Mostly sunny skies provide sunshine along with white, gray, and purple clouds over the track in Darlington. Joey Logano (22) and Christopher ‘CBell’ Bell (20) will lead the 36 car field to the green flag in the first race of the 2022 Championship Play-offs. The stages for tonight’s event are 115-115-137. A competition caution is scheduled for lap 25 of 367. University of South Carolina basketball coach Dawn Staley is driving the pace car.
MRN’s lead pit reporter Steve ‘Postman/Postie’ Post reports that since they have 13 sets of Goodyear Eagles Speedway radials, the largest allotment this year, the teams will split the stages in thirds for tire changes. The teams have the scuffed tires on which they qualified as well as a dozen sets of sticker tires. MRN’s team are Postman and Jason Toy on pit road. Dave Moody and Mike ‘BagMan’ Bagley are in the turns. Jeff Striegle, Alex Hayden and Rusty Wallace in the booth.
Logano and Bell race door-to-door for the first three laps. Logano finally gets the lead.
TV has gone to an in-car, windscreen shot on lap 3 of 367 appallingly. They
Caution for rain on lap 5 of 367. The rain cloud is not large, but directly over the track.
Chase Elliott (9) has a really pretty car that looks like it was designed by, and/or for, kids with puppies and stars. The car is seafoam.
MRN’s Alex Hayden said it rained hard in Darlington earlier today. The cars continue to circle the track. NASCAR has told the drivers to spread out to help dry off the track. Moody and Bagman say the rain is a light shower and it keeps coming back just when you think it’s going away. At 1835 eastern Moody and BagMan say the rain has stopped. NASCAR has rescheduled the competition caution for lap 35 of 367.
Restarting on lap 16 of 367 with Joey Logano (22) and Christopher Bell (20) on the front row.
Logano takes the early lead in turn two.
On lap 24 of 367 tv is bored & showing track surface and the bumper of a car and the side of the Chase Elliott (9) car, split-screen, for no apparent reason.
Now it’s the track surface and the bumper of a car and a driver driving on lap 26 of 367. According to the visuals provided there’s nothing to see on the race track except the actual track surface itself which is getting shown more than almost anything else.
Rusty Wallace of MRN say they’re just logging laps. It’s too early to bore your audience into watching something else, but they’re well on their way to doing it. Cup races don’t need to be shorter. NASCAR needs to mandate racing for the majority of the event.
Competition caution on lap 35 of 367.
Restarting on lap 40 of 367 with Joey Logano and William ‘WilliB’ Byron (24) on the front row.
CBell shoves Logano to the early lead.
On lap 60 of 367 the television broadcast seems to be frozen. Eventually the picture went away to a gray screen with some digital static. It’s back on lap 61 of 367. No idea how long it had been that way, frozen on the side of a single car.
WilliB (24) takes the lead from Logano on lap 65 of 367.
Caution on lap 113 of 367 for a spin by Chase Elliot (9) who gets hit by Chase Briscoe (14)
Stage one ends under caution.
The 9 team are trying to repair the car under the new 10 minute damaged vehicle policy. It’s down to ten seconds an the car is still jacked up. The DVP clock runs out at 1947 so they are out of the race.
Restarting on lap 121 of 367 with Kyle ‘KyBu’ Busch (18) and teammate ‘Desperate’ Denny Hamlin (11) out front.
KyBu takes the early lead.
Caution on lap 179 of 367 for a spin by Todd Gilliland (38). MRN reported a spin by Ricky Stenhouse Jr (47), prior to this one, but the race stayed green.
Caution on lap 191 of 367 for a spin by Kyle Larson (5).
Caution on lap 217 of 367 for a spin by Cody Ware (51).
KyBu (18) wins stage two.
Restarting on lap 236 of 367 with Kyle Busch and Joey Logano on the front row.
MRN reports a fire under Kevin ‘Happy/KHarv’ Harvick’s (4) car on lap 274 of 367. The fire is visible under both sides of the car. He stops the car on the apron and climbs out before the safety team gets to the car. It’s a big fire inside the race car. The caution is out for the eighth time.
