CONCORD, N.C. — Standing in the lobby of Hendrick Motorsports’ race shop for the Nos. 5 and 9 teams, Jeff Gordon sees the scuffed, blackened right side of the No. 24 Chevrolet he drove to Victory Lane in the 1997 Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.
The memories come flooding back. But instead of the pure elation that comes with winning the race and the $1 million bonus it paid, Gordon is overcome with another emotion.
“I look at that and that actually makes me mad because I almost lost that race,” Gordon says, pointing out his late wall contact while trying to fend off a hard-charging Jeff Burton. “He ran me down, and then I got in the wall. And then he really ran me down. One more lap and it would’ve been over.”
That 30-second exchange offers an incredible insight into the competitive nature that helped make Gordon one of NASCAR’s best, particularly at the track dubbed “Too Tough to Tame.”
Now the vice chairman of the team he drove for over two decades, Gordon was nearly unstoppable atop the “Lady in Black’s” rough, abrasive and narrow pavement, where his rainbow-schemed Chevrolet seemed to shine brightest. As Darlington celebrates its 75th anniversary this year, the time feels right to reflect on Gordon’s unbelievable statistics at NASCAR’s oldest superspeedway ahead of Sunday night’s Cook Out Southern 500 (6 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
No one has won more Southern 500s than Gordon’s six, including an outrageous stretch of four consecutive from 1995-1998. His seven total wins at the South Carolina track are the third-most all-time, only behind fellow NASCAR Hall of Famers David Pearson (10) and Dale Earnhardt (nine). In eight races from the 1995 Southern 500 to the spring race of 1999, Gordon finished no worse than third. And in 36 starts across his 23 seasons, Gordon led laps in 27 of those events.
Ray Evernham was Gordon’s crew chief during those peaks in the 1990s, together winning three NASCAR Cup Series championships and 47 points-paying races. They still can’t believe their Darlington successes all these years later.
“We’re both in awe of what we did together and the things that, in some ways, will never be done again,” Gordon said. “Certainly, it never was repeated in either one of our careers after we split up, so we do revel in those seasons and those moments of how great that was and get to relive it now.”
The unique, asymmetrical 1.336-mile oval remains one of the biggest challenges on the NASCAR schedule. Gordon’s last start came in 2016, already nine years ago, with a 14th-place finish while substituting for an injured Dale Earnhardt Jr. Since then, cars have changed, former contemporaries have joined him and retirement and fresh faces have joined NASCAR’s big leagues. As the environment has changed, so too has the on-track intensity.
“These guys are pushing the car so much harder every lap, so I think physically, mentally, I think that’s where you’re seeing the difference of today’s driver,” Gordon said. “It’s always been a challenging race track, but we could pace ourselves in the late ’90s, right? And I think that now, you’re just living on the edge even that much more because you can’t give up a position. There’s just not as much give-and-take. When you hit pit road, every detail of entry to pit road, pit-road speed, the pit stop, the exit, everything is so precise now — and even the level of detail that you go into getting your qualifying lap, your track position, and then maintaining it through the race.”
Gordon was a quick adapter to a track notorious for wearing drivers and equipment to their cores. In four Xfinity Series starts before leaping to Cup, Gordon earned one top five and two top 10s around two mechanical DNFs. His early Cup starts weren’t as fruitful, with one top 10 in six starts. But that seventh start produced the first win of his incredible eight-race stretch from 1995-1999.
“The cars were better than I was, and I had to catch up. And then, as my experience level grew, we grew together and did a lot of great things together,” Gordon said. “So to me, Darlington was always a track that I felt pretty comfortable at, where a lot of other people were, ‘oh, it’s so intimidating,’ and, ‘oh man, this is the most difficult track.’ And I didn’t see it that way because, right away, it just was a track that I seemed to feel comfortable at. To me, I raced a lot of the very intimidating tracks from Eldora to Knoxville to Winchester and Salem. So to me, driving a midget and a sprint car around some of those places was a lot tougher than going to Darlington. But the difference was 500 miles. That’s where it got challenging.”
Through the track’s 75 years of history, there have been plenty of iconic moments, some featuring Gordon’s incredible successes. That history is felt as soon as you walk onto the property at the track “Too Tough to Tame.”
“You can’t recreate history, and yet we can celebrate it,” Gordon said. “And I feel like every time we go to Darlington, everybody is celebrating what the track means, whether it be drivers talking about the surface being old and sliding around just like you have for years at Darlington, or you see the throwbacks. You see the fans. And you can just tell when the fans are at Darlington, they feel like they’re going back in time, as well as playing into the future of the sport. And it just seems like everybody is on board with its place and its history with NASCAR.”
Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney ended the 2025 regular season on a high note, claiming a thrilling win on the high banks at Daytona International Speedway. A fellow former Championship 4 driver will look to build some momentum of his own this weekend, as Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain aims to ride the wall at the “Lady in Black” right into the Round of 12.
NASCAR.com’s Pat DeCola ranks the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs contenders after the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona and before Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway (6 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
Analysis: If that didn’t look like a championship-winning kind of driver delivering a signature moment on Saturday night at Daytona, well, it’s tough to say what you’re seeing. Blaney has all the pieces in place, momentum included, for title No. 2, and things have started working a little bit more at Darlington than earlier in his career. Feels like a grand time for his first Southern 500 win.
Analysis: The Regular Season Champion will actually begin the playoffs as the No. 2 seed, but not to worry — Byron and the No. 24 team have a very, very deep run ahead of them despite just two top 10s in the last six races. A Southern 500 win is within reach for him as well, and after leading 243 laps in the spring at Darlington only to finish runner-up, he’ll be hungry.
Analysis: Larson briefly looked like he had a shot to end his unbelievable drafting-track drought, but he’ll happily settle for a sixth-place run that allowed him to walk out of Daytona as the top seed in the playoffs. Darlington is such an interesting track for him, because he could have many more wins at it than the singular one he has. In his lone victory there, he led 55 laps — but he has four other races he did not win in which he led 124-plus laps each.
Analysis: Here we go again. Another year, another legitimate shot at title No. 1 for Hamlin, who enters with a nice cushion that should help him sail through the first round. No. 11 is also one of the best all-time at Darlington — which is really saying something, given the track history there — and could easily assert his dominance over the field in Race 1.
Analysis: It’s legitimately wild that the guy who won three of the season’s first four races is entering the playoffs as the fifth seed, but, hey, he hasn’t won since then. There’s no denying the championship potential here, though, and No. 20 has an excellent shot to make it to a third Championship 4 in four years. Though he’s yet to win at Darlington, Bell is riding two straight top threes there and could remind everyone why he was such a force earlier this year.
Analysis: After such a display of consistency the whole year, the No. 9 team can’t feel good about finishing the regular season with just one finish better than 13th (10th, Daytona) since mid-July. Darlington has been a bit of a mixed bag for him, and even after 17 total starts there he’s finished exactly where he starts, on average (15.8 for each).
Analysis: Two Chases in these playoffs, two legitimate title contenders. Briscoe has been an elite driver in the second half of the year and enters as a sneaky yet obvious driver capable of taking home the championship, and he might immediately enter favorite status before we even hit Labor Day. The defending Southern 500 winner locked in last year with a resounding win, and is only even better positioned this year to take home that crown.
Analysis: Chastain finds himself in the unusual position of having just two top 10s since Michigan — which ran on June 8 — yet still being in position to advance after the Round of 12. Of course, three weeks separate him from now until then, and much can change in that time, but No. 1 has a better handle on Darlington than most these days and should be right in the mix for his first Southern 500 win on Sunday despite the summer lull.
Analysis: The reigning Regular Season Champion entering the playoffs with single-digit top 10s and having to fight for his life to even make the postseason certainly wasn’t how Reddick and Co. likely drew it up, but here we are. He’s in, and still has an excellent shot to return to the Championship 4. No. 45 owns three top 10s in the last four Darlington races, with a whopping 307 laps led in that span.
Analysis: A bummer of a day for Wallace at Daytona, where he likely could have contended for the win but got caught up in the big wreck. Still, it didn’t affect him all too much as he still enters the playoffs on the right side of the bubble and heading to a track at which he had four straight top-nine finishes from 2022-24.
Analysis: Bowman had a not-so-enjoyable Saturday night, sweating out the future of his season from outside the car with no ability to influence his outcome, but that’ll happen when a driver is not locked in by Race 26. The No. 48 has advanced, however, but could get off to a dreadful start. Bowman has just one lap led at Darlington apart from a 41-lap showing in a runner-up in 2020, and just four top 10s in 15 starts there.
Analysis: What an interesting, ever-changing sport we’ve got — not only is the 2024 Regular Season Champion exhaling because he barely made this year’s postseason, last year’s champion — a three-time one, at that — enters this year’s 10-race gauntlet just a point off the elimination line with fewer top 10s than three drivers who missed the cut. It doesn’t look great, but this is Joey Logano, so would you be surprised in the least if he added another Darlington win to his resume on Sunday? Me neither.
