2024 Cook Out Southern 500 Explained

Type:	CUST
Description:	Race 26 of 36 in the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series
Race Name:	Cook Out Southern 500
Details Ref:	^[1] ^[2] ^[3] ^[4] ^[5] ^[6] ^[7] ^[8] ^[9]
Year:	2024
Location:	Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina
Course Mi:	1.366
Course Km:	2.198
Distance Laps:	367
Distance Mi:	501.322
Distance Km:	806.666
Avg:	127.8mph
Pole Driver:	Bubba Wallace
Pole Team:	23XI Racing
Pole Time:	29.421
Most Driver:	Kyle Larson
Most Team:	Hendrick Motorsports
Most Laps:	263
Car:	14
First Driver:	Chase Briscoe
First Team:	Stewart-Haas Racing
Network:	USA
Announcers:	Leigh Diffey, Jeff Burton and Steve Letarte
Radio:	MRN
Booth Ann:	Alex Hayden, Jeff Striegle and Rusty Wallace
Turn Ann:	Dave Moody (1–2) and Mike Bagley (3–4)

The 2024 Cook Out Southern 500, the 75th running of the event, was a NASCAR Cup Series race held on September 1, 2024, at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina on the 1.366miles speedway, it was the 26th race of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season, last race of the regular season, and the final Crown Jewel of the year. Chase Briscoe won the race, his first win since the 2022 Ruoff Mortgage 500. Kyle Busch finished 2nd, and Christopher Bell finished 3rd. Kyle Larson and Ross Chastain rounded out the top five, and Chris Buescher, Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, Corey LaJoie, and Tyler Reddick rounded out the top ten.

This was Stewart-Haas Racing's final win in the Cup Series.

Report

Background

Darlington Raceway is a race track built for NASCAR racing located near Darlington, South Carolina. It is nicknamed "The Lady in Black" and "The Track Too Tough to Tame" by many NASCAR fans and drivers and advertised as "A NASCAR Tradition." It is of a unique, somewhat egg-shaped design, an oval with the ends of very different configurations, a condition which supposedly arose from the proximity of one end of the track to a minnow pond the owner refused to relocate. This situation makes it very challenging for the crews to set up their cars' handling in a way that is effective at both ends.

Entry list

(R) denotes rookie driver.
(i) denotes driver who is ineligible for series driver points.

	Driver	Team	Manufacturer
1			Chevrolet
2			Ford
3		nowrap		Chevrolet
4	Josh Berry (R)		Ford
5			Chevrolet
6			Ford
7			Chevrolet
8			Chevrolet
9			Chevrolet
10			Ford
11			Toyota
12			Ford
14			Ford
15	Kaz Grala (R)		Ford
16	nowrap	Shane van Gisbergen (i)		Chevrolet
17			Ford
19			Toyota
20			Toyota
21			Ford
22			Ford
23			Toyota
24			Chevrolet
31			Chevrolet
34			Ford
38			Ford
41			Ford
42			Toyota
43			Toyota
45			Toyota
47			Chevrolet
48			Chevrolet
51			Ford
54			Toyota
66	Timmy Hill (i)		Ford
71	Zane Smith (R)		Chevrolet
77	Carson Hocevar (R)		Chevrolet
99			Chevrolet
Official entry list

Practice

Erik Jones was the fastest in the practice session with a time of 29.542 seconds and a speed of 166.461mph.

Practice results

Pos		Time
1	43	29.542	166.461
2	11	29.598	166.146
3	47	29.603	166.118
Official practice results

Qualifying

Bubba Wallace scored the pole for the race with a time 29.421 of and a speed of 167.146mph.^[10] Rookie Carson Hocevar scored a personal and team best qualifying effort in 2nd.

