DARLINGTON, S.C. — Denny Hamlin held off Kyle Larson after their automobiles hit nostril to tail racing to the end line Sunday evening within the Southern 500 to open the NASCAR Cup Sequence playoffs.

Hamlin gained for the primary time this season after coming into the week seeded seventh within the 16-driver postseason area and vowing if he saved operating strongly up entrance, he’d attain Victory Lane earlier than the yr ended.

“It is pretty much as good a time as any proper?” Hamlin mentioned in victory lane. My favourite race of the yr.”

He seemed like a cushty winner earlier than the top-seeded Larson charged up on his again bumper on the ultimate flip, smoke pouring out of Larson’s automotive. However Hamlin held agency up close to the wall to take the checkered flag.

“He was going to need to undergo me,” Hamlin mentioned.

Hamlin got here out second to Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Martin Truex Jr. throughout a warning with 45 laps to go, and moved in entrance when Truex was penalized for going too quick within the pits.

Hamlin broke out forward of Larson on the restart 36 laps from the tip.

The win was Hamlin’s fourth at Darlington Raceway and moved him into the spherical of 12 within the knockout format in a grueling race the place a number of playoff contenders struggled on the monitor “Too Powerful To Tame.”

The previous two collection champions, Kyle Busch in 2019 and Chase Elliott final yr, had been within the storage earlier than the race ended. Busch slammed the wall — to the delight of huge crowd again at Darlington — and drove straight to his hauler.

Elliott was caught in a three-wide sandwich the place he was subsequent to the wall. He got here away with tire and brake issues.

Larson was second for the third straight time racing at Darlington.

Ross Chastain completed third, the one non-playoff driver among the many prime eight.

Truex was fourth, adopted by Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch, Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano, Chris Buescher and Austin Dillon.

Because the playoffs transfer forward, there have been loads of drivers with excessive hopes left Darlington with issues, together with two-time collection champion Busch. Quickly after the beginning of stage two, the fourth-seeded Busch was racing shut with Austin Dillon when he hit the skin wall in flip two, slid into the within wall and drove straight to storage. Busch even plowed via some security cones as he left the monitor.

Busch blamed his Toyota Camry, dropping a few expletives concerning the dangerous run. “We had been operating horrible and we bought wrecked,” mentioned Busch, who completed thirty fifth.

Earlier, Daytona 500 winner Mike McDowell hit the wall on the backstretch on lap 30 and was achieved for the day. McDowell got here in seeded thirteenth and completed lifeless final in thirty seventh.

William Byron, the eighth seed, could not keep away from Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alex Bowman early on after the No. 48 hit the wall. On the 199th lap, Byron slammed laborious into the wall coming into flip one and ended his run. Byron was thirty fourth.

And defending champion Elliott noticed his race finish when he hit the wall on a three-wide run and left with a flat tire and brake issues 42 laps from the tip. Elliott was thirty first.

The NASCAR Cup collection playoffs proceed at Richmond, Virginia, on Saturday.