2026 NASCAR Cup Darlington Cook Out Southern 500 Race Results

September 7, 2026

Kevin Peterson

Christopher Bell finally silenced months of heartbreak by claiming victory in Sunday night’s NASCAR Cup Series Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.

Bell powered his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota across the finish line 1.038 seconds clear of his teammate Ty Gibbs to mark his first victory of the season, while Tyler Reddick completed an all-Toyota podium in third for 23XI Racing.

Ryan Blaney finished fourth in the No. 12 Penske Ford with Kyle Larson taking fifth after leading a race-high 99 laps. Chase Briscoe, Josh Berry, Bubba Wallace, Joey Logano and Ryan Preece rounded out the top 10.

The 367-lap marathon under the lights saw 29 lead changes among 12 drivers, six cautions for 44 laps and an average speed of 123.741 mph.

2026 NASCAR Cup Points Standings after Darlington Southern 500

Full 2026 NASCAR Cup Darlington Cook Out Southern 500 Race Results

Pos	No.	Driver	Team	Gap	Laps led	Points
1	20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing		46	73
2	54	Ty Gibbs	Joe Gibbs Racing	+1.038	0	36
3	45	Tyler Reddick	23XI Racing	+2.533	74	46
4	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	+3.367	1	44
5	5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports	+3.932	99	41
6	19	Chase Briscoe	Joe Gibbs Racing	+4.310	30	43
7	21	Josh Berry	Wood Brothers Racing	+5.240	0	34
8	23	Bubba Wallace	23XI Racing	+7.787	38	44
9	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	+8.548	0	28
10	60	Ryan Preece	RFK Racing	+9.201	0	31
11	77	Carson Hocevar	Spire Motorsports	+9.591	2	26
12	48	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	+10.008	0	25
13	2	Austin Cindric	Team Penske	+12.509	0	28
14	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	+13.123	1	23
15	43	Erik Jones	Legacy Motor Club	+13.830	0	22
16	34	Todd Gilliland	Front Row Motorsports	+14.954	5	21
17	71	Michael McDowell	Spire Motorsports	+15.714	0	20
18	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	+15.897	68	35
19	67	Corey Heim (i)	23XI Racing	+16.355	0	0
20	17	Chris Buescher	RFK Racing	+16.714	0	17
21	7	Daniel Suárez	Spire Motorsports	+16.765	2	16
22	16	AJ Allmendinger	Kaulig Racing	+17.502	0	15
23	6	Brad Keselowski	RFK Racing	+18.617	0	14
24	42	John Hunter Nemechek	Legacy Motor Club	+19.017	0	13
25	38	Zane Smith	Front Row Motorsports	+21.305	0	12
26	97	Shane van Gisbergen	Trackhouse Racing	+1 Lap	1	11
27	1	Ross Chastain	Trackhouse Racing	+1 Lap	0	10
28	33	Austin Hill (i)	Richard Childress Racing	+1 Lap	0	0
29	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	+1 Lap	0	8
30	35	Riley Herbst	23XI Racing	+1 Lap	0	7
31	10	Ty Dillon	Kaulig Racing	+1 Lap	0	6
32	4	Noah Gragson	Front Row Motorsports	+1 Lap	0	5
33	41	Cole Custer	Haas Factory Team	+1 Lap	0	4
34	88	Connor Zilisch	Trackhouse Racing	+2 Laps	0	3
35	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	HYAK Motorsports	+4 Laps	0	2
36	51	Cody Ware	Rick Ware Racing	+4 Laps	0	1
37	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	+48 Laps	0	6
38	66	Chad Finchum (i)	Garage 66	+124 Laps	0	0