2016 Bojangles' Southern 500

The preliminary entry list for the race included 40 cars and was released on August 27, 2016, at 1:52 p.m. Eastern time.

No.	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Throwback
1	Jamie McMurray	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	Bill Elliott's No. 94 Mac Tonight paint scheme from 1997[12]
2	Brad Keselowski	Team Penske	Ford	1972 Miller Lite design[13]
3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	Ricky Rudd's 1983 car when he won RCR's first Cup race[13]
4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart–Haas Racing	Chevrolet	Cale Yarborough's 1979 Daytona 500 car[13]
5	Kasey Kahne	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	Terry Labonte's 1982 car[14]
6	Trevor Bayne	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford	Mark Martin's 1996–1997 car[13]
7	Regan Smith	Tommy Baldwin Racing	Chevrolet	Alan Kulwicki's 1992 car[13]
10	Danica Patrick	Stewart–Haas Racing	Chevrolet	Retro-inspired Nature's Bakery car[13]
11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	Darrell Waltrip-inspired car[15]
13	Casey Mears	Germain Racing	Chevrolet	Smokey Yunick's car that was driven by Mario Andretti and Curtis Turner in 1966 and 1967[13]
14	Tony Stewart	Stewart–Haas Racing	Chevrolet	Bobby Allison's Coca-Cola car in 1971 and 1972[13]
15	Clint Bowyer	HScott Motorsports	Chevrolet	Benny Parsons' 1973 championship-winning car[16]
16	Greg Biffle	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford	Alan Kulwicki's 1992 Hooters car[17]
17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford	Darrell Waltrip's car when he won his first Cup race in 1975[13]
18	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	Dale Jarrett's 1993 car[13]
19	Carl Edwards	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	Tony Stewart's 1999 car when he drove for JGR[13]
20	Matt Kenseth	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	Tide-sponsored car, inspired by Darrell Waltrip's 1989 Daytona 500 and Ricky Craven's 2003 Carolina Dodge Dealers 400-winning cars[18]
21	Ryan Blaney (R)	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	David Pearson's 1976 car[13]
22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	Bobby Labonte's 1998 Busch Series car, the first time Shell had sponsored a car[13]
23	David Ragan	BK Racing	Toyota	Dr Pepper car with its "I'm a Pepper" slogan[13]
24	Chase Elliott (R)	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	NAPA Auto Parts delivery trucks in the 1960s[13]
27	Paul Menard	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	The original paint scheme for Al Unser Jr.'s car at the 1993 Daytona 500 before crashing in his qualifying race[13]
30	Josh Wise	The Motorsports Group	Chevrolet	Dale Earnhardt's No. 30 Army car from 1976[19]
31	Ryan Newman	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	Ricky Rudd's 1983 car when he won RCR's first Cup race[13]
32	Jeffrey Earnhardt (R)	Go FAS Racing	Ford	Dale Earnhardt's Wrangler car from the 1980s[13]
34	Chris Buescher (R)	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	Inspired by the first Love's Travel Stop opened in 1981[20]
38	Landon Cassill	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	J. D. McDuffie-inspired car[21]
41	Kurt Busch	Stewart–Haas Racing	Chevrolet	The VF-1, Haas Automation's first CNC machine[13]
42	Kyle Larson	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	Eddie Cheever's 1990 IndyCar scheme, the first motorsports sponsorship for Target Corporation[22]
43	Aric Almirola	Richard Petty Motorsports	Ford	Richard Petty's 1979 Daytona 500-winning car[13]
44	Brian Scott (R)	Richard Petty Motorsports	Ford	N/A
46	Michael Annett	HScott Motorsports	Chevrolet	Current paint scheme with 1970s Pilot Flying J logos[23]
47	A. J. Allmendinger	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	Bruce Hill's 1977 car[13]
48	Jimmie Johnson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	Dale Earnhardt's 1979 car driven by David Pearson as a substitute driver[24]
55	Reed Sorenson	Premium Motorsports	Chevrolet	N/A
78	Martin Truex Jr.	Furniture Row Racing	Toyota	Auto-Owners Insurance 100th anniversary scheme[25]
83	Matt DiBenedetto	BK Racing	Toyota	1970s Orange Crush design[13]
88	Jeff Gordon	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	Buddy Baker's "Gray Ghost" car from 1979 and 1980[13]
95	Michael McDowell	Circle Sport – Leavine Family Racing	Chevrolet	Richard Childress' 1970s car[13]
98	Cole Whitt	Premium Motorsports	Chevrolet	LeeRoy Yarbrough's 1969 Daytona 500 and Southern 500 winning car
Official entry list

