, Ty Gibbs, had a quieter day than most, but ended up second behind Bell, despite starting back in 28th because of the metric after rain canceled practice and qualifying on Saturday.

“I don’t know,” Gibbs said when asked what more he needed. “I may have needed to drink another Monster Energy at the end. We had to come from deep because of the metric order. We kind of got hosed there, but fought hard and worked our way forward from 28th to second. Not what we were thinking was going to happen, but we are really happy and appreciate all of the hard effort from this Monster Energy Toyota team. We just kept fighting hard, and we were second. I really want to win this race. I’ve had some seconds here, so a little frustrating, but congrats to Christopher (Bell) and the 20 team. Really happy for them.”

Gibbs falls to sixth in The Chase standings after the “Lady in Black.”

23XI Racing driver Tyler Reddick battled back to finish third after a pit-road mishap seemingly took him out of contention. Reddick, who won Stage 1, fell to fourth in The Chase standings, which is the furthest he has been from the top spot all season long.

“It is tough for our Chumba Casino Toyota team,” Reddick said. “In the spring, we were fortunate to have our issue early and we were able to claw our way back to the front. Just with the way it played out with the shorter runs and stuff, we were definitely needing the longer runs. Just kind of unfortunate. I think when we had that weather delay, we were definitely thinking we were going to have a long run coming up, and it ended up being shorter. We just lost some track position there. The guys made a good adjustment on the last stop, and we were able to work our way back forward. I was thinking it would go green out, and it never does here for whatever reason, even though it looks like it is going to all day. Just fell behind at a bad time, but it was nice that we were able to claw our way back at the end there — just a little off. We lead laps almost every year here; it just seems like it gets away from us every time, so that is unfortunate.”

Results from the 2026 Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway are listed below:

Other Race Facts

Kyle Larson seemed to be the man to beat before a final caution came out. When crew chief Cliff Daniels made the decision to stay out while most of the field pitted, Larson’s old tires could not hold off the fresh tires behind. The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series champion led a race-high 99 of 367 laps before finishing fifth.

“Yeah, I thought more people would stay out,” Larson said. “I think another two or three people staying out would have helped. I think, ultimately, they would have got to me. I was just hoping I could get some laps where I could take care of my tires. (Christopher) Bell got to second really quickly and we were just instantly on the defense trying to block lines, so I wasn’t really able to manage my tires like I would have liked. I feel like I did the best job I could, honestly, but I just didn’t think he would get to second that fast so I could have spent those first five or seven laps saving my tires so I would have something when he got there. And then ultimately, I held him off longer than I thought I could. There was a point where I thought I had maybe damaged his tires enough where maybe I could hang onto it. He was just too close to me in (Turn) 1 and I couldn’t run up the hill like I wanted to.”

Chase Briscoe’s quest for his third consecutive Southern 500 win ended after a sixth-place finish. His Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Denny Hamlin, was in control early and led 68 of 367 laps before a pit-road issue and contact with Michael McDowell took the No. 11 Sport Clips Haircuts Toyota completely out of contention. The five-time Darlington race winner and current Chase points leader had to settle for 18th.

Wood Brothers Racing driver Josh Berry finished seventh, which was his sixth consecutive top-10 finish. This marks the first time the Wood Brothers have finished in the top 10 for six straight races since David Pearson (1976).

Chase Driver Darlington Results:

1. Christopher Bell

2. Ty Gibbs

3. Tyler Reddick

4. Ryan Blaney

5. Kyle Larson

6. Chase Briscoe

8. Bubba Wallace

9. Joey Logano

10. Ryan Preece

11. Carson Hocevar

13. Austin Cindric

14. Chase Elliott

18. Denny Hamlin

20. Chris Buescher

21. Daniel Suárez

37. William Byron (Engine Issue)

With Bell’s victory, this was the first time that Toyota has had six drivers claim victories in a single NASCAR Cup Series season, according to Toyota Racing. Bell, Hamlin, Gibbs, Briscoe, Reddick and Corey Heim have totaled 15 wins for Toyota. Those 15 victories are also the most victories in a single season since 2019.

GRID Ranking

The 2026 GRID Ranking is the 10th year of the world’s premier motorsports ranking system, which was initially released on Sunday, April 5.
The official ranking includes drivers participating in seven racing series (NASCAR, IndyCar, Formula 1, Formula E, WRC, Supercars, MotoGP). Each driver earns GRID Ratings, which help determine their seeding in the GRID Ranking.

DRIVER	OLD RATING	PREVIOUS RANKING	MOST RECENT FINISH	NEW RATING	NEW RANKING
Denny Hamlin	14.06	4th	18th	13.54	5th
Tyler Reddick	12.81	8th	3rd	13.16	8th
Christopher Bell	10.64	17th	1st	11.62	13th
Ty Gibbs	10.36	19th	2nd	10.96	15th
Ryan Blaney	N/A	N/A	4th	9.87	23rd

Week 23 of the GRID Ranking:

Week 23 of the GRID Ranking saw Denny Hamlin lose some points to Tyler Reddick, with Christopher Bell and Ty Gibbs moving up multiple spots in the GRID Ranking. Chase Briscoe also dropped out of the Ranking, as Ryan Blaney took his place. For the first time in months, the top five spots in the NASCAR Rating do not have a complete sweep of Toyota drivers.

The next race on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway on Sunday, Sept. 13. Coverage begins at 3 p.m. ET on USA Network.

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