Busch Series ready to sort out Darlington

CONCORD, N.C. -- Having a week off during the busy NASCAR season is a good thing. Coming back to work at a track like Darlington might make one want to just take another week off.

Darlington Raceway will mark a return to action for the NASCAR Busch Series for the darlingtonraceway.com 200 on Saturday. This will be the third race of the 34-event schedule and will be the 39th race for the series at the "track too tough to tame."

Also noteworthy, Saturday's race will be the 600th event in the history of the Busch Series.

The first Busch Series race on the oval 1.366-mile track was held in the spring of 1982. Geoffrey Bodine beat Jody Ridley and David Pearson to the line that day.

Ryan Newman set record-fast time at Darlington last year with a qualifying lap of 170.301 mph (28.876 sec).

Darlington is renowned for its history and tricky layout. Constructed in 1949 and opened in 1950, Turns 1 and 2 are larger than Turns 3 and 4. This was done so on purpose to preserve the minnow pond behind Turn 4.

Most up-and-coming Busch Series drivers remember their first "Darlington stripe." Hank Parker Jr., driver of the No. 36 GNC Live Well Dodge, recalls that day quite well.

"Someone asked me if I've ever gotten a 'Darlington stripe,'" said Parker, who will be making his 100th Busch Series career start on Saturday. "I told them that the first time I came here I thought it was a bad dream. I scraped that wall so often, I'm surprised I had any sheet metal left on the right side of my car.

"This track has some tight corners, especially coming off of Turn 2. Even if you barely slide up and touch the wall, it usually does enough damage to your fenders and aero package to make it a tougher day for you."

Mark Martin picked up eight wins at Darlington during his Busch Series career. Harry Gant trails him at four, with Bodine and Dale Earnhardt each getting three victories from the "Lady in Black."

Parker said he learned quite a bit from Martin on how to get around the track prone for making sheet metal look like wadded up paper balls.

"I always tried to learn as much as I could whenever I got the chance to race around Mark Martin," Parker said. "In fact, I have a tape of one of the Darlington races from 1999 and it had a lot of footage from inside Mark's car.

"I studied that tape and watched it over and over. I think it definitely helped me improve my driving line around Darlington. You can always learn from someone with Mark's skill and experience. "

While Parker uses video from a past and proven winner at Darlington, his teammate utilizes a different approach. It's still video, but instead of tape it's video games.

Casey Mears pilots the No. 66 Phillips 66 Dodge for Welliver-Jesel Motorsports and, as a rookie, is visiting many tracks for the first time in person. Prior to testing at Darlington, he did some cyber racing to get the lay of the land.

"Darlington is a blast," said Mears, who turned 24 on March 12. "I like it because it's not your typical oval track. The great thing about Darlington is that Turns 1 and 2 are different from Turns 3 and 4.

"Before we tested there I played a NASCAR racing game on my X-Box computer at home to get a feel for the track layout. After making some laps there for real, I have to admit the actual track is a lot more fun."

Mears might have to learn the hard way how much different a "Darlington stripe" is for real, as opposed to computer crunches.

Parker and Mears will take to the track for qualifying on Friday at 12:30 p.m. (ET). The green flag drops for the 147-lap race at 1 p.m. on Saturday and can be seen live on FX and heard on MRN.