It's time for 16 drivers to battle for the NASCAR Cup Series championship over a 10-race marathon known as The Chase. Tyler Reddick, who comes into the race third in the championship standings, will start from the pole position after weather forced the cancellation of qualifying on Saturday.This page will be updated with top moments and video highlights from Sunday's crown jewel event as they happen. Check back often to see how your favorite driver is faring in the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.Final Stage UpdatesStage 2 UpdatesStage 1 UpdatesFinal Stage UpdatesLap 367: Christopher Bell has captured the win in the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway! This is Bell's first win of the season, and the 14th win of his 243-race NASCAR Cup Series career.Cook Out Southern 500 Top-10 Finishers:1. 20 - Christopher Bell2. 54 - Ty Gibbs3. 45 - Tyler Reddick4. 12 - Ryan Blaney5. 5 - Kyle Larson6. 19 - Chase Briscoe7. 21 - Josh Berry8. 23 - Bubba Wallace9. 22 - Joey Logano10. 60 - Ryan PreeceLap 359: Ty Gibbs has worked his way into the second position, as he has gotten around Kyle Larson, who has hung on incredibly well on his older tires.Lap 356: Christopher Bell has finally gotten around Kyle Larson for the lead, and now Ty Gibbs is looking to get by for the runner-up spot.Lap 348: Christopher Bell has stalled out behind Kyle Larson, and now he is under pressure from Ty Gibbs and Chase Briscoe for the runner-up spot.Lap 345: Christopher Bell has clawed to second on the fresher tires. Kyle Larson continues to lead, but it seems like a matter of time before Bell claims the lead.Lap 343: The race is back to green. Kyle Larson brings the field to the green flag, here.Lap 340: The majority of the field, led by Chase Briscoe, came to pit road under this caution, but four cars (Kyle Larson, Austin Cindric, Joey Logano, and Ryan Preece) stayed on track. They will lead, while Chase Briscoe, Christopher Bell, Ty Gibbs, Josh Berry, and Tyler Reddick will be the top-five drivers on fresh tires chasing them down.Lap 338: The field is driving back off of pit road, as the race has gone back to the yellow flag. Tyler Reddick couldn't get his car fired initially, but Chase Elliott gave him a push, and he is now rolling. Bubba Wallace, likewise, was unable to get his car started, but Ryan Blaney was able to give him a push to get him going.Lap 337: The cars have been pulled down pit road in formation behind the pace car. The race will go under the red flag with 30 laps remaining, as the safety trucks look over the track.Lap 335 -- Caution No. 6: The caution is back out with 32 laps to go, and it is for rain. It's not a heavy rain, but it is raining enough to call the caution. Chase Briscoe leads over Christopher Bell, Ty Gibbs, and Kyle Larson.Denny Hamlin will get a chance to change his older tires into newer ones, as his wave around move has paid off. He's in 23rd and on the lead lap.Lap 332: Chase Briscoe has taken the lead from Christopher Bell after slight contact, and he is setting his sights on a third consecutive Southern 500 win! What a battle for the lead between the Joe Gibbs Racing teammates on that restart.Lap 329: The race is back to green, Christopher Bell leads the field to the stripe, but Chase Briscoe is battling side-by-side with him for the lead.Lap 322: A light rain has now started to fall, and it is TBD when the race will go back to green. Cars are still cycling the track under caution with 45 laps to go.Lap 320: Denny Hamlin is back on the lead lap after taking the wave around on this caution. He is on older tires, but if he can get another quick caution, he can get to pit road and get fresh tires and be back in the game. He runs 22nd.Lap 320: William Byron's engine has expired under