Plenty of folks are thrilled to see Brad Keselowski’s 110-race winless drought come to an end, but perhaps no one more than his oldest daughter, Scarlett.
Keselowski scored the win in Sunday’s Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway in dazzling fashion and celebrated his 36th career NASCAR Cup Series victory as usual — by performing a burnout while displaying the American flag out his driver-side window.
Scarlett, his 8-year-old daughter, joined the festivities Sunday with younger sister Autumn, as both rode in the passenger seat of dad’s car to Victory Lane before joining him in the media center for a press conference.
But Scarlett didn’t want the party to stop there. Keselowski’s wife, Paige, posted a video to social media Monday morning of Scarlett walking into school with the same American flag Keselowski used after Sunday’s race.
No one happier than this girl. She wanted to take the race winning flag to school today so her class could use it for the pledge of allegiance ❤️🇺🇸 🏁 pic.twitter.com/w9zfnFjCW1
— Paige Keselowski (@Paigekeselowski) May 13, 2024
“No one happier than this girl,” Paige Keselowski wrote. “She (Scarlett) wanted to take the race-winning flag to school today so her class could use it for the Pledge of Allegiance.”
Keselowski had not won since April 2021 at Talladega Superspeedway, when Scarlett was just 5 years old and Autumn was just 1 year old. The triumph also marked Keselowski’s first behind the wheel of the No. 6 RFK Racing Ford and first as team co-owner.
The 2012 Cup champion Keselowski will pursue another first at North Wilkesboro Speedway as he eyes the $1 million prize in Sunday’s NASCAR All-Star Race (8 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Sunday’s Goodyear 400 came down to a thrilling, three-car battle over the final 33 laps, with Brad Keselowski emerging victorious after Chris Buescher and Tyler Reddick fell out of contention late.
Reddick was the class of the field almost all day — but things change quickly at the “Lady in Black.” When the checkered flag flew, one sophomore driver stormed to his best career finish and a rookie nabbed his first top five of the year. Meanwhile, two past NASCAR Cup Series champions struggled to overcome late challenges.
After a doozy of a Darlington stunner, see which drivers are trending upward and those going in the wrong direction.
THREE UP ⬆️
1. Ty Gibbs, No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
Alejandro Alvarez | NASCAR Digital Media
Started: 4th
Finished: 2nd
What happened: Lost in the fray of Sunday’s post-race ruckus, the JGR rookie notched a career-best runner-up finish Sunday at Darlington, the track “Too Tough to Tame.” Gibbs was a frontrunner all afternoon, notching a third-best 4.05 average running position, per NASCAR loop data, behind only Reddick and Keselowski.
What’s next: Gibbs returns to the historic North Wilkesboro Speedway for the All-Star Race, where the No. 54 team pit crew won Gibbs the pole for last year’s All-Star Open. Gibbs will have to race his way into the big show Sunday night, but he accomplished that feat in last year’s event with a second-place finish in the Open.
2. Josh Berry, No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford
Alejandro Alvarez | NASCAR Digital Media
Started: 33rd
Finished: 3rd
What happened: Despite a qualifying effort that left him third-from-last, Berry methodically picked his way through the field to score his first top-five finish since joining Stewart-Haas Racing. The result was no fluke for Berry, who posted the 13th-best average running position (14.33) Sunday and his fourth straight top-20 finish.
What’s next: The short-track ace returns to a familiar playground at North Wilkesboro, where Berry won the All-Star Open a year ago, substituting for a then-injured Alex Bowman. He’ll look to make his second appearance in the All-Star Race on Sunday.
3. Justin Haley, No. 51 Rick Ware Racing
James Gilbert | Getty Images
Started: 28th
Finished: 9th
What happened: Haley keeps improving with Rick Ware Racing, wheeling the No. 51 Ford to his first top-10 finish with the organization. Haley has shown flashes of speed all year, evidenced by a 17th-place finish in March at Bristol. But Haley is on an upswing now, with finishes of 23rd (Dover), 18th (Kansas) and ninth in consecutive weeks.
What’s next: Haley’s campaign to earn the Fan Vote into the 2024 All-Star Race has been nothing short of spectacular. If the No. 51 team continues its forward charge, perhaps it won’t need to rely on the ballots to compete for the $1 million prize.
What happened: Logano was solidly at the front of the field Sunday, racing inside the top five and top 10 for much of the afternoon. But a speeding penalty at Lap 255 under the race’s final caution period upended any of the good mojo the No. 22 team built, squandering what was a ninth-best average running position (9.92).
