Kyle Larson will have a new group of pit-crew members servicing his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet in Sunday’s race at Darlington Raceway.
Scheduled to service Larson’s ride this week are front tire changer Jafar Hall, rear changer Mike Moss, jackman Eric Ludwig, tire carrier Allen Stallings and fueler Brandon Harder. Harder is the only returning member to the No. 5 team that serviced the car one week ago at Martinsville Speedway.
The new quartet of members comes from Spire Motorsports’ No. 7 Chevrolet, where they began the year with driver Justin Haley. Hendrick Motorsports supplies pit crews to Spire’s three-car outfit. The foursome of pit athletes that previously pitted for Larson will now pit Haley’s car starting at Darlington: front changer Blaine Anderson, rear changer Calvin Teague, jackman Brandon Johnson and tire carrier RJ Barnette.
Hall and Ludwig, now officially members of the No. 5 team, have already pitted for Larson in 2025. The duo was called over to the 2021 Cup champion’s team for two races in March — Phoenix and Las Vegas — when Johnson and Anderson were sidelined with a two-race suspension after the No. 5 Chevrolet lost a right-front wheel at Circuit of The Americas.
“We’ve looked at a lot of different factors of really not what the old (No.) 5 group was doing wrong, but what this other group was doing right,” Cliff Daniels, crew chief of the No. 5 team, told NBC Sports. “We’ve been working really hard within our pit department of just pushing, pushing the edge of performance and whatever that takes to keep moving the needle. Certainly, a lot of teams are performing at a very high level on pit road.”
Larson enters Sunday’s race second in the points standings, 16 points behind Hendrick teammate William Byron. A winner at Homestead-Miami on March 23, Larson has strung together four consecutive top-10 finishes since the costly error at COTA and has collected four top fives and five top 10s in seven races.
Daniels said the team’s previous pit crew had been “solid” over the past few weeks.
“But we weren’t outstanding over the top of times,” he told NBC Sports. “… Over the course of this season and over the course of the end of last season, the incoming group has really been putting up really fast times, very consistent, performing at a high level.”
Anderson, Barnette, Teague, Johnson and Harder had been pitting the No. 5 car together since the summer of 2022. The trio of Barnette, Harder and Teague had worked together since 2010 — 15 years ago — with driver Jimmie Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus on their way to a record fifth straight NASCAR Cup Series championship.
A change in pit crew isn’t the only change for Haley and Co. this week. Car chief Robert “Cheddar” Smith, who had worked with crew chief Rodney Childers since late 2013 when the duo started building the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing team, departed Childers and the No. 7 team this week to join the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing program with driver Ty Gibbs. Robbie Fairweather replaces Smith as the new car chief for Haley and Childers.
And though Haley and the No. 7 team lose what has proven to be an effective combination on pit road, the group they receive carries a veteran presence to join fueler Matt Lehman.
“When it’s a crew like the 5 crew, I mean, all good things come,” Haley said Saturday. “We’re just trying to do our best each and every week. And obviously, it was a different week with a lot of things changing on the 7 team, but yeah, I have full confidence in Rodney and the guys and that we’re gonna bring a faster race car.”
Larson will start Sunday’s Goodyear 400 in 19th place, with Haley 21st on the starting grid at 3 p.m. ET (FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Projections updated after Saturday’s practice and qualifying.
Despite having all four of its drivers in the top five of the NASCAR Cup Series standings, Martinsville was something of a missed opportunity for the Hendrick Motorsports camp to track down the “perfection” Vice Chairman Jeff Gordon emphasized after Kyle Larson’s win at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Today’s race at Darlington Raceway (3 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, Sirius XM NASCAR Radio) is the perfect setting for Hendrick to bounce back and run the standings table.
Racing Insights’ early metric predicted all four Hendrick drivers to net top 10s — something the organization has already done twice this season. After practice and qualifying, Bowman dropped to 14th, but has has reeled in top 10s in the last two spring races at Darlington. Byron and Larson have won at the iconic track already and are great candidates to win again, particularly with Byron winning the Busch Light Pole. Elliott failed to record top 10s in either trip to South Carolina last year, but he has a best finish of third in this race two years ago and has finished top 20 in all seven races this season.