caution. Rough luck added on top of the spin, which brought out the caution, we're currently under. This will cause NASCAR to check over the track before going back to green.Lap 317: Christopher Bell wins the race off pit road, while Kyle Larson, who had been leading, lost two spots and will restart third.Top-10 coming off pit road: 1. Christopher Bell, 2. Chase Briscoe, 3. Kyle Larson, 4. Tyler Reddick, 5. Ty Gibbs, 6. Josh Berry, 7. Austin Cindric, 8. Bubba Wallace, 9. Chase Elliott, 10. Carson HocevarLap 315 -- Caution No. 5: William Byron, while running ninth, went for a spin on track. He told his team he thought he had a tire flat, but his tires look inflated. Strange incident, but the caution is back out.Byron spins, but he keeps it out of the wall! pic.twitter.com/skAe6uHZdY— NASCAR (@NASCAR) September 7, 2026Lap 313: Christopher Bell is now just 0.856 seconds behind Larson. Ty Gibbs has worked past Josh Berry for the fifth position.Lap 310: Christopher Bell has started to slightly reel Kyle Larson in for the lead. Larson is now ahead by just 1.319 seconds.Lap 304: Chase Briscoe, the highest-running driver on the fresher tires, just went past Josh Berry, and now sits 4th. Briscoe is just under 4 seconds behind Kyle Larson, the race leader.Lap 299: Christopher Bell gets around Tyler Reddick, who scraped the wall, for the second position. Kyle Larson leads by nearly 1.8 seconds.Lap 293: Ty Gibbs has climbed to 5th from restarting in 10th after pitting under the last caution. He has the freshest tires of anyone inside the top-five.Lap 290: Kyle Larson had a phenomenal restart, and already holds nearly a half-second lead over Tyler Reddick, who got around Josh Berry for the second position.Lap 289: The race is back to green, and Kyle Larson leads Josh Berry and the rest of the field into Turn 1.Lap 287: Denny Hamlin's No. 11 team is working on his car and discovered the toe links weren't bent. The team did make repairs in an effort to fix their toe, though. It looks like they have completed their work in time for Hamlin to remain just one lap down.Lap 286: We have a shift in strategies now, as the top-8 drivers stayed on pit road during this caution (Kyle Larson, Tyler Reddick, Josh Berry, Christopher Bell, Ryan Blaney, Austin Cindric, Carson Hocevar, and Chase Elliott).Todd Gilliland (9th) is the highest-running driver that went to pit road under this caution, while he was followed off pit road by Ty Gibbs, Chase Briscoe, William Byron, Joey Logano, and Bubba Wallace. All of these drivers took four fresh tires.This should be an interesting finish to this race after that unexpected caution.Lap 282 -- Caution No. 4: As Carson Hocevar relinquished the lead to come to pit road, Zane Smith went for a spin on the frontstretch. Michael McDowell, again, made the contact, which caused the spin. This will bring out the caution and will likely impact the running order of the race. Todd Gilliland, Smith's teammate, currently leads, as he had yet to come to pit road.— NASCAR on USA (@NASCARonUSA) September 6, 2026Lap 280 -- Lead Change No. 19: Kyle Larson has come to pit road, which hands the race lead to Carson Hocevar, who has yet to pit.Lap 277: Green flag pit stops have begun. Denny Hamlin is among the drivers hitting pit road, as does Chase Briscoe. Kyle Larson remains on the race track.Lap 266: Denny Hamlin, who was involved in that incident with Michael McDowell on Lap 241, has now gone a lap down. His team has a plan in place to potentially fix his bent toe links, but the driver will likely lose a lot of laps, if a caution doesn't come out first.Lap 262: Kyle Larson has extended his lead over Bubba Wallace to nearly 4 seconds. He is up 3.882 seconds.Lap 252: Kyle Larson, who struggled mightily in Stage 1, has come to life with the clean air out front. Larson now holds a 2.588 second lead over Bubba Wallace.Lap 245: Hamlin has remained on track, but he has fallen to 20th, the final car on the lead lap, and he is turning severely slow laps with the damage to his toe links. Hamlin entered the night as the No. 1 seed in the Chase, that will likely take a hit tonight.Lap 241: Denny Hamlin has gone into the outside wall, and it looks like he may have a tire going down. Contact from Michael McDowell sent Hamlin into the wall to trigger the damage.