Erik Jones capped off his 100th Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series play꧟offs wꦕith a win in the Bojangles Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.

Jones rose to the fore late in the race’s third stage and fended off Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch to take his sec🔴ond career win.

The victory secures Jones a second consecutive playoff berth and ensures all four JGR cars in champio🍸nship contention.

Mother nature threatened NASCAR’s cornerstone Labor Day classic as a massive rainstorm truck shortly before the scheduled start. Rain eventually moved out of the area and NASCAR officials worked several hours♎ to dry the 1.33 mile-oval before the race took the green flag just before 10pm local time.

Kurt Busch had the car to beat early and took the race’s opening 100 lap stage. The balance of power shifted from Kurt to Kyle late in the second stage. Kyle took the lead on Lap 160 and cruised to an easy win💝 aided b🌜y a late yellow for a crash by BJ McLeod.

He re-emerged as the race leader following during the🌜 s🔯tage break ahead of Jones, Larson and with teammate Denny Hamlin and pole-sitter William Bryon rounding out the top five.

Busch kept his stranglehold on the field throughout the next stint keeping Jones at bay while Hamlin completed a JGR lockout of the top three. The lead grew to 1.8 seconds over the stint laps before the final roꦫund of pitstops began.

The first to draw blood was Team Penske’s Brad Keselowski on Lap 249. His attempt to pit p𝄹roved futile as he missed the pit entrance, forcing a second attempt to get onto pit road.

Several drivers pitted between laps 250-258 while the t๊op two of Jones and Busch stretched out to Lap 258. A clean stop kept Busch in the lead saw his stable lead erased with Jones hot on his tail.

The race for the lead was slowed on Lap 275 when Daniel Hemric spun after cutting a tyre. The chain reaction swept up Michael McDowell along withဣ front-run🌠ners Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch and Byron.

The ye༒llow saw Larson leapfrog the JGR Toyotas with a quick stop and Jones move ahead of Busch to restart on the front row.

Larson and Jones swapped the top spot several times before Jones took compl🎉et🦄e control on Lap 283.

Jones maintained a f🌱irm lead over Larson throughout the stretch while Kyle Busch held onto third ahead of Stewart Haas Racing team☂mates Clint Bowyer and Kevin Harvick.

The final round 🍃of stops saw a role-reversal from the previ🅺ous round as Jones held onto the point with a slim lead over Kyle Busch.

Th💜e lead see-sawed over the final 30 laps as Busch bided his time for a late charge. He picked up the pace in the final few laps but hit a double whammy after nicking the wall twice in the final two laps.

That allowed Larson t𒊎o take over the runner up position and secured t🎃he win for Jones.

Larson’s second꧑-place locked hღim into the playoffs, while Kyle Busch’s third-place finish clinched him the regular season championship.

Former series champions Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski rounded out the top five while Clint Bowyer netted a much-needed sixth-place finish to move eight points above the cut line heading into India♉napolis.

Kurt Busch ende🏅d the night in seventh place after w💮inning the first stage while Matt DiBenedetto gently notched an eighth-place finish.

Completing the top ten were Paul Meℱnard and Austin💯 Dillon.