NASCAR: Manufacturer and Team News at Darlington

By Roy J. Akers — www.skyviewsports.net

Darlington, SC — Teams and drivers are showing up at the track and the first round of the NASCAR CUP playoffs starts this weekend. Denny Hamlin is the favorite and several drivers have this date circled on their calendars. We spoke to Christopher Bell on High Banked Fury and he said that many drivers consider Darlington as wish list wins including Bell.

Now, the News.

Tidbits and Facts

NASCAR Cup Series

Darlington Raceway Storylines and Insights:

·       This weekend marks the 129th running of a NASCAR Cup Series race at Darlington Raceway, and the 76th running of the Southern 500.

·       This is the sixth time Darlington hosted a Playoff race, and the fifth-time it has hosted the opening race (2020-2023, 2025).

·       Darlington Raceway is one of five different tracks to open the postseason for the NASCAR Cup Series alongside New Hampshire (2004-2010), Chicagoland (2011-2017), Las Vegas (2018-2019) and Atlanta (2024).  

·       Five times the winner of the opening race of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs has gone on to win the championship – 2004 (Kurt Busch), 2011 (Tony Stewart), 2012 (Brad Keselowski), 2017 (Martin Truex Jr.) and 2024 (Joey Logano).

·       The last seven Darlington Cup races were won by seven different drivers.

·       Denny Hamlin, with three wins, is the only repeat winner in the last 11 Darlington races.

·       This weekend. eight of the 55 NASCAR Cup Series Darlington race winners are active this weekend.

·       The final green flag stretch was less than 17 laps in only two of the last 10 Darlington races.

·       The driver who led the most laps finished 22nd or worse in three of the last five Southern 500s.

·       Last year’s Southern 500 had 26 lead changes, the most for a race at Darlington since 2008.  By contrast, last April’s race at Darlington featured only four lead changes, the fewest for a Cup race at Darlington since the inaugural Southern 500 in 1950.

·       William Byron led the opening 243 laps at Darlington in April; the most laps led from the start in the track’s history. He won both stages but finished second in the race.

·       A driver swept the stages at Darlington seven times, but only once went on to win (Martin Truex Jr – 05/2021).

·       Eight of the 14 stage winners at Darlington in the Next Gen car finished 25th or worse.

·       Every winner since 2006 at Darlington had a minimum of 100 career Cup starts.

·       Six drivers earned their first Cup Series win at Darlington, four of them got their only Cup victory.

·       Nine drivers snapped 50+ race winless streaks at Darlington including both 2024 races; tied for the most among non-drafting tracks with Phoenix.

·       Denny Hamlin led in the last 11 Darlington races, the longest streak at the track since Darrell Waltrip’s 17 straight races from 1976-1984.

·       Ross Chastain is set to make his 250th Cup start this weekend, six drivers won their 250th Cup start (most recently Chris Buescher at Bristol in September 2022) and two did so at Darlington.

·       Ryan Blaney finished in the top-10 in the last six races, his longest ever Cup top-10 streak.

·       2025 is the fifth straight season that a Hendrick Motorsports driver entered the Playoffs seeded #1.

·       The average time for the Southern 500 is 4:15:50, the average time for the Coke 600 is 4:26:55.

·       Th eventual winner of the Southern 500 didn’t lead for the first time until Lap 158 in eight of the last nine Darlington races.

·       The Southern 500 hasn’t ended in overtime since 2014.

Manufacturers

Ryan Blaney during the media playoff day

RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Dutch Boy Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT ARE THE TEAM’S STRENGTHS THIS YEAR COMPARED TO OTHER SEASONS? “One thing I’ve been really happy about this year as opposed to last year or the year before that when it took us a little while to get going. Early in the year and through the early summer, our pace was just really not where it needed to be, and that was with some car changes and stuff like that. It just took us a while to get our arms around it, but this year I’ve been really happy with our pace all year. I feel like we’ve had super fast cars, been executing really well and we’ve been continuing to get better on our execution and stuff like that. Just mentally tough guys. We’ve had a bunch of DNFs, but don’t really let it get to you, just continue to go do your job very well the weeks after. It’s a cool group to be like that, so this group is very mentally tough.”

ANY REASON TO BELIEVE WE SHOULDN’T BE LOOKING AT PENSKE CARS IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP RACE AGAIN? “You’ve got to get there first. It’s a gauntlet to get there. Everyone thinks it’s easy to get to Phoenix and you go win Phoenix. You’ve got to go through nine weeks of hell to get there. It’s tough, but I do think it’s nice to have all three of our cars and the 21 car in it, so it’s just how do we execute week in and week out through the rounds and how do you minimize your mistakes and don’t put yourself in a hole. I do like where our group is at, our company as a whole, with pace and people and things like that and just preparation, and then you just hope you can execute when the day comes and try to just take it one race at a time. That’s all you can do.”

DO YOU ENJOY THE PLAYOFFS OR IS IT MORE MENTALLY TOUGH THIS TIME OF YEAR? “It is mentally a tougher time, I feel like. I try not to approach races differently as far as my midweek prep, but I feel like when you’re at the track and going through the race in the playoffs I feel like what’s really tough about it and it can get to you is mistakes are blown up like crazy. You can’t afford mistakes. You can’t afford. It’s like, where do you find the ragged edge of where you’re used to, but if you do make a mistake and step over the line it has drastic ramifications if you do just because you’re in the playoffs and now you’ve put yourself in a hole, and I think that can weigh on people a little bit. It is tough, just because you know what you’re going for, but it is tough and it’s how do you handle situations like if you have a bad week, how do you bounce back from it. How do you recover, or how do you not put yourself in a hole to have a bad week, but it is tough. There are a lot of ups and downs and it’s how do you handle emotions and try to just simplify everything. At the end of the day, we’re going racing and you’re doing the best job that you can, but you also know what you’re going for and that makes it pretty tough.”

In 25 NASCAR Cup Series starts at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway, Spire Motorsports has logged one top-10 and two top-15 finishes. Corey LaJoie earned a team-best ninth-place result at Darlington last August. Spire Motorsports fields the Nos. 7, 71 and 77 Chevrolet ZL1s in the NCS with Justin Haley, Michael McDowell and Carson Hocevar, respectively.The 500-mile race will be televised live on USA Sunday, Aug. 31 beginning at 6 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). The 27th of 36 points-paying events on the NASCAR Cup Series calendar will be broadcast live on the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Channel 90.

Justin Haley – Driver, No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet ZL1Justin Haley will pilot Spire Motorsports’ No. 7 Gainbridge Chevrolet ZL1 in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series event at Darlington Raceway.In nine previous Cup Series starts at the historic 1.366-mile track, Haley has earned one top-five and three top-10 finishes, highlighted by a venue-best third-place run in May 2022. His other top-10 showings came in the May 2023 (eighth) and April 2024 (ninth) events.Haley has also found success at “The Lady in Black” in NASCAR Xfinity Series competition where he’s logged one pole award, one top five and two top10s in five starts. Haley owns a 4.6 average start and a 10.4 average finish at the legendary South Carolina venue.

● Junior Journey: AM Racing will embark on its junior year journey in the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2025 with driver Harrison Burton for the entire 33-race tour, continuing with Saturday afternoon’s running of the Pacific Office Automation 147 at Portland International Raceway. ● Future Focused: In September 2024, AM Racing announced that NASCAR Cup Series winner Harrison Burton would join the family-owned operation to pilot the team’s No. 25 Ford Mustang, beginning with the 2025 NASCAR Xfinity Series season-opener from Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway on February 15, 2025. Burton, a native of Huntersville, N.C., has been a staple in the NASCAR Cup Series for the past three seasons but will embrace a return to the NASCAR Xfinity Series and continue his relationship as a driver of the Ford blue oval. Burton, 24, arrives on the scene at AM Racing after a 108-race stint driving for the historic Wood Brothers Racing team.