TYLER REDDICK: Since the start of 2022, Reddick has been one of the best, if not the best, at Darlington. He has three top-three finishes, 275 laps led and an average running position of 6.8 at “The Track Too Tough to Tame.”
CHRIS BUESCHER: Buescher could’ve won this race last year if he hadn’t collided with Tyler Reddick, which led to a fiery discussion. Not only has Buescher started the last three Darlington races in the top 10, but he’s also recorded five top 10s in the last eight races there.
KYLE BUSCH: It was the fall race, but Rowdy had one of the best cars when he finished second to Chase Briscoe in the 2024 Southern 500. Busch hasn’t won at Darlington since the spring of 2008 but has recorded 15 top 10s over 26 Darlington starts. Plus, the track has a history of ending long winless streaks.
ROSS CHASTAIN: He nabbed a seventh-place finish last week and comes to the “Lady in Black” this week, where he’s had three top-five performances in 11 starts. Sunday will be a great opportunity for Chastain to string solid weekends together.
RACING INSIGHTS’ PROJECTIONS FOR THE GOODYEAR 400
Racing Insights’ advanced statistical formula includes current track, current track type, recent performance, team data and pit-crew data to arrive at a projected winner and full race results. Updated on race day with practice and qualifying factored in.
It’s throwback weekend at Darlington, and after analyzing practice data, I’ve stumbled on a bit of a throwback driver to bet for Sunday’s Goodyear 400 (3 p.m. ET, FS1).
Current NASCAR odds for Darlington have five drivers a tier above everyone else as the favorites. They are Kyle Larson (+500), William Byron (+650), Ryan Blaney (+700), Tyler Reddick (+700), and Denny Hamlin (+750).
But my throwback driver lies just a bit farther down the odds board that I like for Sunday’s Goodyear 400 at Darlington.
As my colleague PJ Walsh alluded to at Homestead (and I quote) “Trying to beat Kyle Larson at Homestead-Miami isn’t exactly a fun strategy.”
Except here, we can swap Homestead, which is another steeply banked, high tire wear intermediate track, with Darlington. Let’s add in pole-sitter and previous Darlington winner William Byron to the mix, and we might have a difficult time winning a top Chevy bet.
“Rowdy” was right in a tier with Larson and Byron in my practice FLAGS metric. Larson and Byron are +150 and +190, respectively, to finish as the top Chevy driver, but the Richard Childress Racing veteran sits at +650 — a long way down in implied odds from the two Hendrick drivers.
It’s especially curious given the last time NASCAR was at Darlington, Busch finished second in the 2024 Southern 500, behind only a Ford driver (who is now a Toyota driver), in Chase Briscoe.
That means Busch finished as the top Chevy driver the last time the series visited this track.
While it’s not a massive value at +650, the implied odds of 13.3% are below my model’s 14.9% chances. It gives Busch the chance to claim top bowtie honors. And in a race where I’m showing very little value across the board, I’ll take it and hope some more value opens up closer to the green flag on Sunday.
The Bet: Kyle Busch top Chevy +650 at ESPN BET | Bet to: +600
DARLINGTON, S.C. — Justin Allgaier’s third-place finish in Saturday afternoon’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Darlington was not one without adversity, but with it, he continues a streak of top-five finishes that spans five races with two victories slotted in the middle.
On top of the current run of top fives, the driver of the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet also ties Hall of Famer Mark Martin for the most consecutive top-10 finishes at the “Lady in Black” with nine.
It is a run of finishes that Allgaier solely attributes to the grit and determination of his No. 7 crew.
“Listen, this team, everybody at JR Motorsports, everybody on our Brandt Chevrolet has given me the opportunity to do that,” Allgaier said after the race. These cars are fun to drive. They do an amazing job, you know?”
But as aforementioned, the result was not achieved without a battle. What started as a day in a great position to potentially grab win No. 3 for the Chevrolet organization quickly went south after winning Stage 2 as a pit-stop error mired the No. 7 car back in mid-pack.