Analysis: Before wrecking out at Daytona and collecting a single point, Cindric had averaged 29.4 in the five races prior, which is exactly the kind of consistency that rewards drivers in the playoffs. A Team Penske car in the postseason is a dangerous thing, and he’ll look to get started off on the right foot at Darlington, where he typically finishes in the top 20 but has yet to land a top 10.
Analysis: It’s really something to see SVG, a Cup Series rookie, in sixth place in the standings entering his first playoffs; it really shows the value of not just making the postseason but coming in with a plethora of bonus points. He’s said right along how excited he is to get to Darlington, too, where he has a legitimate shot to collect a top 10 and really start to make his peers sweat.
Analysis: Look past him if you want, but don’t act like Dillon isn’t capable of making at least a little noise in these playoffs; he’s got 10 top 10s combined at the Round of 16 tracks and at least one at each. If he pops off at least two, he’s got a great shot to control his own destiny, before even factoring in anybody else’s potential bad luck. Half of those top 10s came at Darlington, so he needs to get off to a good start.
Analysis: Berry picked a good time to compile his first back-to-back top 10s since March as he gains a little mojo entering his first Cup Series Playoffs. He’s an old-school kind of driver that should excel at an old-school kind of track like Darlington, and a P3 there last spring for Stewart-Haas Racing inspires confidence he can start off on the right foot.
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The 2025 season marked Hemric’s return to full-time Truck competition, taking over the No. 19 Chevrolet from Christian Eckes as Eckes moved up to the Xfinity Series with Kaulig Racing.
Fast forward nearly six months, and the new driver of the No. 19 is a Craftsman Truck Series winner who earned his postseason spot with a victory at Martinsville Speedway. Still, Hemric believes there’s still a lot of work ahead.
“You know, I’d like to sit here and tell you all that is ironed out,” Hemric said during Truck Series Playoffs media day. “We know exactly what that is, and to be truthful, we don’t. I mean, there was a lot that changed for McAnally-Hilgemann racing over the offseason prior to me getting here. And, yeah, I think we have been searching. We’ve been searching to truly nail down what that identity is. But I’ll tell you just from a bullet point perspective, we find a way. When all else fails, we find a way. And that’s really kind of the current thing I lean on here as we begin this playoff run.
“We know we have some strengths that we really, truly got to stay within throughout the rounds and the races and identity will kind of naturally take on its own characters, but yeah, for us, just trying to truly stay within what we know we are and what we are to this point, and try to continue to grow and develop any better.”
Hemric is one of only two competitors in the 10-driver Truck playoff field this season with a national series championship (2021, Xfinity Series). The other? Defending Truck Series champion Ty Majeski.
“I don’t look at [being a former champion] as an advantage,” Hemric said. “Obviously, going through the playoffs multiple times now, is there something to that? I mean, yeah, obviously, you’ve kind of done it, but also feel the identity in which every year is its own is something that can’t be lost. And I don’t go into it thinking because I had past success in past seasons, that means I might have future success going throughout this playoff.
“There is something different about all playoff sports. I don’t care what sport it is, it’s fun and a different atmosphere and a different feeling that I love and have always loved. It’s cool to be a part of another one.”
Even with all of the “new” the No. 19 camp still faces, Hemric remains confident as the team forges ahead in the pursuit of the organization’s first championship. It’s certainly a long way to go, but the Kannapolis, North Carolina native is already looking forward to Martinsville Speedway in the Round of 8, hopeful for a shot at the Championship 4.
“We just go to that place with a lot of confidence in general,” Hemric said. “But as we’ve seen all year, the entire Truck Series, garage, really, all three series, is continuing to evolve. And guys that were good the last time doesn’t mean you’re gonna be good this time. But we go to there, really all of the short tracks, with an extra level of confidence. I feel like it’s been a strength of ours and just look forward to that opportunity. Hopefully, it is within that Round of 8 and we can go punch our ticket and race for a championship in Phoenix.”
The NASCAR Xfinity Series goes from the high banks of Daytona International Speedway to tackling the left and right turns at Portland International Raceway for the Pacific Office Automation 147 (7:30 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
2024 winner Shane van Gisbergen will not be returning to the West Coast to defend his victory, but Oceania will still be represented as Australia’s Will Brown hops in the No. 11 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet this weekend.
Road-course ringers Jack Perkins (N0. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota), Joey Hand (No. 28 RSS Racing Ford) and Austin Green (No. 32 Jordan Anderson Racing Chevrolet) will also hit the 1.97-mile Oregon circuit.
With 10 title hopefuls now confirmed, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs are set to get underway this Saturday at Darlington Raceway (Noon ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The “Lady in Black” will act as one of three Round of 10 contests, with Bristol Motor Speedway and New Hampshire Motor Speedway rounding out the three-race slate before the Round of 8. Two drivers will be eliminated following the conclusion of the Round of 10.