What’s next: The 2016 All-Star Race winner is looking for another $1 million payday. The difference, of course, is that the 2016 contest was run at Charlotte Motor Speedway and not the tight confines of North Wilkesboro. Logano was 10th on the short track a season ago.
2. Martin Truex Jr., No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
James Gilbert | Getty Images
Started: 10th
Finished: 25th
What happened: Truex appeared to be a real player early in Sunday’s race, still searching for that elusive first victory of 2024. What he found, however, was a damaged nose on his car after a multicar collision at Lap 129. The 2017 Cup champion was able to continue, but ultimately faded through the pack for his first finish outside the top 20 this season.
What’s next: The All-Star Race has never quite been Truex’s cup of tea, with just four top 10s in 12 appearances in the main event and a 14th-place result last year. The good news? Charlotte Motor Speedway awaits after the All-Star exhibition — a track where Truex has won three times.
3. Tyler Reddick, No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota
Jacob Reeves | For NASCAR Digital Media
Started: 1st
Finished: 32nd
What happened: It was all looking so good for Reddick until it wasn’t. Reddick dominated Sunday’s race at Darlington, leading a race-high 174 of 293 laps on a day no one else led more than 40. But in a desperate attempt to pass Chris Buescher for the lead with 10 laps to go, Reddick slid high, knocking Buescher into the wall and cutting Reddick’s right-rear tire, sending the No. 45 car to a 32nd-place finish instead.
What’s next: With two disappointing results in the rearview mirror in addition to last week’s 20th-place run at Kansas, Reddick shifts sights to North Wilkesboro, where he earned a third-place finish in last year’s inaugural return to the North Carolina gem.
A second consecutive race where Chris Buescher looked destined for his first checkered flag of 2024 ended in bent fenders and flared tempers as Buescher and Tyler Reddick clashed in the closing laps at Darlington Raceway, ending with a face-to-face confrontation on pit road.
Buescher was walled by Reddick in a fight for the win in Sunday’s Goodyear 400 after Reddick dove to Buescher’s left in Turn 3. Reddick drifted high and contacted Buescher, who had nowhere to go but to bounce off the SAFER barrier to his right.
The result of the contact was a flat right-rear tire for Reddick and damage that forced Buescher to hit pit road, allowing Buescher’s teammate and RFK Racing co-owner Brad Keselowski to escape with the victory. Buescher ultimately finished 30th and Reddick 32nd.
“Trying to be decent about it,” Buescher said after the race. “We had clean racing all day long and to get flat-out fenced like that, there’s no excuse. It’s just a poor decision and immature move. I don’t get it.”
Buescher was also a near-winner one week ago at Kansas Speedway, where Kyle Larson door-slammed the No. 17 RFK Racing Ford down the front stretch and nipped Buescher at the finish line by 0.001 seconds, the closest finish in NASCAR Cup Series history.
While Buescher’s career isn’t history-laden with disagreements with his competitors, that could change for the 31-year old.
“It about has to. We keep getting run into without hitting somebody else first,” Buescher said. “Struggle to understand the reason.
“I’ve had issues with hardly anybody out here. Growing up trying to race clean and be smart about it. I’ve had to fix my own race cars a lot growing up and I hate trying to fix noses or fix doors and I try to remember that for these men and women that work so hard on our cars to make them fast every week. You’re going to have times where you going to push and shove but can’t find a reason or an excuse for that.”
Third… yeah I was a little pissed. Our whole team deserves to be in victory lane. We keep showing speed like this and that will happen… just wish it was today. Really looking forward to the 600 after the All Star race
After Buescher unleashed his frustrations on him with a shove and a stern discussion, Reddick didn’t offer a defense for the contact and was apologetic after climbing out of his damaged No. 45 Toyota.
“I completely understand that. If I just would’ve took myself out of it, I had a flat, that’s a different story, but yeah he was going to win that race had I not tried that,” Reddick lamented. “I realized it wasn’t going to work. There was just no grip left and yeah I slid right into him and took us both out. I’m not happy about it.”
Reddick led a race-high 174 laps and won Stage 2. The final stint of Sunday’s showdown saw him in a fierce battle with both RFK Fords, which ended in Brad Keselowski’s first triumph since 2021.
With 30 laps to go, Keselowski forced Reddick into the wall off Turn 4 that allowed Buescher to take a daring move down toward the pit-road barrier to overtake both the Nos. 6 and 45.
Reddick worked his way back to Buescher before the contact with 10 laps to go.