“Listen, we win as a team, we lose as a team,” Allgaier continued. “You know, the pit-road deal. It’s hard when you have those moments, but when you watch the guys rally, it’s because they understand, and they want to be successful, just like this race team is. We want those top fives. You want those wins. And, you know, I think that the best example I can give you is last year in Phoenix. You know, we were down, but we were never out, and we came back and we rallied.”
In that Phoenix race mentioned by Allgaier, he came from nearly two laps down to win the Xfinity Series title, a race that netted him the first driver’s championship of his career.
It was that race and the adversity that came along with it that JRM co-owner and Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. attributes to the early success for Allgaier in 2025. The pressure is off the 38-year-old, allowing him to go out each week and chase victories.
“I mean, that’s classic Justin Allgaier,” Earnhardt said post-race at Darlington. “He’s always going to give you everything, you know, everything you can, every lap. That’s what he did today, and we got the best result we could get.
“He’s got a lot of pressure off since he won his championship, so he can really just kind of focus on winning races and not really the whole big picture of the season, like he’s had to. You know obviously, he knows his chances of winning a championship are whittling away, and so to be able to get that done now, he could just go back to focusing on week after week, race after race, and you can see he’s just not making the mistakes we typically see him make in high-pressure situations. Because he’s not, you know, he’s not trying as hard. He’s kind of dialed it back. He’s racing smarter, being smoother, not feeling like he’s got to, you know, make it happen every single lap.”
It’s that mentality and focus that keeps the Springfield, Illinois native proud of the effort and resilience put in by his team despite falling short on Saturday.
“I’m proud of the effort that we’re putting in,” Allgaier said. “If I’d have come out of here 10th or 15th, yeah, I’d have probably been a little more upset. But to come out of here third and lead as many laps as we did, the points day that we had. I mean, just a great day. Yes, you want to win, but it’s hard to be sad with third and a great points day.”
Track: Darlington Raceway Location: Darlington, South Carolina Track length: 1.366 miles When: Sunday, 3 p.m. ET Where to tune in: FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Race purse: $11,055,250 Race distance: 293 laps | 400.2 miles Stages: 90 | 185 | 293 Defending winner:Brad Keselowski, May 2024 Starting lineup:William Byron seals Busch Light Pole
Time for 2-for-2 for Hamlin?
Denny Hamlin has some momentum on his side, and the forward progress is well-timed. On the heels of his first NASCAR Cup Series victory of the season last weekend, this week’s stop at Darlington Raceway provides another welcome opportunity.
Hamlin possesses plenty of positive indicators heading into Sunday’s Goodyear 400 (3 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at venerable Darlington, where he’s a four-time Cup Series winner. The 44-year-old dominated like the days of old last Sunday at Martinsville Speedway, leading 274 of the 400 laps and collecting his sixth grandfather clock trophy. This week’s venue is another stronghold for the Joe Gibbs Racing veteran, and he’s predicted to be near the top in Racing Insights’ full-field projections.
“I think last week was a great week for the team, no doubt about it,” Hamlin said. “To get a win early, just to start to get some playoff bonus points, that’s always a great thing. When we come here, absolutely. I know what I need out of the car. I’ll know within the first few laps of practice whether it’s got the ‘it’ that it needs to be good and if not, we’ll go to work on it. But the confidence I have is knowing exactly what I need at this track. I know how to enter the corner; I know how to exit it. I know how much gas and brake to apply to make good speed here. It’s just a matter of whether the car’s working directly on that day and if it isn’t, we can get it pretty close usually.”
Hamlin will start third in the 38-car field after putting his No. 11 Toyota on the second row in Saturday’s Busch Light Pole Qualifying. He’ll start behind polesitter William Byron, a Darlington winner in the spring of 2023, and a resurgent Ryan Preece, who continues to make the most of his first campaign with RFK Racing. Joe Gibbs Racing has already had one driver go on a tear this year, with Christopher Bell reeling off three consecutive wins spanning Atlanta, Circuit of The Americas and Phoenix. Hamlin could be the next with back-to-back success.
James Gilbert | Getty Images
Hamlin has led laps in 19 of his 25 career Cup Series starts at Darlington, including a string of the last 10, and he’s been a top-five finisher here 52% of the time with an all-time best average finish of 8.2. Three of his Darlington wins — including his most recent in 2021 — were in the longer 500-mile classic, the Southern 500, but he’s not selling this weekend’s 400-miler short in terms of its punishing nature.
