Kevin Harvick took advantage of Martin Truex Jr. and Chase Elliott colliding with 13 laps to go.  He got past both of them and won the Cook Out Southern 500, locking himself into the Round of 12.  That also allowed Harvick to expand his lead to 19 over Denny Hamlin.  Hamlin was one of the strongest drivers Sunday night, but dropped back to a 13th-place finish.  Joey Logano finished third Sunday night and gained one place to put himself third.  Brad Keselowski dropped to fourth after finishing 11th.

Alex Bowman is up three places to fifth after finishing sixth and earning 12 stage points.  Truex dropped to a 22nd-place finish after hitting the wall late.  Luckily, his 20 stage points (by virtue of winning stages one and two) allowed him to hold onto sixth.  Elliott dropped two places to seventh after finishing 20th.  Austin Dillon's second-place finish moved him from a tie for 10th to eighth.

William Byron earned a fifth-place finish.  That allowed him to stay in ninth.  Kyle Busch finished seventh and moved up four places to 10th.  Kurt Busch finished eighth and led laps.  That was enough to move him up to 11th.  Aric Almirola and Clint Bowyer are tied for 12th at the moment.  Since Almirola finished ahead of Bowyer Sunday (ninth to Bowyer's 10th), he wins the tiebreaker and gets the last spot (for now) in the Round of 12.

Cole Custer was nowhere for most of the night, but recovered late to finish 12th.  Despite that, he dropped to four places to 14th.  Matt DiBenedetto and Ryan Blaney are tied for 15th after miserable nights.  DiBenedetto couldn't handle well and ended up 21st.  Blaney had a bad 24th-place finish and a 10-point penalty before the race even started.  Woof.

Outside of the playoffs, Jimmie Johnson ran very well early Sunday, but faded to an 18th-place finish.  He still has a 64-point lead over Erik Jones, who finished a strong fourth Sunday night.  Despite a mediocre 23rd-place finish, Tyler Reddick moved up to 19th in points.  That came at the expense of Christopher Bell, who had mechanical problems and spent 19 laps in the garage.  

Round of 16 Point Standings: 1) Kevin Harvick 2106, 2) Denny Hamlin -19, 3) Joey Logano -46, 4) Brad Keselowski -51, 5) Alex Bowman -54, 6) Martin Truex Jr. -57, 7) Chase Elliott -61, 8) Austin Dillon -63, 9) William Byron -64, 10) Kyle Busch -66, 11) Kurt Busch -69, t-12) Aric Almirola -73, t-12) Clint Bowyer -73, 14) Cole Custer -76, t-15) Matt DiBenedetto -90, t-15) Ryan Blaney -90.
 

Note: Drivers in Bold have locked into the Round of 12.
 

Best of the Rest: 17) Jimmie Johnson 694, 18) Erik Jones -64, 19) Tyler Reddick -101, 20) Christopher Bell -205, 21) Chris Buescher -206, 22) Michael McDowell -221, 23) Bubba Wallace -223, 24) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -242, 25) Ryan Newman -284, 26) John Hunter Nemechek -294.
 

Regular Season Point Standings (1-16): 1) Kevin Harvick 1107, 2) Denny Hamlin -124, 3) Brad Keselowski -168, 4) Martin Truex Jr. -185, 5) Joey Logano -203, 6) Chase Elliott -238, 7) Ryan Blaney -246, 8) Aric Almirola -320, 9) Kyle Busch -346, 10) Kurt Busch -361, 11) Clint Bowyer -367, 12) Alex Bowman -372, 13) William Byron -396, 14) Jimmie Johnson -413, 15) Matt DiBenedetto -425, 16) Erik Jones -477.

Outside the Top 16, but Still In The Playoffs: 17) Austin Dillon -496, 19) Cole Custer -606.

Playoff Points: 1) Kevin Harvick 62, 2) Denny Hamlin -15, 3) Brad Keselowski -33, 4) Joey Logano -40, 5) Chase Elliott -42, 6) Martin Truex Jr. -46, 7) Ryan Blaney -49, 8) Alex Bowman -53, 9) William Byron -55, t-10) Austin Dillon -57, t-10) Cole Custer -57, t-10) Aric Almirola -57, 13) Clint Bowyer -58, 14) Kyle Busch -59, 15) Kurt Busch -61, 16) Matt DiBenedetto -62.