“I was hoping I was going to surprise him, but he was ready for it,” Reddick said. “And yeah, I tried to back out of it, but it’s Darlington man. There’s no grip left.”
Buescher still takes positives from his effort today. Leading 21 laps and scoring points in both stages has the No. 17 team continuing its upward trajectory following the runner-up result last weekend at Kansas.
“There’s a fight in this team right now that no single on-track action is going to take away from us,” Buescher said.
The Prosper, Texas native will eventually celebrate his teammate’s first victory in 110 races, but Buescher admitted the end “selfishly, is hurting me.”
“We’ve been able to race respectfully for our careers and we try to do that week in and week out and it’s not getting us anywhere right now,” Buescher said. “Just to get wiped out like that, it’s a shame. That’s a big shame.
“On the flip side, I’m stoked for Brad and the 6 bunch and RFK to get a win here, that’s huge. But right now, selfishly, I’m mad for my team and our group. We had a great day there and we didn’t get anything to show for it.”
DARLINGTON, S.C. — A combination of stubbornness and patience paid off handsomely for Brad Keselowski on Sunday at Darlington Raceway, where the driver of the No. 6 Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing Ford ended a 110-race winless streak with victory in the Goodyear 400.
Keselowski’s triumph, which came at the expense of hard-luck teammate Chris Buescher and pole winner Tyler Reddick, gave the Ford Dark Horse Mustang its first NASCAR Cup Series victory this season in 13 races and led to a heated exchange between Buescher and Reddick on pit road after the fact.
It was also Keselowski’s first win as a principal owner in RFK Racing, his second at Darlington and the 36th of his career.
“What a heck of a day,” exulted Keselowski, who finished 1.214 seconds ahead of runner-up Ty Gibbs. “It’s Darlington, so whether it’s your first win, your last win, this is a really special track. The history of NASCAR, it’s as tough as it gets, and that battle at the end with my teammate and Tyler Reddick, we just laid it all out on the line, it was freaking awesome.
“I thought it couldn’t get much better than Kansas. It did today. That was awesome. I’m so glad you guys got to see that (addressed to the fans). That was incredible. Thanks for being here.”
Keselowski was stubborn in the way he raced Reddick after the final restart on Lap 261 of 293, aggressively staying beside the No. 45 Toyota and running him up the track in Turn 3.
For four straight laps, Keselowski and Reddick battled side-by-side, allowing Buescher to slip past into the lead at the start/finish line on Lap 264. Reddick cleared Keselowski shortly thereafter and took off in pursuit of Buescher.
That’s when Keselowski exercised patience and stayed within striking distance, waiting for the drama that unfolded ahead of him.
On Lap 284, Reddick’s ill-timed bid for the lead went awry. His No. 45 Camry slid up the track into Buescher’s Ford, pinning it against the outside wall in Turn 4. Both cars were damaged and unable to maintain pace, and Keselowski charged into the lead on Lap 285.
Buescher, still smarting from last week’s loss to Kyle Larson at Kansas in the closest finish in Cup Series history (0.001 seconds), confronted Reddick on pit road after the drivers climbed from their cars.
“We got wrecked,” Buescher said later. “That one’s clear as day. Don’t need any cameras to tell us. I don’t know what to say. We’ve raced really clean through the years, tried to be really respectful about it, and we get used up.
“It (Reddick’s move) is just something that you know is not going to work. I’m just really pissed off about it right now. We certainly had a chance to win another one. I’m proud to have that speed. Just huge congratulations to Brad and the 6 bunch on their win. That’s awesome, but I wanted it for our group right here.”
Reddick took responsibility for the incident and punctuated his conversation with Buescher with the words “I know. I (screwed) up—I’m sorry.”
Reddick elaborated after he and Buescher separated.
“I completely understand where he is coming from,” Reddick said. “He was running the top, running his own race, running his own line to keep me at bay. I made a really aggressive move and was hoping I was going to clear him. When I realized I wasn’t going to, I tried to check up to not slide up into him, but, yeah, I wish I wouldn’t have done that.
“I completely understand why he is that mad. He did nothing wrong. Just trying to win the race, and to take myself out—that’s one thing—I can live with that, but just disappointed it played out the way that it did, and I took him out of the race as well.”
All but lost in the late-race drama was Gibbs’ career-best second-place finish. The driver of the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota also finished second in Stage 1 and third in Stage 2 behind respective stage winners Kyle Larson and Reddick.
Josh Berry finished third in his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford, followed by Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe. William Byron, Bubba Wallace, Alex Bowman, Justin Haley and Michael McDowell completed the top 10.