“Even though this is a 400, it’s still grueling,” Hamlin says. “I think Darlington is by far one of the most grueling race tracks that you go to simply because it’s going to be a warm one this weekend. It’s going to be mentally taxing knowing that you have to hit your marks just perfect at this track and then, just knowing the mental side of it, you have 35 other guys out there that don’t want to let you win.”
What do crew chiefs and pit crews have in focus to win Sunday’s race?
Pit-stop strategy for teams at Darlington doesn’t lend itself to experimentation or alternate gambits. With the tendency for rapid tire wear on the gritty 1.366-mile track, the call for crew chiefs is virtually always for fresh Goodyear rubber at all four corners of the car.
Sunday’s springtime edition at Darlington is 100 miles shorter than the 500-mile Labor Day classic, and the stages are split into near-even thirds. The timing of the pit stops may be a variable, but the type of pit-crew service should be a constant.
“You know when you pit here, you’re going to come down and get four tires, every opportunity you get,” Randall Burnett, crew chief of Richard Childress Racing’s No. 8 Chevrolet for Kyle Busch, told NASCAR.com. “Last year was real unique. You had a couple back-to-back cautions there in the fall race where it was only a lap or two on tires. Some guys stayed out, but that lap or two made a difference. We came and pitted and put some tires on and were able to make up some spots just by a couple-lap different gain on tires there. So, yeah, tires are such a crucial thing here. It’s gonna be really hot tomorrow, which is gonna make them even more valuable. So, yeah, you just do four tires here.
“How you break up the stages is a little unique. A lot of guys will short-pit and then try to run the second half of a stage longer. Some guys will run it to halfway and split it perfectly, so you’ve got the same amount of laps on your tires and try to use your tires equally. So there’s a lot of different bearing strategies. It kind of depends on your pace and your fall-off and all that.”
Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
When drivers do come to pit, the track’s demanding “Too Tough to Tame” reputation also extends beyond the hard-edged racing surface down to a particularly tricky pit road. Pit entry is a difficult task, with drivers needing to slow their cars’ momentum and navigate the wide apron to reach pit lane. It’s a gritty area of the track, and pit road also has those same slick, sandy characteristics — especially as the weather turns warmer during the heat of the afternoon.
So while there might not be much guesswork with four-tire stops being the norm, the premium on precision in trying to change all four quickly is high.
“I think for us, it’s always a big race for the pit crews, obviously, because you know what you’ve got in front of you — you’re going to do four tires,” says Chris Burkey, Joe Gibbs Racing athletic director and a former pit-crew coach. “There’s really no strategy. Very rarely are you going to do the two-tire or fuel only. You’re going to come down here and it’s a man’s race, not only on the track, but for us. And we really look forward to races like this, because you’re going to do seven to eight pit stops this weekend. It’s 100 miles shorter than the one in the fall when you’re going to do 10 to 15 pit stops, right? But you know what you’ve got this week, and we really focus in on just doing four-tire pit stops.
“Man, if you can come out of here feeling good about what you did on pit road, you probably finished pretty well on the track, but we always look forward to Darlington. We always circle Darlington because it’s really a man’s race for us.”
Pit-stall selection — the reward for a solid qualifying lap — stands out as another key. Burkey said choosing a stall closer to the exit in Turn 1 is preferable, but that the spots to avoid are further toward the entrance at Turn 4. A section of six stalls in that area have a slight curvature to the wall, plus another barrier that juts out before teams make their way down the rest of pit road.
“Those are the more challenging ones,” says Burkey, who describes those half-dozen stalls as “an island.” “Obviously, we want our guys to qualify well, so we can get up toward the front and be on that frontstretch there. It’s pretty straightforward if you’re down there, but if you’re down on that Turn 4 exit there, they can be challenging.”
Expect a veteran presence up front. According to Racing Insights, every Darlington winner since 2006 has had a minimum of 100 career Cup Series starts. That was the case with both of last year’s Darlington victors — Brad Keselowski, who turned his 534th Cup Series start into his 36th win, and Chase Briscoe, who prevailed in the Southern 500 in Cup start No. 134 for his second premier-series victory.