Stage Points: 1) Ryan Blaney 271, 2) Joey Logano -19, 3) Kevin Harvick -22, 4) Martin Truex Jr. -36, 5) Denny Hamlin -57, 6) Chase Elliott -66, 7) Brad Keselowski -83, 8) Alex Bowman -92, 9) Kyle Busch -103, 10) Clint Bowyer -140, 11) Jimmie Johnson -143, 12) Aric Almirola -144, 13) William Byron -146, 14) Matt DiBenedetto -176, 15) Erik Jones -181, 16) Kurt Busch -182.

Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Kevin Harvick 985, 2) Denny Hamlin -91, 3) Brad Keselowski -114, 4) Martin Truex Jr. -175, 5) Aric Almirola -205, t-6) Joey Logano -206, t-6) Chase Elliott -206, 8) Kurt Busch -230, 9) Clint Bowyer -266, 10) Ryan Blaney -275, 11) Kyle Busch -277, 12) Matt DiBenedetto -282, 13) William Byron -290, 14) Alex Bowman -312, 15) Jimmie Johnson -315, 16) Austin Dillon -335.

Outside of the Top 16, But Still In Playoffs: 20) Cole Custer -404.

Race Winners: Denny Hamlin (Daytona-1, Darlington-2, Homestead, Pocono-2, Kansas, Dover-1), Joey Logano (Las Vegas, Phoenix), Alex Bowman (Fontana), Kevin Harvick (Darlington-1, Atlanta, Pocono-1, Indianapolis, Michigan-1, Michigan-2, Dover-2, Darlington-3), Brad Keselowski (Charlotte-1, Bristol, Loudon), Chase Elliott (Charlotte-2, Daytona-2), Martin Truex Jr. (Martinsville), Ryan Blaney (Talladega), Cole Custer (Kentucky), Austin Dillon (Texas), William Byron (Daytona-3)

 
Note: Race wins in Italics do not count towards playoff eligibility.

Austin Cindric was strong early on Saturday in Darlington, but faded to a 12th-place finish.  He finished right behind Chase Briscoe, who spun out of the lead in the final 30 laps and finished 11th.  As a result, Cindric's point loss was minimal.  He still has a 54-point lead over Briscoe.  Ross Chastain was within two laps of victory when contact with Denny Hamlin ended his changes.  A second-place finish allowed him to gain points on the leaders while staying in third.  Noah Gragson finished seventh and stays in fourth.

Harrison Burton is up one place to fifth after staying out of trouble and finishing sixth.  Justin Haley is down one place to sixth after running into the back of another car.  He had to drive his wounded car home in 13th.  Justin Allgaier had a miserable day with multiple tire issues that led to time in the garage.  Allgaier finished 31st, but did not lose a place in the standings.  Brandon Jones moved up to eighth after claiming his third win of the year.

Michael Annett finished a solid eighth, but still dropped one place to ninth.  Riley Herbst quietly finished fourth Saturday to hold onto 10th in points.  Ryan Sieg is still 11th after finishing a strong third despite early damage.  Brandon Brown is still the last driver in the playoffs despite crashing early and finishing 17th.

Despite the crash, Brown gained on his immediate rivals for the final spot.  Jeremy Clements stalled at least twice on Saturday and finished 32nd.  He is now 45 points out of the playoffs.  Myatt Snider finished 10th and is now only six points behind Clements.  Josh Williams finished 15th to hold onto 15th in points, while Jesse Little is still 16th.

Point Standings (1-16): 1) Austin Cindric 1005, 2) Chase Briscoe -54, 3) Ross Chastain -94, 4) Noah Gragson -127, 5) Harrison Burton -216, 6) Justin Haley -224, 7) Justin Allgaier -248, 8) Brandon Jones -299, 9) Michael Annett -307, 10) Riley Herbst -399, 11) Ryan Sieg -438, 12) Brandon Brown -513, 13) Jeremy Clements -558, 14) Myatt Snider -564, 15) Josh Williams -597, 16) Jesse Little -602.

Note No. 1: Drivers in Bold have locked into the playoffs.
Note No. 2: Drivers in italics in the point standing sections are currently outside of the playoffs.