NASCAR cancelled all Friday activities and rescheduled both practice sessions in place of qualifying for Saturday due to rain from Hurricane Hermine.^[26] Kevin Harvick was awarded the pole position as a result.^[27]

Pos	No.	Driver	Team	Manufacturer
1	4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart–Haas Racing	Chevrolet
2	2	Brad Keselowski	Team Penske	Ford
3	19	Carl Edwards	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota
4	41	Kurt Busch	Stewart–Haas Racing	Chevrolet
5	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford
6	18	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota
7	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota
8	78	Martin Truex Jr.	Furniture Row Racing	Toyota
9	48	Jimmie Johnson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet
10	20	Matt Kenseth	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota
11	24	Chase Elliott (R)	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet
12	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet
13	1	Jamie McMurray	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet
14	31	Ryan Newman	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet
15	88	Jeff Gordon	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet
16	42	Kyle Larson	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet
17	14	Tony Stewart	Stewart–Haas Racing	Chevrolet
18	5	Kasey Kahne	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet
19	6	Trevor Bayne	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford
20	21	Ryan Blaney (R)	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford
21	47	A. J. Allmendinger	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet
22	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford
23	16	Greg Biffle	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford
24	27	Paul Menard	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet
25	10	Danica Patrick	Stewart–Haas Racing	Chevrolet
26	43	Aric Almirola	Richard Petty Motorsports	Ford
27	15	Clint Bowyer	HScott Motorsports	Chevrolet
28	13	Casey Mears	Germain Racing	Chevrolet
29	38	Landon Cassill	Front Row Motorsports	Ford
30	95	Michael McDowell	Circle Sport – Leavine Family Racing	Chevrolet
31	34	Chris Buescher (R)	Front Row Motorsports	Ford
32	23	David Ragan	BK Racing	Toyota
33	7	Regan Smith	Tommy Baldwin Racing	Chevrolet
34	44	Brian Scott (R)	Richard Petty Motorsports	Ford
35	83	Matt DiBenedetto	BK Racing	Toyota
36	98	Cole Whitt	Premium Motorsports	Chevrolet
37	46	Michael Annett	HScott Motorsports	Chevrolet
38	32	Jeffrey Earnhardt (R)	Go FAS Racing	Ford
39	55	Reed Sorenson	Premium Motorsports	Chevrolet
40	30	Josh Wise	The Motorsports Group	Chevrolet
Official starting lineup

Jimmie Johnson was the fastest in the first practice session with a time of 27.937 and a speed of 176.025 mph (283.285 km/h).^[28]

Pos	No.	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Time	Speed
1	48	Jimmie Johnson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	27.937	176.025
2	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	28.091	175.060
3	21	Ryan Blaney (R)	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	28.147	174.711
Official first practice results

Brad Keselowski was the fastest in the final practice session with a time of 28.157 and a speed of 174.649 mph (281.070 km/h).^[29]

Pos	No.	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Time	Speed
1	2	Brad Keselowski	Team Penske	Chevrolet	28.157	174.649
2	41	Kurt Busch	Stewart–Haas Racing	Chevrolet	28.257	174.031
3	48	Jimmie Johnson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	28.259	174.019
Official final practice results

Summarize Fact Check

Under mostly sunny South Carolina skies, Kevin Harvick led the field to the green flag at 6:26 p.m. Not much happened during this first run of the race outside of Clint Bowyer making an unscheduled stop for a flat tire on lap 23. Kyle Larson started a cycle of green flag stops on lap 47. Harvick retained the lead through the pit cycle. Austin Dillon and Michael McDowell were black-flagged for speeding and forced to serve a pass through penalty.

It was the same routine the next run of riding around the track until the second round of stops on lap 92. This time, Brad Keselowski assumed the lead when Harvick pitted. Trevor Bayne spun out at the entrance of pit road and brought out the first caution of the race on lap 96.^[30] This trapped all but Keselowski, Chase Elliott and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. a lap or more down. Everyone opted to take the wave-around when the top-three pitted.

The race restarted on lap 103. Jimmie Johnson, who was black-flagged before the caution flew for "illegal body modification," was forced to serve a pass through penalty. The second caution of the race flew on lap 114 after Brian Scott got loose exiting turn 2 and spun out.

