Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500 NASCAR Cup Series Playoff opening race at Darlington Raceway produced a number of surprise stories when the checkered flag flew.
Great Start for Dillon
Austin Dillon turned a lot of heads with his second-place run Sunday night. The Richard Childress Racing driver was forced to start from the rear of the field due to a pre-race inspection issue but methodically worked his way to the front of the field and trailed race winner Kevin Harvick across the finish line. The run moved Dillon up to eighth on the Playoff grid and he’s ten points above the danger zone heading to Richmond Raceway Saturday night.
“I get overlooked some, probably more than most, I don’t know why.” said Dillon post-race. “I always feel like I perform pretty well in pressure situations, and RCR as a whole can step up. Man, we battled. This team, we’ve had a motto all year; it’s been “FIDO,” forget it and drive on, and that’s what we kind showed that example tonight.”
Harvick Opens with a Win
This could only be a surprise to those who have not been playing attention this year. Otherwise watching Harvick celebrate a win this year has become common place to the tune of eight times after his Darlington victory. Harvick is shooting for double digit wins in 2020 and has nine more chances to reach that mark.
Audio: Darlington MRN Backtrax
Top Five for Jones
When 12 of the first 13 finishers are playoff drivers it’s somewhat surprising when someone outside the championship picture breaks through. That’s what Jones did Sunday night with his fourth place Darlington victory. But upon further review, maybe the performance wasn’t all that surprising given Jones’ previous performances at “The Track Too Tough to Tame.” After all he was the defending Cook Out Southern 500 winner and Jones has never finished outside the top 10 in six career starts at the track, a record that includes three top-five efforts.
“I thought we had just as good of a car as what we did last year,” said Jones, who started 30th. “We just never got to the lead. That’s what held us back, I think. It’s tough. The cars are finicky. They are on edge, and it’s really hard to make ground, but decent day.”
The run didn’t hurt Jones’ efforts to find a new ride in 2021 after his JGR departure at season’s end.
Penske Problems
Things got off to a bad start for Ryan Blaney when his car was found to have a weight problem in pre-race inspection and he was docked 10 points as well as losing crew chief Todd Gordon for the race. He finished 24th. Teammate Brad Keselowski made contact with the Turn 3 wall while racing Ryan Blaney and Aric Almirola on Lap 80 and suffered damage to his Ford, but was at least able to come back for an 11th-place finish. Joey Logano finished third after battling back from damage from a cut tire coming to the conclusion of Stage 2. Alliance partner, the Wood Brothers with driver Matt DiBenedetto, suffered through a challenging day and ended up 21st, severely impacting their playoff hopes. Overall it wasn’t the best of playoff starts for “The Captain’s” team, which looks to right the ship in more ways than one in Richmond.