— NASCAR on USA (@NASCARonUSA) September 6, 2026Lap 237: The race is back to the green flag, and Kyle Larson leads the field into Turn 1.Lap 233: Kyle Larson wins the race off pit road. While Larson's crew got the job done, Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin had slow stops, and will drop in the running order.Top-10 coming off pit road: 1. Kyle Larson, 2. Bubba Wallace, 3. Ryan Blaney, 4. William Byron, 5. Tyler Reddick, 6. Austin Cindric, 7. Ty Gibbs, 8. Josh Berry, 9. Chase Elliott, and 10. Joey Logano.Christopher Bell will restart 12th, while Denny Hamlin is 17th.Lap 232: Chase Briscoe, who was running out of fuel, had to pit a lap before the rest of the field under this caution. This will cause him to go to the rear of the lead lap to kick off the final Stage of the Southern 500.Stage 2 UpdatesLap 230: Christopher Bell takes the Stage 2 win with ease.Stage 2 results:1. Christopher Bell, 10 points2. Kyle Larson, 93. Denny Hamlin, 84. Chase Briscoe, 75. Bubba Wallace, 66. Ryan Blaney, 57. Josh Berry, 48. William Byron, 39. Tyler Reddick, 210. Austin Cindric, 1Todd Gilliland was able to keep from going a lap down, which is huge news for Chase contender Ryan Preece, who was the first driver a lap down at the time of caution. Preece (20th) will get his lap back under this caution.Daniel Suarez (21st) and Chris Buescher (30th) are the two Chase contenders, who will begin the final Stage of the race a lap down.Lap 225: Kyle Larson has moved into second place, as he has gotten around Chase Briscoe. Christopher Bell is in a zipcode by himself, and should easily cruise to the Stage 2 win.Lap 222: Kyle Larson moves into third with a pass on Bubba Wallace. Larson has now set his sights on Chase Briscoe for the runner-up spot. Christopher Bell has pulled out to a lead of more than three seconds.Lap 216 -- Lead Change No. 17: Christopher Bell was able to blow past Chase Briscoe, who is in fuel conservation mode, like he was standing still. Bell now leads as Stage 2 is drawing to a close.Lap 215: Kyle Larson has gotten past Denny Hamlin for the fourth position. 15 laps to go in Stage 2. Chase Briscoe leads Christopher Bell by roughly half a second.Lap 208: Chase Briscoe, the race leader, has been told by his team that they didn't get all of the fuel in on the last pit stop, so they will need him to do some fuel saving for them to have their strategy work out. Christopher Bell has moved into second, as he has passed Bubba Wallace with his fresher tires.Lap 206: Christopher Bell, in 3rd, Denny Hamlin, in 5th, and Kyle Larson, in 7th, have fresher tires by a few laps than the rest of the leaders. They will look to steal some Stage points over the final laps of Stage 2.Lap 199: Chase Briscoe has asserted his dominance as we close in on the end of Stage 2. Briscoe now holds a 1.844 second lead over Bubba Wallace. Christopher Bell, Ryan Blaney, and Denny Hamlin are the rest of the top-five, currently.Lap 194 -- Lead Change No. 16: As Kyle Larson comes to pit road, Chase Briscoe has gotten around Bubba Wallace on track, and he will take over as the leader of this race. Briscoe is looking for his third consecutive Southern 500 win.Lap 191 -- Lead Change No. 15: Christopher Bell heads to pit road, which gives the lead of the race to Kyle Larson, who has yet to pit.Lap 188 -- Lead Change No. 14: Tyler Reddick comes to pit road, and disaster on his pit stop, as he has to back up as the team didn't get a wheel tight. That will cost him a lot. Christopher Bell takes the lead.