He may not be the favorite to win, but watch out for …
ERIK JONES. The Legacy Motor Club driver currently sits 29th in the early Cup Series standings, but his racing acumen at Darlington is among the circuit’s best. Two of Jones’ three Cup Series wins have come at Darlington (2019, 2022), and the track ranks tied for his best in top fives and top 10s and second-best in average finish (12.8). The 28-year-old driver has gone 86 starts since his last win, but Darlington has traditionally been one of his strong suits.
Fantasy update
NASCAR Fantasy Live expert Dustin Albino provides insight for your Sunday lineup.
Like Martinsville last week, Darlington is among the toughest tracks for building the best fantasy lineup because of the changing track conditions throughout practice. However, a few cars stood out, particularly Ryan Blaney who had the fastest car on 20-, 25- and 30-lap averages by nearly a tenth of a second on fellow competitors that made an extended run. Ryan Preece and Kyle Busch also performed well over the long haul, which Darlington is known for having. My only lineup changes this week are dropping Chris Buescher in favor of Busch and flipping William Byron to outrun Denny Hamlin in the featured matchups.
Our biggest pieces of the week — get covered for race day from all angles. • Darlington Stripe’s history: The track’s outside-wall toughness, a 75-year tradition | Read more
• Racing Insights: Full finishing order projections for Sunday’s Goodyear 400 | Read more
• Turning Point to Darlington: Keselowski the next veteran in line? | Read more
• Scenes and snapshots: Best photos from Darlington’s Throwback Weekend | View gallery
• NASCAR Classics: Rewind with full-race replays from the Darlington archives | Watch races
• Paint Scheme Preview: All the vintage designs ready to hit the track | View gallery
DARLINGTON, S.C. — After diligently working through a 98-race winless streak over the last three NASCAR Xfinity Series seasons, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Brandon Jones reminded his competitors — and his fans — Saturday that he’s still a race winner and a title contender.
The well-liked 28-year-old Atlanta native took the lead on a restart with 12 laps remaining in Saturday’s Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help A Hero 200 at the historic Darlington Raceway — beating 2020 Cup Series champion Chase Elliott to the finish line by a healthy 1.105-second margin to hoist his first trophy since the Martinsville spring race on April, 8, 2022 — a span of 98 races.
The 1.366-mile Darlington track may be nicknamed “Too Tough to Tame,” but it certainly presented a tamer race than the series produced a week ago on the typically wild Martinsville half-miler. This weekend featured 14 lead changes among nine drivers — none of the changes up front a result of overly aggressive driving.
Instead, strategy, a fast car and unwavering belief in himself and his team made the difference for Jones.
“It’s nice for my confidence, right, but it’s also to prove to the haters and people that said I was incapable of doing it, wrong again,” said Jones, whose No. 20 JGR Toyota led 24 of the race’s 137 laps.
“This place is freaking awesome man, I love coming to Darlington,” he added, “Second win and just huge momentum. I knew we were on a high, just didn’t know when it was going to happen.”
Justin Allgaier, who led the most laps (56) on the afternoon and won Stage 2, finished third in the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet, followed by teammates Ross Chastain and rookie Carson Kvapil. The team, co-owned by NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his sister Kelley Earnhardt Miller, had all five of its Chevys in the top 10, with rookie Connor Zilisch finishing sixth and Sammy Smith ninth.
Rookies punctuated the top 10 despite it being the first time most of them had ever raced at the famously challenging venue. In addition to Kvapil and Zilisch, rookies Christian Eckes and Nick Sanchez claimed seventh and eighth place, with Smith and veteran Sheldon Creed rounding out the top 10.
Harrison Burton’s AM Racing team won the opening stage, and JGR’s Taylor Gray was credited with the Xfinity Fastest Lap (160.706 mph) of the day.
“I am proud of Brandon Jones, I know how hard the kid has worked, he’s done a good job and I’m happy to see him get to Victory Lane” said the reigning series champion Allgaier, who has now tied Hall of Famer Mark Martin with nine consecutive top 10s in Xfinity Series races at Darlington.