Kevin was driving along and the car was on fire in the right front wheel well behind the right front tire. The fire was coming up into the car on the right side where the glove compartment would be on a street car.
The caution came out in the midst of green flag pit stops.
JJ Yeley’s (15) car is on fire according to MRN. The television broadcast is no showing a gray screen again.
Restarting on lap 283 of 367 with KyBu and Desperate on the front row.
Martin ‘MTJ’ Truex Jr (19) takes the lead from teammate KyBu (18) on lap 293 of 367.
On lap 332 of 367 MTJ is radioing water and oil temperatures to the crew according to MRN’s Postman.
KyBu has caught MTJ on lap 334 of 367. MTJ is two seconds slower than KyBu.
MTJ (19) heads to pit lane under green on lap 335 of 367.
MRN reports KyBu (18) bounced the car off the wall on lap 335 of 367.
Caution on lap 339 of 367 for an issue on the Cody Ware (51) car after a visit with the wall. MRN reports the wheel is so toed-out Ware can’t turn left to go to pit road.
MRN reports the MTJ car is getting pushed to the garage.
On lap 343 of 367 under caution KyBu (18), following the pit stop, is blowing up.
Restarting on lap 347 of 367 with Erik ‘DaBrat’ Jones (43) and Tyler Reddick (8) leading them to the green flag.
This race might get more interesting with 20 laps to go and the dominators out of the event. Then again, the chaff may be all that’s left in the field.
DaBrat gets pushed to the early lead.
MRN’s Alex Hayden reports the last time the 43 car won at Darlington was September 4, 1967.
Nope, so far, on lap 357 of 367 the race hasn’t gotten more interesting.
DaBrat takes the white flag.
Erik ‘DaBrat’ Jones (43) wins easily.
That was boring with a disappointing finish. There were passes, and occasionally a little racing, but it was a very long event with a little racing sprinkled throughout. It feels like a waste of time. I appreciate the length of the race seemingly resulting in engine issues. I appreciate the unexpected. I wish there was good racing between the unexpected occurrences – engine failures, crashes, spins, and fires. There were video highlights, but little legit racing to be seen. The NBCSports broadcast was pathetic as usual. The gray-screen instances were extra.
Erik led 23 of 367 laps. Kyle Busch led 155 laps.
The playoff field coming into this race:
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- Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
- Joey Logano, No. 22 Team Penske Ford
- Ross Chastain, No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
- Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
- William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
- Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
- Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Team Penske Ford
- Tyler Reddick, No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
- Kevin Harvick, No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford
- Christopher Bell, No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
- Kyle Busch, No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
- Chase Briscoe, No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford
- Daniel Suárez, No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
- Austin Cindric, No. 2 Team Penske Ford
- Alex Bowman, No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
- Austin Dillon, No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
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The early exits by several chase contenders shuffled the standings. Chase Elliott plummets from first to ninth as Kevin Harvick falls from ninth to sixteenth.
Current standings after the race:
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- Joey Logano, 22, Ford, Team Penske
- William Byron, 24, Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports
- Denny Hamlin, 11, Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing
- Christopher Bell, 20, Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing
- Tyler Reddick, 8, Chevrolet, Richard Childress Racing
- Ryan Blaney, 12, Ford, Team Penske
- Kyle Larson, 5, Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports
- Ross Chastain, 1, Chevrolet, Trackhouse Racing Team
- Chase Elliott, 9, Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports
- Alex Bowman, 48, Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports
- Kyle Busch, 18, Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing
- Daniel Suárez, 99, Chevrolet, Trackhouse Racing Team
- Austin Cindric, 2, Ford, Team Penske
- Austin Dillon, 3, Chevrolet, Richard Childress Racing
- Chase Briscoe, 14, Ford, Stewart-Haas Racing
- Kevin Harvick, 4, Ford, Stewart-Haas Racing
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Motorsport News:
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