— NASCAR (@NASCAR) September 6, 2026Lap 187 -- Lead Change No. 13: Bubba Wallace comes to pit road, and is able to beat his teammate Tyler Reddick onto pit road. Reddick will have to make another lap before pitting.Lap 178: Bubba Wallace was able to stave off the challenge from Tyler Reddick, and now holds a 0.752 second lead over his teammate.Lap 176: Joey Logano is reporting to his No. 22 team that his engine is skipping, and that it is worst in Turn 4. Logano is currently running 12th.Lap 171: Tyler Reddick has now caught Bubba Wallace for the race lead, and is starting to apply some pressure to his 23XI Racing teammate for the top spot in the race.Lap 168: Race leader Bubba Wallace has put Chris Buescher, who got into the outside wall pretty hard before the last round of pit stops, a lap down. Buescher joins Daniel Suarez as the only Chase contenders a lap down at this point in the race.Lap 166: Bubba Wallace continues to lead Tyler Reddick, and the lead has stayed right around four tenths of a second. Josh Berry just took the seventh position from William Byron. Berry is looking for his sixth consecutive top-10 finish this weekend.Lap 162: Denny Hamlin has made a move to get around Austin Cindric for the seventh position.Lap 155 -- Lead Change No. 12: Bubba Wallace was able to work ahead of Tyler Reddick by pitting one lap before him. Wallace has now assumed the lead with Kyle Larson relinquishing the lead to come to pit road.Lap 151 -- Lead Change No. 10: Ryan Blaney takes the lead as Tyler Reddick heads to pit road. A lap later, we have Lead Change No. 11, as Kyle Larson takes the lead with Blaney heading to pit road.Lap 148: Green flag pit stops have kicked off again on Lap 148, as William Byron and others have come to pit road. Tyler Reddick continues to lead the race over Bubba Wallace, Ryan Blaney, and Denny Hamlin.Lap 145: Brad Keselowski has gone for a spin attempting to come to pit road on Lap 145.That was a bit uncharacteristic from Keselowski. #Southern500 | #NASCAR🟩 pic.twitter.com/0ic078mzJe— JJ (@TomcatNASCAR_2) September 6, 2026Lap 128: Hendrick Motorsports is starting to look a little better at Lap 128. After struggling mightily in Stage 1, the team now has William Byron, Chase Elliott, and Kyle Larson sitting 7th, 8th, and 9th. Alex Bowman, the fourth HMS driver, sits 17th, currently.Lap 114: Back to green, and it looked like Denny Hamlin spun his tires alongside Tyler Reddick on the restart. Reddick leads over Bubba Wallace, as Hamlin fades to a battle for third with Ryan Blaney.Lap 113: Ryan Preece has dropped to 28th after he had to make a second pit stop to tighten a loose wheel. Tough break for the Chase contender, who scored points in Stage 1.Lap 110: Tyler Reddick wins the race off pit road.Top-10 coming off of pit road going into Stage 2:1. Reddick, 2. Bubba Wallace, 3. Denny Hamlin, 4. Christopher Bell, 5. Ryan Blaney, 6. Chase Briscoe, 7. Ryan Preece, 8. Austin Cindric, 9. William Byron, 10. Chase ElliottStage 1 UpdatesLap 107 -- Caution No. 2: Brad Keselowski has gone around after contact initiated by Carson Hocevar to bring out the caution. With less than 10 laps remaining in Stage 1, this will serve as the official end of Stage 1.The No. 6 spins after making contact with @CarsonHocevar. pic.twitter.com/7A4ikgHUZK— NASCAR (@NASCAR) September 6, 2026Stage 1 Results:1. Tyler Reddick, 10 points2. Bubba Wallace, 9 points3. Denny Hamlin, 8 points4. Christopher Bell, 7 points5. Ryan Blaney, 6 points6. Chase Briscoe, 5 points7. Ryan