It’s been that kind of year for Allgaier. He’s finished top 10 in six of the last seven races of 2025, including back-to-back victories at Las Vegas and Homestead-Miami in March and a runner-up finish at Atlanta in February.
“Disappointed,” Allgaier conceded of his Darlington day, however, noting his Chevy’s speed was good and the team overcame an early race pit-road miscue.
“We were able to get the track position back, at least for the most part. But clean air was too important today. When we were up front, we had it. But I really needed the long runs and just didn’t have that at the end of the race today. Proud of everybody on our Brandt Chemical Chevrolet. We’re on a heckuva run with top fives right now.”
The series’ popular Dash 4 Cash incentive program returns with next Saturday’s SciAps 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway (5 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The highest finisher among Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Hill, Haas Factory Team’s Creed, Allgaier and Alpha Prime Racing’s Brennan Poole will win the Dash 4 Cash $100,000 bonus check from Xfinity, having earned eligibility based on their results at Martinsville last week.
Next week marks the first spring race at Bristol since 2019. Christopher Bell was the race winner.
NOTE: Post-race inspection was completed without issue in the Xfinity Series garage, confirming Brandon Jones as the race winner. The No. 20 Toyota had one lug nut not safe and secure, which will result in a monetary fine. The Nos. 00, 7 and 19 will be returned to the NASCAR Research & Development Center in Concord, North Carolina, for teardown.
DARLINGTON, S.C. — NASCAR officials met with the entire field of Xfinity Series drivers early Friday morning before any on-track activity at Darlington Raceway — a meeting triggered by an incredibly aggressive showing for the series at the Martinsville Speedway short track a week ago — a race so chaotic that Chase Elliott — a former Xfinity Series and Cup Series champ — called it “embarrassing” for the sport.
Although aggressive moves characterized much of the second half of the race, a big wreck on the final lap started up front with the then-leaders — Joe Gibbs Racing’s Taylor Gray and JR Motorsports’ Sammy Smith — precipitated angry confrontations post-race. Gray (off track) and Smith (on track) were both penalized for their actions.
Veteran Austin Hill was the big beneficiary of the on-track situation between the two, driving through the melee up front to claim his second win of the year — credited with only leading that last lap. Hill shared that the meeting went well and that he expects his fellow drivers to be more mindful of the way they race going forward, calling NASCAR very “firm” in its morning message.
“I think it’s going to calm down a lot more than you think today,” Hill said ahead of Saturday afternoon’s Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help A Hero 200 at Darlington. “We’ll have to wait and see, but I think we’re all going to still be aggressive and trying to win the race, but it’s going to be a very respectful race.”
The next trip to Martinsville in late October determines which four playoff drivers advance to the Championship 4 with a shot to win the 2025 Xfinity Series title.
“NASCAR made it very clear they don’t want to be in the ball-and-strike business, they don’t want to be making all these calls, so they said for us to help them with that,” Hill said. “They [NASCAR] also said if they have to step in and start making calls and black-flagging people and parking people and all those things, they’ll do it. I agree with where NASCAR stands with that, but I also think we in the Xfinity Series need to do a better job going forward and not putting it in NASCAR’s hands.”
DARLINGTON, S.C. — The last spring weekend Brad Keselowski spent in Darlington, he left South Carolina with a big trophy. It was the first victory the 2012 NASCAR Cup Series champion had earned as co-team owner at Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing. As importantly, it marked a highlight in a challenging new role as owner and driver.
Darlington, in particular, has been a recent highlight reel for Keselowski, whose average finish (6.4) in the last five races is best in the field. He has plenty of reason to be optimistic about this spring run of races — at Darlington, Bristol Motor Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway — all venues where he is a multi-time winner.
He comes to South Carolina without a single lap led in 2025 and is still looking to claim his first top 10 of the season. His best showing in the No. 6 RFK Ford is 11th at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He’s finished 26th in the two races (at Homestead-Miami and Martinsville) leading into Darlington.
“I feel like we’re doing all the right things and get to where we need to be, we just haven’t gotten the results,” said Keselowski, who qualified 20th for Sunday’s race. “We haven’t qualified as well as we liked to have.