Hamlin led one lap during a cycle of green-flag pit stops in the final stage, extending his streak of consecutive races with at least one lap led to 17.
Larson (34th on Sunday after a late-race crash) leads the series standings by 30 points over Martin Truex Jr., who finished 25th after suffering alternator issues.
Ryan Blaney was the race’s first retiree after a restart crash at Lap 129. William Byron dove three-wide beneath Blaney and Martin Truex Jr. in Turn 2 and drifted high, squeezing Truex into Blaney, who then contacted the outside wall. Blaney’s No. 12 Team Penske crew was unable to repair the car within the allotted time on the Damaged Vehicle Policy clock, ending Blaney’s race. Blaney swerved at Byron on the race track to show his displeasure before returning to the garage.
NOTE: There were no issues in post-race inspection, confirming Keselowski as the race winner.
Ryan Blaney was involved in a multicar collision exiting Turn 2 on Sunday afternoon at Darlington Raceway, ending his race.
Blaney restarted sixth at Lap 129 of Sunday’s Goodyear 400 but was trapped on the outside of a three-wide scenario with Martin Truex Jr. and William Byron. In the bottom lane, Byron slid high into Truex, squeezing Blaney into the wall right-rear first.
The right-rear toe link of Blaney’s No. 12 Ford Dark Horse Mustang was damaged, as was the front of Truex’s No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Kyle Larson and Bubba Wallace made door contact while trying to avoid the melee, while Chris Buescher and Denny Hamlin also received minor damage in the incident.
Blaney showed his displeasure to Byron, taking a swerve at the No. 24 before heading back to pit road.
No. 12’s Team Penske crew attempted to repair the car but exceeded the allotted seven minutes on the Damaged Vehicle Policy clock, resulting in Blaney’s retirement from the event. The defending NASCAR Cup Series champion was credited with a 36th-place finish, last on the day and his first DNF since the season-opening Daytona 500.
“I was just mad I ended up in the fence and wrecked,” Blaney told FOX Sports. “He (Byron) shoved it three-wide under us and just got tight off of (Turn) 2 and I got tagged and ended up getting wrecked. … He used up a little more race track than I thought, so I kind of have every right to be mad. And he gets away scot-free.
“Just unfortunate. I thought we got pretty good. We finally got up to sixth and really made good ground up in the first stage. Had a good pit stop and the Maytag/Menards Ford Mustang was, I thought, we had something to work with and I was excited to start the second half of the race. Just didn’t get that chance.”
After finishing sixth, Byron told reporters he believed he was ahead of Blaney and Truex by corner exit.
“I felt like I was ahead of them,” Byron said. “The exit is really narrow right there. I hate if I did come up a little bit. I was surprised I was even in that spot. I felt like I would never get to the bottom of a three-wide there, but the lane was there into (Turn) 1 and my car turned really good. I got almost clear of Martin, and then yeah, I hate that it happened. I don’t want to crash, especially that early in the race, so I didn’t really expect that to happen. I probably could have given a little more room. It just gets really, really tight right there.”
Once again, Racing Insights favors Larson in Sunday’s Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway (3 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, Sirius XM NASCAR Radio), but there have been some changes to the projected order after Saturday’s practice and qualifying sessions.
After Larson in the projected order comes Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin (unchanged), but Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron has jumped up to third place from sixth. Next comes pole winner Tyler Reddick from 23XI Racing in fourth and JGR’s Martin Truex Jr. to complete the top five.
RFK Racing’s Brad Keselowski jumps up two spots to sixth, and Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott and Kyle Busch round out the top 10.
But back to Larson’s Darlington dominance where he won the Southern 500 last September. At Darlington, Larson’s 9.4 average finish ranks third-best all time among drivers with more than two starts. In his six starts with Hendrick Motorsports at Darlington, Larson has posted three top-two finishes and led 270 laps.
His 8.5 average running position overall in 2024 (second) and 10.83 average finish (third) are good indicators of why the metrics continue to favor him. With two wins on the season, it’s not hard to think Larson could soon match Denny Hamlin and William Byron in win totals with three.
After a wild finish at Kansas, who knows what thrills will be in store for a throwback weekend at Darlington?
OTHER DRIVERS TO WATCH
WILLIAM BYRON: Byron hasn’t had a top-10 finish since Talladega, but expect him to find his stride at Darlington. Byron’s 898 laps run in the top five and 1,083 laps in the top 10 both rank first in the Next Gen era. What’s more impressive is that with those good runs, he found ways to finish races at the track “Too Tough to Tame.” His 6.5 average finish at Darlington is also a series-best in the Next Gen era.