Preece, 4 points8. Austin Cindric, 3 points9. William Byron, 2 points10. Ty Gibbs, 1 pointLap 106: Bubba Wallace has now moved around Denny Hamlin for the runner-up spot, but he sits 2.130 seconds behind Reddick for the race lead. It's going to take a big time effort to catch Reddick for the Stage win. Can he do it?Lap 100: Bubba Wallace takes over the third position from Christopher Bell. He now sits 1.898 seconds behind race leader Tyler Reddick. Denny Hamlin is 1.344 seconds behind Reddick in second.Lap 98: Bubba Wallace, who came to pit road after the other leaders, is making moves on his slightly fresher tires. Wallace has just gotten around Chase Briscoe for fourth, and he is pressuring Christopher Bell for third. Wallace has 18 laps left to try to chase the Stage win.Lap 94 -- Lead Change No. 9: Long run Tyler Reddick stirkes again, as he has gone around Denny Hamlin for the race lead.Lap 88: Tyler Reddick continues to reel in Denny Hamlin for the race lead, the deficit is now 0.255 seconds. Meanwhile, he's gained breathing room to Christopher Bell, who is now trying to hold off Chase Briscoe for the third position.Lap 83: As Tyler Reddick has cut about three tenths of a second off of Denny Hamlin's lead, he is now under fire from Christopher Bell, who is looking to take over the second position.Lap 81: After the green flag pit stops, the top-11 are now all Chase contenders. The Chase drivers outside of the top-11 are: Chris Buescher (16th), Chase Elliott (17th), Kyle Larson (22nd), Carson Hocevar (23rd), and Daniel Suarez (28th).Lap 79 -- Lead Change No. 8: As Carson Hocevar and Daniel Suarez finally come to pit road to end the green flag pit sequence, Denny Hamlin has once again regained the lead of this race. Tyler Reddick sits 1.3 seconds behind in second. Christopher Bell, Chase Briscoe, and Ryan Blaney make up the rest of the top-five.Lap 78 -- Lead Change No. 7: Carson Hocevar has taken over the lead as Chase Elliott has gone to pit road.Lap 77 -- Lead Change No. 6: Bubba Wallace comes to pit road, and nearly misses pit entry in the process. This hands the lead of the race to Chase Elliott. Carson Hocevar, and Kyle Larson are second and third.Lap 74: Erik Jones had some hiccups on his pit stop, and will likely loose quite a bit of track position once this green flag pit sequence cycles out. Bubba Wallace remains on track, and continues to lead this race.Lap 72 -- Lead Change No. 5: Bubba Wallace has assumed the lead as Denny Hamlin and Tyler Reddick are among the next group of cars to go to pit road on Lap 72.Lap 71: Green flag pit stops have begun, as Christopher Bell leads the charge down pit road on Lap 71.Lap 67: Denny Hamlin continues to lead Tyler Reddick. The lead is at 0.639 seconds as a green flag pit cycle is swiftly approaching. Chase Briscoe, Christopher Bell, Ryan Preece, Bubba Wallace, Ryan Blaney, Austin Cindric, Brad Keselowski, and William Byron round out the top-10 drivers on Lap 67.Lap 63: Erik Jones, a two-time Darlington Southern 500 race winner, has clawed his way from 36th to 14th through the opening 63 laps.Lap 46: All 16 Chase drivers are inside the top-24, but Kyle Larson continues to underwhelm in this race. Larson started 25th, and has only been able to get himself up to 24th.Lap 45 -- Lead Change No. 4: Denny Hamlin has gotten back around Tyler Reddick for the race lead. It'll be interesting to see if his No. 11 car is any better on the long run this time around.Lap 44: Chase Briscoe has moved around Ryan Preece and now runs third behind Tyler Reddick and Denny Hamlin. The top-seven spots are all Chase drivers, currently.Lap 43: Chase Briscoe is starting to move forward. He is up to fourth, behind Reddick, Hamlin and Ryan Preece. Briscoe is going for his third consecutive