Rising star Corey Day returns to the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet to make his eighth start with the team this season. Mason Maggio, originally entered to drive the No. 22 Ford for Reaume Brothers Racing, will step into the team’s No. 33 entry after Frankie Muniz suffered a distal radius fracture in his wrist at his home on Wednesday.
The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series regular season has concluded, and now the field begins the playoff push with the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway on Sunday (6 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
Darlington will act as the opening Round of 16 contest, with World Wide Technology Raceway and Bristol Motor Speedway to follow. Four drivers will be eliminated from postseason play following the conclusion of the three-race round and before the beginning of the Round of 12.
Derek Kraus will make his second Cup start of 2025 as driver of the No. 44 NY Racing Team Chevrolet. Josh Bilicki will additionally pilot the No. 66 Garage 66 Ford for the sixth time this season.
Of the 36 points-eligible drivers through the 26-race regular season in 2025, only two drivers ranked inside the top 10 of all five of NASCAR Insights’ statistical categories (passing, defense, speed, restarts, pit crew) for the year: 2025 Regular Season Champion William Byron and 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace.
It’s significant for both as they prepare for their respective postseason runs starting with Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway (6 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
Byron finished the regular season ranked first in both speed and restarts, and was the only driver to lead multiple categories after Saturday night’s race at Daytona International Speedway. The No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports driver snagged two wins on the year and is tied for the fourth-best average finish so far this season (13.9) among full-time drivers. A series-high 247 stage points ultimately put Byron in position to win his maiden Regular Season Championship.
Wallace’s numbers are a bit more surprising despite him making his second playoff appearance after winning the Brickyard 400 in July.
The No. 23 Toyota pit crew was among the best in the field all season long and ranked second during the regular season. Through seven DNFs and notable regression in average finish (down to 18.9 vs. 15.3 in 2024), Wallace was seventh in passing, ninth in defense, eighth in speed and third on restarts. If Wallace can clean up the execution on track, he can put together an eye-opening playoff run.
The second race in the Round of 16 at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway will lay the foundations for where both 23XI and Hendrick are at on speed compared to Team Penske, which won at Gateway with Austin Cindric last season and has captured the past three championships at Phoenix Raceway.
Speaking of Team Penske, three-time and defending champ Joey Logano finished 2025 ranked fifth in passing and first in defense.
The old saying of “defense wins championships” may be the name of the game for the No. 22 driver, as a pedestrian regular season didn’t yield signs of a title contender. However, if you know Logano’s playoff history and the strategy gambles from crew chief Paul Wolfe, they will pounce and win their way to a championship if his competitors leave the door just slightly ajar.
Other notables entering the Cup Series Playoffs:
Kyle Larson enters the playoffs as the top seed and ranked sixth or higher in defense, speed, restarts and pit crew. However, he ranked 14th in passing.
Denny Hamlin finished the regular season ranked 15th in passing.
Ross Chastain ranked top five in defense and restarts, but 19th on speed and 13th in pit crew.
On Saturday, a grueling 2025 season at Bowman Gray Stadium culminated with his second track championship against Modified veterans in Burt Myers and Tim Brown, padding a resume that includes victories in Late Model Stocks, Super Late Models, the USAR Pro Cup Series and the NASCAR Goody’s Dash Series.
Now the 44-year-old has his eyes on a few more accomplishments to close the year: NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series state, regional and national titles.
For any other full-time Modified driver at Bowman Gray, the season ending a month before the final day to collect Weekly Series points (Sept. 21) would put him or her at a disadvantage. Fortunately for Ward, his team possesses a Late Model Stock Car.
And given how 2025 unfolded against competitive Bowman Gray fields, Ward believes those championships are feasible goals.
“It kind of worked out,” Ward said. “The car counts [at Bowman Gray] have been phenomenal this year, and the way things have fallen, we’ve been in contention for [the national title].
“I know it’s something that’s going to be tough to win racing against all these guys all over the country, but all we can really do is try to run the races and put up some more wins.”
Inspired by the success of the Modified program, Kevin Powell Speed Motorsports branched into Late Model Stock competition for 2025. The team brought in six-time USAR Pro Cup Series winner Jason Sarvis to serve as crew chief on the car, which has been piloted by Hudson Bulger and NASCAR Cup Series veteran Corey LaJoie.
Ward drove KP Speed’s No. 12 to a 10th-place finish in a CARS Tour race at Caraway Speedway on July 2. The guidance of Sarvis and 2023 ValleyStar Credit Union 300 winner Trevor Ward has helped improve the overall speed of the car since then, which bolsters Ward’s confidence as he chases a national title.