TYLER REDDICK: Reddick has become a crafty superspeedway racer with a Duel win at Daytona and a victory at Talladega, but what about a 1.33-mile track? In the Next Gen era at Darlington, Reddick has the second-best average running position (7.84) and second-best average finish (7.25).
CHASE ELLIOTT: The 2020 champ has found some familiar ground so far this year. Over Elliott’s last six races, he’s tallied a win and five top-five finishes. In addition, Elliott owns the best average finish in the Next Gen era with 12.26. Not to mention, Hendrick Motorsports has won the last two races at Darlington.
BRAD KESELOWSKI: Keselowski currently has a streak of three top-10 finishes at Darlington. Plus, his career 11.4 average finish there is the eighth-best all-time among drivers with more than two starts. Keselowski was in contention for the win at Talladega a few weeks ago and could very well be in the mix this weekend.
NOAH GRAGSON: While there aren’t many Cup stats to go off of for Gragson, he has cracked the top 10 in each of the last three 2024 races and has started to find his footing at Stewart-Haas Racing. Darlington was a strong track for him in the Xfinity Series and it could click for him again.
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.
DARLINGTON, S.C. — Rodney Childers could not help but smile as his team unloaded Josh Berry’s No. 4 Harrison’s Ford for the Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway.
Just a few weeks earlier, Berry and Stewart-Haas Racing surprised Childers with a special throwback scheme similar to the No. 54 Late Model Stock Car he piloted to numerous victories around the southeast in 1998, a run that helped kickstart a successful career as a NASCAR crew chief.
Seeing the familiar silver colors on Berry’s car reminded Childers of all the pleasant memories he amassed as a driver, adding that the scheme perfectly encapsulated the significance and spirit of NASCAR’s annual Darlington throwback tradition.
“It was pretty emotional, and I was trying not to cry in front of a bunch of people,” Childers said. “We only got the cover back about three feet and I knew what it was. That scheme has been embedded in my head for a long time, and we were competitive everywhere we went. Having it on our car for throwback weekend is really special.”
Ongoing since the 2015 Southern 500, throwback weekend has seen NASCAR teams across all three top series bring out an assortment of tribute schemes that primarily honor key moments or prominent figures across motorsports history.
For the 2024 edition, teams were encouraged to design cars that honored the grassroots origins of their driver or a crew member. Although NASCAR history remained a focal point at Darlington this year, several programs arrived at the historic track with cars inspired by short-track heritage.
NASCAR Xfinity Series veteran Ryan Sieg carried the same colors he used during his time competing in Super Late Model events across Georgia during the 2000s, while Corey LaJoie’s paint scheme resembled the one from his first ARCA Menards Series East victory at Bowman Gray Stadium in 2012.
Berry’s Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Chase Briscoe chose to respect his dirt racing heritage for throwback weekend with a white No. 14 that mirrored the sprint car his father Kevin and grandfather Richard made famous during their respective careers.
Briscoe’s car also carries the names of every driver that has competed for his family’s sprint car team since 1976, which includes more than 14 Hall of Famers in the discipline and a picture collage that features Kevin battling alongside Jeff Gordon.
Chase Briscoe’s throwback scheme honors the drivers who have raced with his family’s sprint car program during its existence. (Photo: Yem Sanlaeid/NASCAR Regional)
The historical and personal context behind his racing background is why Briscoe was eager to represent his family at Darlington for the throwback theme this year.
“Throwback weekend is always cool because you get to shed light on some paint schemes NASCAR fans might not have seen before,” Briscoe said. “This is something I’ve always wanted to do, but I just never had the opportunity to do it. My grandpa is still around, so I wanted to make sure he [saw this scheme].
“That paint scheme is not the most flashy or exciting, but it means a lot to me and my family.”
Modified history was also on display at Darlington throughout the weekend. Berry and Briscoe’s other Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Ryan Preece brought out a car resembling the scheme he used when he won the 2013 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championship.
Patrick Emerling, another Modified veteran who currently drives the No. 07 part-time for SS Greenlight Racing in the Xfinity Series, honored a fellow discipline standout Jan Leaty with his throwback. Leaty served as Emerling’s Modified crew chief from the early 2010s until 2023.
Throughout his career, Emerling has taken advantage of every opportunity to recognize the history of Modified racing. In 2022, Emerling ran a tribute schemed to Modified legend Richie Evans, which had an air cleaner and bars as part of the wrap and sponsorship from B.R. Dewitt, who owned Evans’ Modified up until his passing in 1985.