win in the Cook Out Southern 500.Lap 40: The green flag is back out, and Tyler Reddick leads the field to the green. Reddick is able to pull out front ahead of Denny Hamlin, who started to his inside.Lap 37: Tyler Reddick wins the race off of pit road, ahead of Denny Hamlin.Top 10 coming off pit road: 1. Reddick, 2. Hamlin, 3. Ryan Preece, 4. Chase Briscoe (up 3 spots), 5. Austin Cindric (down 1 spot), 6. Christopher Bell (down 1 spot), 7. Bubba Wallace (up 4 spots), 8. Brad Keselowski (up 1 spot), 9. Michael McDowell (down 3 spots), 10. Alex BowmanJoey Logano dropped several spots from inside the top-10 to 19th.Lap 35 -- Caution No. 1: NASCAR has thrown the competition caution on Lap 35. This caution gives teams, which had no practice or qualifying this weekend, a chance to tune on their cars before continuing the race.Lap 34: Tyler Reddick is starting to stretch his lead out on Denny Hamlin on older tires. Kind of shocking, as Hamlin is typically one of the best at getting speed late in a run in the NASCAR Cup Series. But Reddick leads by 0.6 seconds.Lap 29 -- Lead Change No. 3: Tyler Reddick, who had been chasing down Denny Hamlin, has regained the lead of the race. Reddick, while he started the race on the pole, leads his first lap of the race on Lap 29.Lap 25: Tyler Reddick is closing the gap on Denny Hamlin for the lead. The lead is now down to 0.260 seconds.Lap 20: There are eight Chase drivers inside the top-10 at this point in the race. Denny Hamlin, Tyler Reddick, Ryan Preece, Austin Cindric, Christopher Bell, Daniel Suarez, Chase Briscoe, and Joey Logano are the Chasers inside the top-10. The two non-Chasers inside the top-10, currently, include Michael McDowell (6th) and Alex Bowman (9th).Lap 19: After a heated battle with Ty Gibbs, Carson Hocevar has moved into the 21st position. Hocevar is on the move early in this race, as he started 34th. Denny Hamlin continues to lead by roughly 0.700 seconds over Tyler Reddick.Lap 14: Kyle Larson started 25th, and through the opening few laps of this race, he has yet to make any headway toward the front. Larson still sits mired in 25th, and the only Chase contender behind him in the running order is Chris Buescher, who sits 29th.Lap 9: Bubba Wallace and Austin Dillon made contact in a battle for the 13th position. Wallace, a Chase contender, takes the spot.Lap 5: Tyler Reddick has recovered a few laps into the race, and has now taken the runner-up spot from Daniel Suarez. Denny Hamlin leads by just over a second over Reddick. Ryan Preece, who started third, still runs fourth. Preece, who locked into the Chase with the Daytona win last weekend, has never finished top-10 at Darlington. He's looking good early.Lap 3 -- Lead Change No. 2: Denny Hamlin has made quick work of Daniel Suarez, and the five-time winner at Darlington Raceway has now taken control of this race on the third lap.Lap 1 -- Lead Change No. 1: Daniel Suarez was able to pull ahead of Tyler Reddick for the lead on the opening lap. Reddick, who was in the outside lane, has actually fallen to third. Denny Hamlin moved into the runner-up spot as Suarez led the opening lap of the race.5:02 PM ET: After several pace laps, the pace car has peeled off of the racing surface, and Tyler Reddick is leading the field to the finish line to collect the green flag to start the Cook Out Southern 500. Reddick is side-by-side with Daniel Suarez, who finished second last weekend at Daytona, for the race lead.— NASCAR on USA (@NASCARonUSA) September 6, 20264:50 PM ET: After a command from Roo Reaves, the engines have been fired for the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, the race that will kick off the 10-race Chase for the NASCAR Cup Series championship.Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow