Hendrick Motorsports entered Darlington’s Cook Out Southern 500 with playoff buzz, holding the top spot through William Byron’s regular-season crown. But the night flipped the script, with all four drivers, Chase Elliott in 17th, Kyle Larson 19th, Byron 21st, and Alex Bowman 31st, landing outside the top 15. Elliott later shared, “It was a really long night. Yeah, we had clawed our way up to the top 10 and tried to run really long on that one run.” For a team whose record at the track has been fairly good, a lot of things went down for them.

For instance, Byron, starting from the standings peak, slipped to sixth with a +25 cushion, a drop that stung amid Toyota’s sweep of the top four. Elliott couldn’t keep up with the Toyota pace, and Larson struggled with setup balance. Alex Bowman, t

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