The Jan Leaty throwback carries plenty of significance for Emerling. Not only is he honoring one of the best drivers in the history of Modified competition, but also a figure that was instrumental in molding Emerling into the driver he is today.
Patrick Emerling chose to honor fellow Modified driver Jan Leaty at Darlington Raceway this year. Leaty was his crew chief for all of his NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour wins. (Photo: Susan Wong/NASCAR Regional)
“[This scheme] really means a lot to me,” Emerling said. “Jan helped me out a lot as a driver, and we’re almost like family now. There was an opportunity with a red, white and blue sponsor in Liberty Brew [Coffee] coming onboard with us. We made this [throwback] happen, and I’m super stoked about it.”
Emerling has plenty more Modified-centric ideas for potential throwbacks at Darlington and hopes to see them come to fruition over the next several years.
Berry himself is unsure of the longevity of throwback weekend with how many iconic schemes have been utilized during the event’s 10-year run. Despite this, he expressed satisfaction over making everything come together to honor the past achievements of his crew chief and a fellow Late Model Stock alum.
“There’s a lot that goes into these throwbacks, and that’s why you see less and less of them,” Berry said. “A lot [of ideas] have been done already, and it takes a partner like Harrison’s that wants to buy into it and is willing to change their branding. It means a lot to Rodney for us to run that paint scheme again and have his family here. That’s what this is about.”
Childers said the tribute scheme also serves as a reminder of a simple time in Late Model Stock racing, back when he had to work diligently for hours to stay on top against entry lists that regularly exceeded 70 cars.
Having Berry as the one driving the car only makes the weekend more perfect for Childers, given their similar backgrounds. The duo has yet to celebrate a victory together, but Childers is confident Berry’s experience from so many years in short-track racing will gradually make their program better.
The opportunity for Childers and others like him to see their accomplishments honored in a NASCAR race at Darlington is why he believes throwback weekend needs to endure.
“We’re at the best place [for throwback weekend],” Childers said. “There is only one place to do it, and that’s here with the rich history of Darlington [Raceway] and everything that’s happened here over the years. To do the throwback schemes and have a lot of the Hall of Famers come be a part of it makes this perfect.
DARLINGTON, S.C. — “Too Tough to Tame.” “The Lady in Black.”
When a race track has multiple nicknames, you can bet it’s among the toughest for NASCAR drivers to get around.
Darlington Raceway fits the bill for the monikers with its uniqueness as a narrow, asymmetrical 1.366-mile oval.
Rarely, if ever, will you see the outside retaining walls squeaky clean after races as drivers flirt inches away from the wall while searching for speed. Some can make it the full distance without ever touching the wall but most hot rods, searching for speed up top, will don the patented ‘Darlington stripe,’ leaving vibrant paint schemes scuffed and fenders bent.
Brad Keselowski, winner of the 2018 Southern 500, knows all too well the courage it takes just to enter Turn 1 at Darlington.
“It takes guts. I mean, there’s no way around it. You know, this track is very intimidating,” Keselowski said. “You’re going to hit the wall here. At some point, you have to almost accept that. But I mean, you can’t back down from the challenge.”
Both corner entries present varying fits for drivers. While Turns 1 and 3 are narrow, the former requires a slight dive on entry, followed by riding the car up the track before straightening out alongside the wall to carry speed coming off Turn 2.
Turns 3 and 4 are a tad more technical, with more options. Drivers can either try to dive deep into the corner to complete a pass on the inside or master throttle control by staying up by the wall from corner entry to exit before putting the pedal to the metal down to the start/finish line.
Three-time Southern 500 victor Denny Hamlin embraces the risks that the track presents every lap, adding that he doesn’t need a perfect No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to find Victory Lane.
“It’s certainly a fine line and usually the fastest line here at this track is going to be the closest that you can get to the wall,” Hamlin said. “There’s obviously a risk-reward there that you have to play that game, but I love this track because you can move around and change the balance of your car. Your car doesn’t have to be necessarily perfect to win here. The driver plays a huge, huge role at this type of track and so I love it.”
Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
During Saturday’s Cup Series practice and qualifying sessions, Hamlin’s JGR teammate Martin Truex Jr. found that fine line in his run for the pole as he brushed the wall.
Truex, the 2016 Southern 500 winner, still managed to qualify 10th for Sunday’s Goodyear 400 (3 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) and explained why it’s more difficult to practice and qualify at Darlington than the race itself.