Qualifying results

Pos		Driver	Manufacturer
1	23		Toyota	29.328	29.421
2	77	Carson Hocevar (R)	Chevrolet	29.419	29.445
3	14		Ford	29.294	29.576
4	5		Chevrolet	29.445	29.444
5	19		Toyota	29.292	29.582
6	45		Toyota	29.463	29.446
7	12		Ford	29.375	29.617
8	24		Chevrolet	29.439	29.528
9	20		Toyota	29.239	29.670
10	17		Ford	29.622	29.650
11	2		Ford	29.444	—
12	6		Ford	29.624	—
13	54		Toyota	29.472	—
14	11		Toyota	29.649	—
15	4	Josh Berry (R)	Ford	29.509	—
16	3		Chevrolet	29.670	—
17	8		Chevrolet	29.531	—
18	42		Toyota	29.696	—
19	7		Chevrolet	29.534	—
20	9		Chevrolet	29.791	—
21	51		Ford	29.538	—
22	1		Chevrolet	29.806	—
23	22		Ford	29.563	—
24	21		Ford	29.849	—
25	31		Chevrolet	29.571	—
26	71	Zane Smith (R)	Chevrolet	29.852	—
27	48		Chevrolet	29.601	—
28	43		Toyota	29.925	—
29	10		Ford	29.632	—
30	41		Ford	29.981	—
31	34		Ford	29.653	—
32	99		Chevrolet	30.015	—
33	38		Ford	29.853	—
34	16	Shane van Gisbergen (i)	Chevrolet	30.267	—
35	15	Kaz Grala (R)	Ford	30.142	—
36	47		Chevrolet	0.000	—
37	66	Timmy Hill (i)	Ford	31.296	—
Official qualifying results

Race

Race results

Stage results

Stage OneLaps: 115

Pos		Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Points
1	5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	10
2	23	Bubba Wallace	23XI Racing	Toyota	9
3	14	Chase Briscoe	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	8
4	45	Tyler Reddick	23XI Racing	Toyota	7
5	20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	6
6	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	5
7	54	Ty Gibbs	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	4
8	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	3
9	4	Josh Berry (R)	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	2
10	17	Chris Buescher	RFK Racing	Ford	1
Official stage one results

Stage TwoLaps: 115

Pos		Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Points
1	5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	10
2	14	Chase Briscoe	Stewart-Haas Racing	Chevrolet	9
3	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	8
4	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	7
5	20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	6
6	54	Ty Gibbs	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	5
7	4	Josh Berry (R)	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	4
8	45	Tyler Reddick	23XI Racing	Toyota	3
9	23	Bubba Wallace	23XI Racing	Toyota	2
10	6	Brad Keselowski	RFK Racing	Ford	1
Official stage two results

Final Stage results

Stage ThreeLaps: 137

Pos	Grid		Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Points
1	3	14	Chase Briscoe	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	367	57
2	17	8	Kyle Busch	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	367	35
3	9	20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	367	46
4	4	5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	367	53
5	22	1	Ross Chastain	Trackhouse Racing	Chevrolet	367	32
6	10	17	Chris Buescher	RFK Racing	Ford	367	32
7	14	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	367	43
8	23	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	367	29
9	19	7	Corey LaJoie	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	367	28
10	6	45	Tyler Reddick	23XI Racing	Toyota	367	37
11	20	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	367	26
12	30	41	Ryan Preece	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	367	25
13	11	2	Austin Cindric	Team Penske	Ford	367	24
14	12	6	Brad Keselowski	RFK Racing	Ford	367	24
15	16	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	367	22
16	1	23	Bubba Wallace	23XI Racing	Toyota	367	32
17	33	38	Todd Gilliland	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	367	20
18	32	99	Daniel Suárez	Trackhouse Racing	Chevrolet	366	19
19	27	48	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	366	18
20	13	54	Ty Gibbs	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	366	26
21	24	21	Harrison Burton	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	365	16
22	36	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	365	15
23	26	71	Zane Smith (R)	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	364	14
24	28	43	Erik Jones	Legacy Motor Club	Toyota	364	13
25	18	42	John Hunter Nemechek	Legacy Motor Club	Toyota	364	12
26	34	16	Shane van Gisbergen (i)	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	364	0
27	21	51	Justin Haley	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	363	10
28	31	34	Michael McDowell	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	363	9
29	25	31	Daniel Hemric	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	362	8
30	8	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	344	17
31	15	4	Josh Berry (R)	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	343	12
32	29	10	Noah Gragson	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	343	5
33	2	77	Carson Hocevar (R)	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	335	4
34	35	15	Kaz Grala	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	332	3
35	37	66	Timmy Hill (i)	Power Source	Ford	278	0
36	5	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	2	1
37	7	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	2	1
Official race results