“In the race, we haven’t been able to put together for a number of reasons, some of it in our control, a lot of it not in our control, so it’s been frustrating. But kind of have the feeling we’re getting the bad luck out of the way early in the season. That’s kind of the overwhelming sentiment and if we stay the course, it will come back to us.”
See where your favorite NASCAR Cup Series driver will pit for the Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway on Sunday (3 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
DARLINGTON, S.C. — Since the 2015 season, NASCAR’s premier series has honored the legends that have paved the way in the Cup Series with Throwback Weekend at Darlington Raceway.
That effort continues a decade later as paint schemes of the past will adorn Next Gen cars for 400 miles of racing action on Sunday (3 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
From Earnhardt to Yarborough, the Cup Series garage is lined with colorful schemes and crew shirts alike, paying tribute to drivers and teams who came before them and have been influential in their desire to compete in motorsports — a tradition drivers feel is important to carry on.
“I love it. I absolutely love it,” Ryan Blaney said in his Saturday media availability. “I love to see what people come up with. Every year, there’s so many neat schemes from drivers or teams that have inspired a lot of people to be in the garage today that get to throw it back. And I love just walking through the garage. I really wish we wouldn’t announce it on X, I wish you just show up with it and then people see it in the garage for the first time, because that’d be a huge, neat reveal type situation.
“But you walk around the garage like, ‘Man, I remember that car as a kid,’ or ‘I’ve seen videos from that car from the ’70s or ’80s.’ That’s just really, really neat. So it still is very special, and the teams love doing it, and I hope the fans still enjoy it. I know they do.”
Ryan Blaney’s No. 12 Team Penske Ford has direct family connections to the 31-year-old this week as they don a throwback scheme to his father, Dave Blaney, and his 2006 Xfinity Series win at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Getty Images
Memories from Blaney’s childhood suddenly get thrust onto the NASCAR Cup Series stage, something that is important to him and carries significant weight to his family.
“I didn’t really know we were doing that,” Blaney said. “That was kind of a Penske surprise to me, so I thought that was pretty neat.
“Just neat that I can have the option to do that. And it meant a lot to my dad, a surprise to him. I remember that race. Unfortunately, I wasn’t there, but I was watching it on TV, and a couple of guys are still walking around the garage. They were part of that team. Trent Owens was the crew chief on that thing. He’s still around. So it means a lot. It’s cool when you can throw back to your family.”
Ryan Blaney is not the only driver competing on Sunday to have personal connections to his throwback paint scheme. Team Penske teammate Joey Logano’s No. 22 Ford pays tribute to another three-time Cup champion, Cale Yarborough.
In 2009, when Logano was just a rookie in Cup competition, the now 34-year-old three-time title winner had the opportunity to take laps around Darlington in the passenger seat with Yarborough behind the wheel.
Rusty Jarrett | Getty Images
That memory is one Logano recalls fondly as a young driver looking to make it in the sport, gathering wisdom from one of the most successful drivers to race on Sundays.
“Yeah, Cale and I sat right here at one point,” Logano said at Darlington on Saturday. “It was a really neat experience to ride with him. You get some tips that are still useful today, the laps run around here, and I mean, ultimately, cool factor, though, right? I mean, riding in the passenger seat with Cale Yarborough driving you around as a rookie. The coolest thing. So kind of a full-circle experience here for me, thinking about that moment. Both of us had three championships. It felt like the timing was right to honor him and his family.”
The “cool factor” is an important sentiment to the drivers in the garage, but for Logano, honoring the history of the drivers that made it possible for the drivers we see today is the most important aspect and highlights the success of Throwback Weekend.
“It’s all too important to do,” Logano said. “I think, for me, obviously, this is a cool factor. I think we see that, but I think the part that’s even more meaningful is that in sports, a lot of times when an athlete retires, they kind of ride off into the sunset and unfortunately, get forgotten about fairly quickly.
“I think Throwback Weekend like this brings back those memories. It’s really cool for that driver to see their scheme back on the race track and a way for us to pay honor to the pioneers of our sport and the people who have built our sport. I think that’s what makes this weekend really special.”