Playoff Points: 1) Chase Briscoe 35, 2) Austin Cindric -1, 3) Noah Gragson -17, 4) Brandon Jones -18, t-5) Justin Haley -22, t-5) Justin Allgaier -22, 7) Harrison Burton -25, 8) AJ Allmendinger -28, 9) Ryan Sieg -33, t-10) Ross Chastain -34, t-10) Jeb Burton -34.

Stage Points: 1) Austin Cindric 314, 2) Ross Chastain -59, 3) Chase Briscoe -68, 4) Noah Gragson -75, 5) Justin Allgaier -77, 6) Brandon Jones -150, 7) Justin Haley -159, 8) Harrison Burton -162, 9) Michael Annett -204, 10) Riley Herbst -219, 11) Daniel Hemric -222, 12) Ryan Sieg -230, 13) Anthony Alfredo -274, t-14) AJ Allmendinger -285, t-14) Brandon Brown -285, t-14) Jeb Burton -285.

Note: If he were eligible for points, Kyle Busch would be 13th in stage points.

Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Chase Briscoe 812, 2) Austin Cindric -12, 3) Ross Chastain -49, 4) Noah Gragson -62, 5) Harrison Burton -78, 6) Justin Haley -94, 7) Michael Annett -129, 8) Brandon Jones -173, 9) Justin Allgaier -184, 10) Riley Herbst -202, 11) Ryan Sieg -230, 12) Brandon Brown -255, 13) Jeremy Clements -280, 14) Myatt Snider -295, 15) Josh Williams -311, 16) Jesse Little -316.

Race Winners: Noah Gragson (Daytona-1, Bristol), Chase Briscoe (Las Vegas, Darlington-1, Homestead-2, Pocono, Indianapolis, Dover-2), Harrison Burton (Fontana, Homestead-1), Brandon Jones (Phoenix, Kansas, Darlington-2), Kyle Busch (Charlotte), AJ Allmendinger (Atlanta), Justin Haley (Talladega, Daytona-3). Austin Cindric (Kentucky-1, Kentucky-2, Texas, Road America, Daytona-2), Justin Allgaier (Dover-1)

Note: Race wins in Italics do not count towards playoff eligibility.

"Anytime you can win the Southern 500 is a good day. This is one of the most prestigious races in our sport and this is one the most prestigious racetracks in our sport, so anytime you can win at Darlington it’s a big deal, but, man, Southern 500!

"We kept having a lot of trouble with the right-rear tire cording. The car was really loose all night long for whatever reason and would cord the right-rear tire, so I think that was probably about as far as they felt like we were comfortable of going and wound up being the right strategy in the end." - Kevin Harvick, race winner

"Man, it would have been nice to get that win and lock ourselves into the next round, but it was a heck of a finish for our entire No. 3 American Ethanol Chevrolet team. I’m proud of our second-place finish, especially after dropping to the rear of the field at the start of the race and recovering from that setback. We battled. We had a really good long run car and Kevin Harvick was getting tighter and tighter. I caught him earlier in the run, but he took my low line in Turns 1 and 2 and that was where I was really good. I’m really happy that we had a great run for Junior Johnson during NASCAR Throwback Weekend. He’s one of my heroes so it was an honor to run a tribute paint scheme to him this weekend. We showed up when it mattered. A lot of people count us out, but I don’t count myself out, or this team. I feel like we’ve brought good race cars all year and have been able to progress throughout races to make good changes. Sometimes things don’t fall our way, but we got that win at Texas and it provided the momentum that we needed. We’re just going to keep doing our thing. Chevy has been awesome, along with Dow, AstraZeneca, Bass Pro Shops, RigUp and everyone else involved with RCR. I can’t thank American Ethanol enough. We’ve been running with E15 and it’s great for our engines. It’s been fun. We just have to keep plugging. Richmond Raceway is next week, and we have a good short track car for them." - Austin Dillon, finished second

"We fought hard. You’ve got to do it for Bobby Allison. You’ve got the coolest paint scheme on the racetrack you’ve got to do the best you can to try to get a victory. Man, hard fought. We kind of were decent, it’s just so hard to pass with these big spoilers on the car at this racetrack. That makes it challenging. We had a right-front go down the last lap of the second stage, hit the wall and we did a good job fixing the car and then strategy worked well, so Paul did great there, and then they had an amazing pit stop the last stop, had a good restart and all of a sudden I was like, ‘Shoot, we could win this thing.’ To see what the left-rear looks like after that I was pretty impressed to get whatever we got. It’s funny how the team always tells you, ‘How does the damage look?’ ‘It looks great. It looks great.’ You get out and you’re like, ‘Whoa!’ Overall, that’s what we needed to do. We need to come out of these playoffs running hard and having a solid top three finish to start the playoffs with a couple stage points is a good way to start." - Joey Logano, finished third