“You have one lap where you really got to try to make it happen,” Truex said. “I went a little too hard in Round 2 of qualifying trying to go faster from Round 1 and I paid the price. So, in the race, I feel like it’s a little bit easier. The pace slows down. You’re not having to [be] quite committed as much. You can kind of give up a little on entry and make it up in other places, I feel like, but it’s definitely harder here than anywhere, that’s for sure.”
With Darlington’s spring race taking place all in daylight while the Labor Day tradition of the Southern 500 starts in the sun and gives way to darkness, the notebook evolves as the cars change and drivers tend to readapt annually to the track.
One change a handful of Cup drivers noticed is a patch that lays in Turn 2 just before exiting down the backstretch. Keselowski noted that it makes an apparent difference as it has worn out and blended in with the rest of the abrasive racing surface.
“A couple years ago, they repaved the exit of Turn 2 and it was like this grip strip of speed,” Keselowski said. “And then incrementally every year, we’ve seen it almost turn into the rest of the track. I was watching the Truck race and you can’t even see it if you don’t have a trained eye. That’s really changed the track in the last three or four years because when they first repaved it, there was this grip strip and you just flew through there, and now it’s kind of getting harder and harder to go through that section of the race track.
“That’s changed the approach. I think even in the Truck race you saw two or three guys wreck off of Turn 2 where normally that grip strip would have just saved you. So I think that’s one of the key dynamics of how the track has changed in the last few years.”
Chase Elliott has yet to win in 14 starts at Darlington and has had a fair share of misfortune around ‘The Lady in Black,’ most notably a late-race incident with Truex in the 2020 Southern 500, in which the two made contact entering Turn 1 and took synchronized slams into the wall.
The driver of the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet gave his breakdown of why Darlington is a complete 180 from other ovals larger than a mile.
“It’s just all about getting in a rhythm and this track is a place that is pretty hard to get in a rhythm because both ends are so different,” Elliott said. “It just adds an element to that that makes it different than some other tracks. Kansas [Turn] 1 versus Kansas 3 is different but not quite so different as what this place is. So that’s the challenge. How bad do you need to pace? Is there pace up there? Can you make pace up there? You just got to figure those things out as you go.”
When 400 miles are completed Sunday afternoon, competitors in NASCAR’s highest level will have checked off another weekend around the sport’s most difficult track.
The only questions that remain are: who will be the one to tame Darlington, and who will leave the track with nothing but a stripe?
Coming off a heartbreaking loss at Kansas Speedway, RFK Racing has brought even more speed to Darlington Raceway this weekend. Chris Buescher looked to have among the best cars in the field on Saturday in practice, while his teammate and co-owner Brad Keselowski earned his first top-10 starting position of the season. The Darlington usuals of Tyler Reddick, Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin are all lineup-worthy, too.
Starter 1: Kyle Larson Starter 2: Tyler Reddick Starter 3: Chris Buescher Starter 4: Martin Truex Jr. Starter 5: William Byron Garage pick: Brad Keselowski
NEXT IN LINE: Denny Hamlin, Ross Chastain, Kyle Busch, Michael McDowell
RISING: When McDowell announced his departure from Front Row Motorsports at the end of the season, he vowed to be committed to the No. 34 team for the remainder of the 2024 season. That promise looked to be true on Saturday, as McDowell’s continuous speed in practice and qualifying transferred to Darlington. He ranked fifth on 10-lap averages in practice, with Ford taking four of the top-five spots.
No matter what series Chastain competes in at Darlington, he always brings speed. He won the Craftsman Truck Series race on Friday evening, taking advantage of an overtime restart. He’s been fast in all four of his starts with Trackhouse here, too, but has just a single top-five finish to show for it. In two of the other three races, he wrecked while battling for the lead. The No. 1 car was sporty in practice and qualified ninth.
FALLING: If Elliott is to extend his streak of top-five finishes to six straight on non-superspeedway tracks, the No. 9 car is going to have to come from 31st. Elliott came from 29th starting position at Dover to finish fifth. He ranked sixth on 10-lap averages in practice. The primary reason for keeping him from my lineup is it will be an uphill battle to earn stage points.
While many of the Ford drivers showed up with competitive speed, Logano ranked middle of the pack on long-run speed. His 14th-place qualifying position matched his 10-lap speed. The No. 22 car is typically a contender at Darlington, but Team Penske has shown moderate speed this season and I’m not optimistic that it will get better during the race.
