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Darlington winners and losers

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Jeff Burton, Kyle Petty, and Parker Kligerman dissect Joey Logano's win, judge whether his move on William Byron was acceptable or not, and evaluate how the modern playoff era has impacted finishes.

Take a look at the winners and losers from Sunday’s race at Darlington Raceway:

WINNERS

Joey Logano -- Logano snapped a 40-race winless drought in Cup Series points events, though it took some controversy to do it. Logano caught William Byron for the race lead entering Turn 3 on the penultimate lap and shoved him out of the way, knocking Byron into the outside wall and allowing the No. 22 Ford to find victory lane for the first time in a points race since March 2021 at Bristol Dirt.

Tyler Reddick -- The No. 8 Chevrolet found its way to a runner-up finish, Reddick’s fifth such result while still searching for his first career win. Reddick hit pit road for a vibration at Lap 160 but recovered to score his fourth top-five finish of the year.

Justin Haley -- Haley crossed the line third for his best finish and first top five since winning at Daytona in July 2019. While Sunday marked Haley’s first top 10 of the year, the Kaulig Racing No. 31 Chevrolet has now finished inside the top 15 in six of the last eight Cup races.

Michael McDowell -- McDowell notched his third top-10 finish in the past four races, all of which on wildly different tracks: ninth at Bristol Dirt, eighth at Talladega and seventh Sunday at Darlington. The streak was interrupted by a 17th-place finish at Dover last week.

LOSERS

William Byron -- Byron led 24 of the final 26 laps, but it’s those two laps he didn’t lead that left him fuming. While racing Logano for the lead at the Lap 268 restart, Byron pinched Logano into the outside wall coming off Turn 2. Byron gapped Logano and Reddick, who battled for second, but Logano chased down the No. 24 Chevrolet and put him into the Turn 3 wall. Instead of what would have been a series-best third win of the year, Byron was relegated to a 13th-place finish.

23XI Racing -- While both Bubba Wallace and Kurt Busch showed good speed, it was all for naught all over again. Both drivers were collected in the Lap 262 cluster that saw 11 cars get damage. In 27th, Wallace suffered his fourth finish of 26th or worse in seven races. Busch finished 28th, his fifth finish of 28th or worse in the past seven races.

Brad Keselowski -- Keselowski crashed twice Sunday and had a miserable day at Darlington. The No. 6 Ford spun at Lap 4 and again at Lap 168, the latter incident involving heavy contact with the Turn 2 wall before getting clobbered again by Kyle Busch. Keselowski finished 34th and is 31st in points, 134 points outside of a playoff spot with 14 races left in the regular season.

Kyle Larson -- Larson suffered an engine issue after completing just 112 laps Sunday, resulting in a 34th-place finish, his fourth DNF and fifth finish of 29th or worse in 12 races this season.