"It was good. It was really tough to pass. Once you got up inside the top-seven or eight, those guys were all pretty equal, and it was hard to make ground from there. We started deep, 30th, today and drove up and finished fourth. We got a couple of extra spots at the end, but this Sport Clips Camry was quick. We just never got up front. We just needed to get up front and get some clean air. That’s what we did last year. I thought we had just as good of a car as what we did last year. 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." - Erik Jones, finished fourth

"Sixth-place isn’t terrible, but man we had a fast Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE tonight in Darlington. We had some issues on pit road that hurt us and we had to recover from that. I really feel like we were a car capable of winning. We just got buried there, but thankfully recovered from it. Sixth-place isn’t the end of the world, but you know you had a fast car when you are bummed about sixth. This car looked amazing tonight and hopefully we can go to Richmond next weekend and do the same thing. It is a good feeling to have a good start to the playoffs." - Alex Bowman, finished sixth

"Traffic was definitely our detriment, there was just nothing I could do to try to find clean air in order to make up any speed back in traffic so I just got mired wherever the heck I was and that was it. Being out front in clean air, I was able to run with Martin [Truex Jr.] and had a fast M&M’s Camry and could really show how fast our car was when we drove away from the field by a couple seconds there until that caution that NASCAR flew that was not a caution." - Kyle Busch, finished seventh

"I’m happy with our run tonight with the Monster Energy Chevy. I know it’s not a win, but we got everything out of the race that we were hoping for; except maybe the alternate strategy that we were trying with one stop in the final stage. I was hopeful for the long run. I like dancing with the Lady!" - Kurt Busch, finished eighth

"It was a persevering night. We didn’t have the night we wanted. We definitely fought hard the whole night just to try to keep ourselves in the game. We had to go to the back with a speeding penalty and just overall fought as hard as we could all night and ended up 12th. Overall, I mean, we wanted to run better, but that’s something that can keep us in the game and keep us in the game for the next two races. Hopefully, we can put together better, but Darlington definitely hasn’t been our team’s strong suit, so it’s just a matter of figuring out what I can do better and what we can get better with the car." - Cole Custer, finished 12th

"[Martin Truex Jr.] had a run on me there, off of [Turn 4] and he just kind of cleared himself into one. He was close, but he wasn’t all the way clear, obviously. I hate it, obviously we had a fast NAPA Camaro – fast enough to contend. We needed a little pace there to extend our lead instead of playing defense, but regardless I thought we were in a good spot. I ran the bottom in three and four to see if there was anything left down there, that’s what kind of gave him the run and then he just slid up into my left front, I felt like and on we went." - Chase Elliott, finished 20th

"It’s Darlington and typically you don’t want to go in side-by-side. I felt like I had enough of a run and enough space there that the last foot or so he (Chase Elliott) was going to understand that if I was committed, we both weren’t going to make it. Typically, here that’s kind of how you race. If a guy gets a run on you and he’s just about got you cleared, you have to give that last little bit. Now obviously, the end of the race, probably the pass for the win, he wanted to drive it on in there and I was committed to being clear and there was no way we were both going to make the corners. Basically, when I made up my mind and I was driving it in there and then he drove in on my right-rear quarter, there was no possible way that we both weren’t crashing. That’s what happened." - Martin Truex Jr., finished 22nd

"That definitely wasn’t the way we wanted to end our night driving Elliott Sadler’s CITGARD throwback scheme. Our No. 38 Ford Mustang fired off pretty tight but then I got looser as the run went on and the sun set. We had some really good pit stops tonight and Seth [Barbour] and the crew made some good adjustments so that we had a good balance by the end of Stage 2. Unfortunately, we had a miscommunication on track early in the Final Stage and that ended our day. I hate it for my guys because they’ve worked so hard all year and they never give up. We’ll reset this week at the shop and get ready for Richmond. Thanks to CITGARD for all of their support and for helping us put together a great car to honor Elliott Sadler." - John Hunter Nemechek, finished 36th (Crashed out)

Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com.