FEATURED MATCHUPS:
William Byron vs. Denny Hamlin: This is a true tossup entering race day. Byron and Hamlin both made the final round of qualifying and had similar speed in practice. Going into the weekend, Byron was the choice, so I’ll stick with that here, understanding Hamlin is one of the top two fastest cars in the series on average. The sole reason why the No. 11 car isn’t in my lineup is that it has limited uses left.
Tyler Reddick vs. Joey Logano: Though both drivers were in my lineup to begin the weekend, Reddick is the clear choice entering the 400-mile race. He won his first Busch Light Pole Award since last fall at the Charlotte road course and has three podium finishes in the four Darlington Next Gen races. Sure, Logano won the first Next Gen race here, but the No. 22 team doesn’t have that same speed.
Chase Elliott vs. Ross Chastain: If Elliott avoids early chaos, the No. 9 car will likely make a spirited charge throughout the field during the race. Meanwhile, Chastain has an early track position advantage, with the No. 1 team making the final round of qualifying for just the fourth time this season. I’ll take Chastain because he’s always a factor — for better or worse — at Darlington.
Kyle Busch vs. Christopher Bell: The disparity in Bell’s pace over the short and long run in practice was eye-catching. The No. 20 car ranked fourth after one-lap speed and dropped to 33rd on 10-lap averages. By the slimmest of margins – Busch lost the tiebreaker to Chastain – the No. 8 car missed the final round of qualifying. Busch looked to have a car capable of competing in the back half of the top 10 while it’s hard to gauge how good Bell actually is. Because of that, I’ll take Busch.
DARLINGTON, S.C. — Austin Hill led just six laps in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series matinee, his total a small sum compared to the 119 of 147 headed by race winner Justin Allgaier. Running and finishing on his heels as the race’s runner-up was a tough pill, especially at challenging Darlington Raceway and its history-steeped contours.
“You always want to win at Darlington,” Hill said after exiting his No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. “Just something about this place. It’s such a badass race track that we go to.”
Hill finished second in Saturday’s Crown Royal Purple Bag Project 200, on a day where most of the field was fighting for next-best status to Allgaier’s No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet. Hill’s challenge burned among the brightest, making him 5-for-5 in the top-10 column in his Xfinity career at Darlington and helping to get him back on the top-five track that characterized his hot start to the 2024 season.
“Awesome job all day. The 7 was just a touch better,” Hill’s radio communications chirped on the post-race cool-down lap, with spotter Derek Kneeland adding: “We’re on the cusp of winning a s—load here.”
Hill agreed, saying that his team shouldn’t be pigeonholed as superspeedway specialists. That strength, he said, is starting to spread.
“I think that we have speed, no matter where we go. We’re not just the superspeedway guys that everyone wants to sit there and talk about all the time, but we can win at all these other race tracks. We can run inside the top five at every different race track we go to, so we’re piecing it together,” Hill said, reiterating his spotter’s hunch. “… We’ve just got to keep grinding. I’ve got to do a better job, and we’ve just got to make the right decisions when I come in and we do pit stops and adjustments. So if we just keep building what we’re building, we can win a lot more. It’s just, it might take a little bit more time, but I’m having fun this year. We’re running up front each and every week so we can get it done no matter where we go.”
Allgaier swept both stages, with Hill slotting in second place at each green-checkered flag that segmented up Saturday’s 200-miler. Hill brushed the outside retaining wall during the middle portions of Stage 2, but the slight contact left his No. 21 Chevy no worse off.
Zack Albert | NASCAR Digital Media
Hill faded slightly during the final stage, but jumped back up into podium contention after pit-stop adjustments from crew chief Andy Street to remedy a tight-handling condition. He dutifully leaped from the second row back up to second place on the final restart.
“Our boy is absolutely wheeling it today,” Kneeland told Street over the radio during a final-stage yellow.
Saturday’s effort resembled the type of result that Hill had made routine when the season started. The 30-year-old Georgia native opened the year with back-to-back victories (Daytona, Atlanta) and made it five in a row for top-five finishes as the calendar hit springtime. The five races that followed registered nary a top five, though he led laps in double-digit quantities the last three weeks.
Saturday put Hill back on that high ground. It also moved him up two spots into the lead in the Xfinity Series standings, with a narrow three-point edge over defending series champion Cole Custer — Saturday’s pole-starter and third-place finisher.
“It’s cool. It’s always nice to have the points lead and it’s nice to hopefully, here at the end, get those extra 15 bonus points,” Hill said, acknowledging the points prize reserved for the regular-season champ. “But nothing else matters except for those last seven races for when the playoffs start. We’re just trying to build a notebook, so when the playoffs do start, we can come out on all cylinders.”