“I feel like we’ve learned a lot with the Late Model [Stock] program in the last few weeks,” Ward said. “Having Trevor Ward here in the shop racing with us, too, that’s been a big help to our learning curve on the Late Model Stock side.
“It’s all coming together at the right time to be in contention and go chase a few races for this national title.”
Brandon Ward secured his second Modified title at Bowman Gray Stadium on the strength of three victories in 2025. (Photo: Erick Messer/Bowman Gray Stadium)
Kevin Powell wants Ward to capitalize on the opportunity; he believes his driver is one of the best short-track competitors in the United States. Beyond the titles and numerous victories, Powell has seen Ward complete every lap in Bowman Gray’s Modified division over the past three years.
Once the team finalizes its Late Model Stock schedule over the next month, Powell believes Ward will have no issues showcasing the same composure and skill that has followed him long before Bowman Gray.
“Brandon has been part of our organization for quite some time,” Powell said. “The veteran driver that he is, he knows how to take care of his equipment. When it comes time to turn up the wick and hit the go button, he’s probably one of the best there is. It doesn’t matter if it’s a 25-lap race or 150-lap race, he’s really good at getting everything his race car can get.
“A lot of race-car drivers can be fast, but sometimes they can’t take care of their equipment. Brandon can do both.”
KP Speed’s schedule tentatively includes two races, Hickory Motor Speedway’s prestigious Bobby Isaac Memorial on Aug. 30 and South Boston Speedway’s season finale set for Sept. 6. Both are expected to draw a full field of more than 16 cars, which will aid Ward in his championship pursuit.
The next part of the equation for Ward is finding more events with solid fields to earn maximum points. Only a driver’s best 14 events are scored at the end of the Weekly Series season, which presents a conundrum that will force Ward to drop at least a couple top fives from his stellar Bowman Gray campaign.
Ward’s competition for the Weekly Series title includes Dominion Raceway’s Chase Johnson, David Hebert and 2019 national champion Jacob Goede. To stay within reach of those three, Ward knows he needs to be smart with the races he chooses while also translating his efficiency from Bowman Gray into a Late Model Stock.
“It has to be wins,” Ward said. “You have to focus on winning races with a max car count. That’s how anybody is going to do it. That’s what’s cool about it, because you’re racing against the best of the best across the whole entire country at all the NASCAR short tracks. When you’re going up against that type of competition, nothing short of winning more races is going to do it.
“We know it’s a big challenge, but it’s one we’re ready to try and tackle.”
Long known for his versatility, Brandon Ward will chase NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series national, regional and state titles behind the wheel of a Late Model Stock. (Photo: Susan Wong/NASCAR)
All the intricacies that go into Weekly Series points make the national championship a rigorous endeavor for any driver. Ward and Powell understand there will be circumstances outside of their control over the next month, yet they believe in the burgeoning speed of their Late Model Stock program.
South Boston and Hickory require different mindsets, the former involving constant aggression and the latter featuring tire conservation. Ward has found success at both facilities; he earned a Modified victory at Hickory in 2021, and he’s reached South Boston’s Victory Lane in both a Modified and the USAR Pro Cup Series.
Powell believes Trevor Ward’s assistance will be beneficial to Brandon Ward should they choose to race at South Boston regularly. Trevor is second in South Boston’s Late Model Stock championship standings with six victories this season.
Powell is confident everything is falling into place for the KP Speed Late Model Stock to consistently contend for wins as the national championship battle intensifies. Now responsibility falls upon Brandon Ward.
“I think our Late Model program is at the top of the heap,” Powell said. “We compete on the CARS Tour program, and we compete in the Weekly Series. Every time we go, we are one of the top cars in practice and one of the top cars at the end of the night. We have continued to improve our program every time we go.
“If we keep putting these runs together, I think a win is really, really close for the Late Model program.”
Plenty of drivers have earned Weekly Series national championships competing at multiple tracks. Ward is looking to become one of the select few who have done so while driving two different cars, a Modified and a Late Model Stock.
Ward does not envision a difficult transition to Late Model Stocks over the next month, but he faces plenty of stiff competition for the national, Southeast regional and North Carolina state titles. Every piece of knowledge he’s acquired over the past several decades will be essential.
“It would mean a lot for me,” Ward said. “Any type of win or championship, especially in today’s time, [is] so hard to come by. Being a national champion is the ultimate goal; that’s the top of the class for all the NASCAR short-track ranks. Kevin Powell giving me the opportunity to race for it means a lot to me.”
“To win it would be one of the biggest things on my resume if I could somehow pull it off.”
