Berry in early playoff trouble after Lap 1 spin<\/p>\n
Josh Berry’s No. 21 snaps and spins into Tyler Reddick on Lap 1 of the Southern 500, putting his hopes of advancing into the next round of the playoffs in jeopardy from the start.<\/p>\n
Alex Bowman started 29th \u2014 last among the playoff drivers \u2014 and his night soured with a 40-second pit stop during a green-flag stop on Lap 66 of the 367-lap race.<\/p>\n
An air hose got disconnected from the pit box and the team thought it was an air gun failure before the issue was discovered. Bowman eventually fell two laps down.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Problems on pit road set Bowman back at Darlington<\/p>\n Problems with the air gun force Alex Bowman and Co. into a 40-second pit stop, setting the No. 48 back in the first Cup playoff race at Darlington.<\/p>\n He made them up but struggled in the final stage and finished 31st, two laps down. Bowman left Darlington 19 points below the cutline. Crew chief Blake Harris declined comment after the race.<\/p>\n Also below the cutline is Austin Dillon (-8 points) and reigning champion Joey Logano (-3 points ). Dillon struggled with his car\u2019s handling and finished 23rd. Logano was not competitive, placing 20th.<\/p>\n \u201cJust never really had speed,\u201d crew chief Paul Wolfe told NBC Sports. \u201cHonestly, I wouldn\u2019t say any of the Penske cars were great. We didn\u2019t really have speed. We never really could get the balance for what (Logano) was looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n The Joe Gibbs Racing star won the legendary NASCAR race for the second consecutive year.<\/p>\n Christopher Bell had his race turn on Lap 154 when he and Carson Hocevar collided on pit road. Hocevar had brought out the caution for a spin. Bell entered pit road sixth and Hocevar was last of the 24 cars on the lead lap.<\/p>\n They made contact as Bell exited and Hocevar went to enter his stall. It is a crew chief\u2019s responsibility to clear a driver to exit their stall.<\/p>\n Adam Stevens, crew chief for Bell, explained his perspective of what happened:<\/p>\n \u201cIn my mind if (Hocevar) was caught up (to the back of the field), he should have been what I would say is tucked in his box before we were ready to leave,\u201d Stevens told NBC Sports. \u201cI didn\u2019t realize that he wasn\u2019t caught up and I haven\u2019t had a chance to know how close he was or how close he wasn\u2019t, or how fast he was going or wasn\u2019t going, but I do know that he caused the caution.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was not going to beat a single car off of pit road, no matter how their fast stop was. So it doesn\u2019t make a lot of sense to be pitted up there with championship cars in that particular situation when you can\u2019t even beat a car off pit road by virtue of you coming in as far behind the field as you did and then to not acquiesce to the cars that are leaving.\u201d<\/p>\n The contact damaged Bell\u2019s splitter and his car\u2019s underbody. The result was a 29th-place finish that put him 10th in the standings, eight points above the cutline.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n