The race restarted on lap 118. Keselowski drove away from the field for a time, but was chased down by Harvick who passed him in turn 2 to retake the lead on lap 141. A number of cars started pitting on lap 162. Harvick was among them and Keselowski assumed the lead. He pitted the next lap and the lead cycled back to Harvick.

The third caution of the race flew on lap 204 for a single-car wreck on the backstretch. Exiting turn 2, Tony Stewart got alongside Scott and his car got loose. After he recovered his car, he veered back to the right, hooked Scott and sent him into the inside wall.^[31] "We were just in a bad situation ... I was trying to let Tony go," Scott said. "Apparently he got mad at me. I have a lot of respect for Tony. He's always raced me really clean. I am not sure what he thought was going on there. I am not sure if he thought I was trying to hold him up there, I wasn’t. I was trying to let him go. I even pointed him to the inside. Maybe he thought I was giving him the finger or something. I will talk with him. We will figure it out.”^[32] Stewart was called to the NASCAR hauler after the race for the incident.^[33] He denied intentionally wrecking him, saying afterwards that he was "on old tires and sliding around. I got underneath him in [Turn] 2 and for some reason, he ran us through there [beside us] and I got really loose, and I was still getting it gathered up and got him in the left rear and wrecked him."^[34]

The race restarted on lap 211. The fourth caution of the race flew on lap 213 after Johnson got loose exiting turn 4, spun down the track and hit the inside wall on the frontstretch.

The race restarted on lap 218. The fifth caution of the race flew on lap 249 after Jeffrey Earnhardt slammed the wall in turn 4. Denny Hamlin exited pit road with the race lead.

The race restarted on lap 255. The sixth caution of the race flew on lap 260 for Greg Biffle hitting the wall in turn 4. Matt Kenseth opted not to pit under the caution and assumed the race lead.

The race restarted on lap 265. Harvick drove by Kenseth to retake the lead with 94 laps to go. The seventh caution of the race flew with 87 laps to go for a two-car wreck in turn 2 involving A. J. Allmendinger and Ryan Blaney. Hamlin exited pit road with the race lead.

The race restarted with 83 laps to go. Larson got a great restart and took the lead from Hamlin with 82 laps to go. Oil left on the track that came from the expired engine of Stewart's No. 14 car brought out the eighth caution of the race with 48 laps to go.^[35]

The race restarted with 45 laps to go. The ninth caution of the race flew with 39 laps to go for a two-car wreck on the backstretch. Rounding turn 2, Paul Menard suffered a left-rear tire blowout, got loose, clipped Kurt Busch and sent him backwards into the wall. He continued down the track hitting the inside wall head on.^[36] Ryan Newman opted not to pit and assumed the lead along with Brad Keselowski who also stayed out.

The race restarted with 34 laps to go. Martin Truex Jr. passed Newman for the lead with 27 laps to go. Harvick reeled him in to take the lead just as the 10th caution of the race flew for a two-car wreck in turn 2 involving Aric Almirola and Bowyer. Truex exited pit road with the race lead.

The race restarted with 12 laps to go. Truex drove on to score the victory.^[37]

Summarize Fact Check

Truex said in victory lane that the win was "just – this is unbelievable. So many people to thank obviously. I’ve always loved this race track. I’ve led a lot of laps here in my career. I feel like just something always happened and just so proud to get to victory lane with this group. The pit crew was flawless tonight. They won us the race. They took a lot of heat from last week with what happened. I'm glad he's (Ryan Newman) not riding home with me – he'd be waiting a while. But just a big weekend for us to – we’ve had a terrible string of back luck. We’ve had super-fast race cars. Auto-Owners Insurance, this is their second race with us and one more with us this year and really excited for them. They went a little retro. I’ve got my zoot suit. This is something here that's really special to us – I ran this wheel today and it's real special to take that thing to victory lane. We do a lot with our foundation for ovarian and pediatric cancer. It's awareness month for both of those diseases, so big day for us there, but just can't say enough about this team and Barney Visser (team owner) and Toyota and TRD (Toyota Racing Development) – the engines have been unbelievable this year – and Bass Pro Shops and Furniture Row, Denver Mattress and everybody that's made this possible. Cole Pearn (crew chief) and these guys are just amazing. I knew when the bad luck would stop coming we'd start racking them off. We do a lot with our foundation for ovarian and pediatric cancer. It's awareness month for both of those diseases, so big day for us there, but just can't say enough about this team and Barney Visser (team owner) and Toyota and TRD (Toyota Racing Development) – the engines have been unbelievable this year – and Bass Pro Shops and Furniture Row, Denver Mattress and everybody that's made this possible. Cole Pearn (crew chief) and these guys are just amazing. I knew when the bad luck would stop coming we'd start racking them off and tonight we weren't the best car for once and we actually won, so that was really cool and just couldn't be more excited to win at Darlington, the Southern 500. I’ve been wanting to win this thing a long time and got to thank Sprint, the fans were great – tons of fans here today – and really excited. Glad they stuck around for a good finish and I don't know – I could go on and on for hours I guess. Well, it just was frustrating to lead laps here throughout my career and even in years when we didn't run that well at teams I was on, we seemed to run well here and felt like we let a few slip away. It was worth the wait for sure, so we'll do some celebrating tonight and just can't thank everybody enough again – everybody at (Joe) Gibbs (Racing), all those guys, great teammates – just so many people I need to thank. The pit crew – man, I can't say it enough, what a job they did tonight. I appreciate them.”^[38]

