After 500 miles of racing at Darlington Raceway, Christopher Bell passed Kyle Larson with 12 laps to go, driving off with the Southern 500 victory.
Bell hadn’t won a race since last September, and was frustrated with seven runner-up finishes in, until today, a winless 2026 season. Bell took the lead from Larson and then held on against Ty Gibbs in second and Tyler Reddick in third.
Ryan Blaney finished fourth, and Kyle Larson slid back to fifth on slightly older tires.
“It’s been too damn long,” said Bell after climbing from the car. “Oh, my gosh, man. I’m just so, so proud of all of these guys on this No. 20 car, all the mechanics, all the pit crew members. They deserve it more than anyone.
“Oh, my gosh, man, 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.”
Watch: Bell pounces late to open Chase with win
Chase Briscoe, Josh Berry, Bubba Wallace, Joey Logano, and Ryan Preece filled out the remainder of the top ten.
Looking at other Chase drivers, Carson Hocevar was 11th, Austin Cindric 13th, Chase Elliott 14th, Denny Hamlin 18th, Chris Buescher 20th, Daniel Suarez 21st, and William Byron 37th.
Bell leaves Darlington second in the championship standings, 12pts adrift of Hamlin and the points lead.
Stage 1
Despite no track time before the start of the race, the opening lap was clean, with Daniel Suarez taking the lead from pole-sitter Reddick. He didn’t hold it for long as Hamlin surged from the second row of the grid.
Wallace had some early door contact with A. Dillon, but other than that, things were fairly clean. Reddick moved back into the lead just before a scheduled competition caution.
On the restart, Hamlin moved back ahead and held it for some time. During the first round of green-flag pit stops, Heim was hit with an uncontrolled tire penalty.
With 30 laps to go, the back-and-forth battle between Hamlin and Reddick continued as Reddick claimed the top spot.
Wallace, who ran five laps longer than the leaders during the first pit stop cycle, surged up to second as the run progressed. However, he never got a shot at the lead a caution with nine laps left in the stage automatically ended it (per a recent rules update).
The cause? Hocevar slid up into Brad Keselowski, and sent the RFK co-owner spinning at the exit of Turn 4. Chase contender Buescher narrowly avoided being collected as well.
Reddick won Stage 1, followed by Wallace, Hamlin, Bell, Blaney, Briscoe, Preece, Cindric, Byron, and Gibbs.
During the pit stops, Preece had to give up a position inside the top ten to come back and tighten a wheel.
Stage 2
On the restart, Hamlin had a big moment as he spun the tires as Reddick led Wallace out front.
This entire stage ran caution-free, featuring multiple rounds of green-flag pit stops. During the first round, Keselowski spun sideways at the pit entry, but carried on. Things also went wrong for Buescher, smacking the wall and bending a toe link.
After the first round of pit stops, Wallace took the lead from Reddick. Larson was quietly moving forward, even as he touched the wall.
Wallace came down pit road first among the leaders, protecting against the undercut. Reddick had a significant moment, leaving his box without the left-front secured. He slammed on the brakes as a tire changer fell to the ground, backing up and falling down to eighth in the running order.
Briscoe jumped Wallace into the race lead, but they were concerned about not getting enough fuel in his No. 19 Toyota.
Eventually, Bell surged to the front, taking the lead and the Stage 2 win, followed by Larson, Briscoe, Hamlin, Wallace, Blaney, Berry, Byron, Reddick, Cindric.
Stage 3
During the stage break, Briscoe ran out of fuel and had to enter a closed pit while giving up all of his track position.
The trouble for JGR continued, as both Hamlin and Bell lost several spots on pit road due to messy stops.
That proved costly for Hamlin, as he was now in the middle of the pack and on the ensuing restart, got turned into the wall by Michael McDowell. The race stayed green, but he dropped to the back with bent/broken toelinks.
Larson led the way, and held command through the next round of pit stops.
The next caution was for Smith, who got turned off the nose of McDowell while in the middle, three-wide.
During the caution, Todd Gilliland pitted from the top spot after running long, and only a small handful of cars came down with him.
During the next run, Larson remained unchallenged as Bell moved up into the runner-up position.
With about 50 to go, Byron suddenly spun on the entrance of Turn 3. His issues only got worse from there, as something was clearly broken on the No. 24. “It just blew up,” Byron told the team.
The entire field pitted during this yellow, with Bell and Briscoe jumping ahead of Larson. That caution got extended by some light raindrops hitting the track, but NASCAR did not feel it was necessary to stop the race.
The green flag finally waved with 37 laps to go in the Southern 500. Briscoe used up his teammate, muscling by Bell with some door-to-door contact.
A few laps later, the caution was back out for more raindrops. The red flag was displayed with 30 laps to go. After a brief stoppage, Elliott and Blaney gave the 23XI cars a friendly push to help them re-fire on pit road.
While Larson, Cindric, Logano, and Preece stayed out, most of the lead lap cars came down pit road.
On the restart, Bell led the way for those on fresh tires, and spend several laps trying to find a way around Larson. When the Hendrick driver bobbled with 12 laps to go, Bell cut underneath him and snatched the lead away.
He then held off Gibbs, taking the checkered flag one second clear of his closest competition.
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