Race statistics

Lead changes: 26 among 11 different drivers
Cautions/Laps: 7 for 39
Red flags: 0
Time of race: 3 hours, 55 minutes and 14 seconds
Average speed: 127.8mph

Media

Television

USA covered the race on the television side. Leigh Diffey, two–time Darlington winner Jeff Burton and Steve Letarte called the race from the broadcast booth. Dave Burns, Kim Coon and Marty Snider handled the pit road duties from pit lane.

Radio

MRN had the radio call for the race, which was also simulcast on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio.

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings after Playoffs reset

	Pos	Driver	Points
1	1	Kyle Larson	2,040
4	2	Christopher Bell	2,032 (–8)
2	3	Tyler Reddick	2,028 (–12)
1	4	William Byron	2,022 (–18)
1	5	Ryan Blaney	2,018 (–22)
2	6	Denny Hamlin	2,015 (–25)
4	7	Chase Elliott	2,014 (–26)
1	8	Brad Keselowski	2,008 (–32)
6	9	Joey Logano	2,007 (–33)
9	10	Austin Cindric	2,007 (–33)
6	11	Daniel Suárez	2,006 (–34)
	12	Alex Bowman	2,005 (–35)
5	13	Chase Briscoe	2,005 (–35)
20	14	Harrison Burton	2,005 (–35)
5	15	Ty Gibbs	2,004 (–36)
7	16	Martin Truex Jr.	2,004 (–36)
Official driver's standings

Manufacturers' Championship standings

Pos	Manufacturer	Points
1	Chevrolet	944
2	Toyota	929 (–15)
3	Ford	908 (–36)

Note: Only the first 16 positions are included for the driver standings.

Notes and References

Web site: 2024 schedule . Jayski.com. . October 10, 2022.
Web site: Darlington Raceway . NASCAR.com . NASCAR Media Group, LLC. . August 7, 2022 . April 30, 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170430210206/http://www.nascar.com/en_us/nascar-tracks/darlington-raceway.html . dead .
News: NASCAR unveils 2024 Cup schedule as Atlanta, Watkins Glen move to playoffs . October 4, 2023 . April 21, 2024 . National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC.
News: NASCAR Cup Series 2024 schedule announcement: New additions, race dates, plus the complete calendar. Taranto, Steven . October 4, 2023 . April 21, 2024 . CBS Broadcasting Inc.
Web site: Entry List. Jayski.com. Jayski's Silly Season Site. August 26, 2024. August 26, 2024.
Web site: Practice Results. NASCAR.com. NASCAR. August 31, 2024. August 31, 2024.
Web site: Qualifying Results. NASCAR.com. NASCAR. August 31, 2024. August 31, 2024.
Web site: Cook Out Southern 500 Results. NASCAR.com. NASCAR. September 1, 2024. September 1, 2024.
Web site: Points standings. Jayski.com. Jayski's Silly Season Site. September 1, 2024. September 1, 2024.
Web site: DeGroot. Nick. Southern 500: Bubba Wallace beats Hocevar to pole in dramatic session. Motorsport.com. Motorsport Network. August 31, 2024. Darlington, South Carolina. August 31, 2024.