After a series of bad pit stops relegated Harvick, who led a race high of 214 laps, to a runner-up finish, he said that he lost the race because of "the same old thing. You get into position where you bring a dominant car. The guys in the shop and the guys in the garage are doing a great job. The guys on pit road are doing a terrible job. You get into position to win races and they continually step on their toes and don’t make it happen.’’^[39] During his post-race media availability, he went further saying he's "over being a cheerleader. Those guys get paid a lot of money to perform on pit road and cheerleading hasn't really been working. You've got to get after it on pit road and do your job.”^[40]

On the Wednesday following the race, Larson and Newman – whose cars failed post-race inspection – were docked 15 points each, and their crew chiefs were both fined over $20,000.^[41]

Pos	No.	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Points
1	78	Martin Truex Jr.	Furniture Row Racing	Toyota	367	44
2	4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart–Haas Racing	Chevrolet	367	41
3	42	Kyle Larson	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	367	24
4	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	367	38
5	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	367	36
6	20	Matt Kenseth	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	367	36
7	5	Kasey Kahne	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	367	34
8	31	Ryan Newman	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	367	19
9	2	Brad Keselowski	Team Penske	Ford	367	33
10	24	Chase Elliott (R)	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	367	31
11	18	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	367	31
12	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	367	29
13	21	Ryan Blaney (R)	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	367	28
14	88	Jeff Gordon	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	367	27
15	1	Jamie McMurray	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	367	26
16	27	Paul Menard	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	367	25
17	34	Chris Buescher (R)	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	367	24
18	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford	367	23
19	19	Carl Edwards	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	366	22
20	7	Regan Smith	Tommy Baldwin Racing	Chevrolet	366	21
21	23	David Ragan	BK Racing	Toyota	366	20
22	15	Clint Bowyer	HScott Motorsports	Chevrolet	365	19
23	47	A. J. Allmendinger	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	365	18
24	10	Danica Patrick	Stewart–Haas Racing	Chevrolet	365	17
25	13	Casey Mears	Germain Racing	Chevrolet	365	16
26	83	Matt DiBenedetto	BK Racing	Toyota	365	15
27	95	Michael McDowell	Circle Sport – Leavine Family Racing	Chevrolet	364	14
28	46	Michael Annett	HScott Motorsports	Chevrolet	362	13
29	30	Josh Wise	The Motorsports Group	Chevrolet	361	12
30	38	Landon Cassill	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	361	11
31	55	Reed Sorenson	Premium Motorsports	Chevrolet	358	10
32	43	Aric Almirola	Richard Petty Motorsports	Ford	346	9
33	48	Jimmie Johnson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	328	8
34	41	Kurt Busch	Stewart–Haas Racing	Chevrolet	326	7
35	14	Tony Stewart	Stewart–Haas Racing	Chevrolet	317	6
36	16	Greg Biffle	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford	295	5
37	98	Cole Whitt	Premium Motorsports	Chevrolet	250	4
38	32	Jeffrey Earnhardt (R)	Go FAS Racing	Ford	247	3
39	44	Brian Scott (R)	Richard Petty Motorsports	Ford	199	2
40	6	Trevor Bayne	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford	161	1
Official race results

• Lead changes: 8 among different drivers
• Cautions/Laps: 10 for 52
• Red flags: 0
• Time of race: 3 hours, 57 minutes and 54 seconds
• Average speed: 126.437 miles per hour (203.481 km/h)