2020 Toyota 500

The 2020 Toyota 500 is a NASCAR Cup Series race held on May 20, 2020, at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina, replacing Richmond Raceway spring race. Contested over 208 laps -- shortened from 228 laps due to rain, on the 1.366 mi egg-shaped oval, it was the sixth race of the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season.

Background
Darlington Raceway is a race track built for NASCAR racing located near Darlington, South Carolina. It is nicknamed "The Lady in Black" and "The Track Too Tough to Tame" by many NASCAR fans and drivers and advertised as "A NASCAR Tradition." It is of a unique, somewhat egg-shaped design, an oval with the ends of very different configurations, a condition which supposedly arose from the proximity of one end of the track to a minnow pond the owner refused to relocate. This situation makes it very challenging for the crews to set up their cars' handling in a way that is effective at both ends.

Entry list

 * (R) denotes rookie driver.
 * (i) denotes driver who are ineligible for series driver points.

Qualifying
Ryan Preece was awarded the pole for the race as determined by the top 20 from Sunday's lineup inverted.

Stage 1
Joey Logano, starting in third, moved to the front early and led laps 9-27. The fastest car on the track belonged to Clint Bowyer, Harvick’s teammate. Bowyer led from Lap 31 to the end of the Stage in a non-eventful opening to the race.

Stage 2
The 2nd Stage was more of the same as it looked like Bowyer would run away and hide from the field. The only thing that changed was the quality of the competition that moved to the front of the pack.

The Final Stage
A long green-flag run in the Final Stage helped sort out the to cars at the front of the lead pack. Erik Jones, last year’s Darlington Southern 500 winner, took the lead for a few laps. However, Bowyer kept returning to the front.

Late in the race, Bowyer had given up the lead with the handle on his car going away. With 34 laps to go, he hit the outside retaining wall and ended his chances at a sweep of all three Stages.

When the yellow flag displayed for Bowyer’s incident, Denny Hamlin remained on the track while most of the other lead cars pitted. The clean air proved to be the ideal formula for Hamlin as he led the remainder of the laps.

As the race neared its conclusion Hamlin, Chase Elliott, Kevin Harvick, and Kyle Busch were shuffling for the lead. Busch was the man on the move making a late charge. While trying to pass on the low side, Kyle tried to squeeze in between Sunday’s winner and Elliott. Driving up the track he caught the left rear of Elliott’s car spinning him into the wall separating pit road from the track.

Elliott did not report immediately to the safety vehicle for his mandatory trip to the infield care center. Staying trackside until the cars passed under the caution, Elliott gave Busch the single-digit salute showing his displeasure with being taken out of 2nd position with just a few laps left in the race. The green never came back out as rain began to fall and NASCAR called the race with 20 laps to go.

Alan Gustafson, Elliott’s crew chief, waited until Kyle Busch exited his vehicle and the two carried on an animated conversation. Busch claimed it was purely accidental, that he misjudged the gap while trying to grab the position between the two cars. The irony of the situation? Gustafson used to be Busch’s crew chief. Elliott finished 38th.

Hamlin celebrated by pulling on a face mask that pictured the covered portion of his face with a huge smile. His second victory of the year, after his season-opening Daytona 500 win.

Stage Results
Stage One Laps: 60

Stage Two Laps: 65

Final Stage Results
Stage Three Laps: 103

Race statistics

 * Lead changes: 17 among 13 different drivers
 * Cautions/Laps: 11 for 54
 * Red flags: 1
 * Time of race: 2 hours, 42 minutes and 23 seconds
 * Average speed: 104.984 mph

Television
The Toyota 500 will be carried by FS1 in the United States. Mike Joy and five-time Darlington winner Jeff Gordon will cover the race from the Fox Sports studio in Charlotte. Matt Yocum will handle the pit road duties. Larry McReynolds will provide insight from the Fox Sports studio in Charlotte.

Radio
The Motor Racing Network (MRN) called the race for radio, which was simulcast on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio. Alex Hayden and Dave Moody called the action for MRN when the field raced down the front stretch. Dillon Welch called the race from a Billboard outside of turn 1 when the field raced through turns 1 and 2, and Steve Post called the race atop of the Darlington Raceway Club outside of turn 3 when the field raced through turns 3 and 4. Kim Coon and Hannah Newhouse called the action on pit road for MRN.

Standings after the race

 * Drivers' Championship standings


 * Manufacturers' Championship standings


 * Note: Only the first 16 positions are included for the driver standings.