New car faces old speedway
Racers in Next Gen machines can’t rest easy on corners at Darlington
It’s Next Gen vs. Old School when NASCAR’s new racer takes on its oldest superspeedway at Darlington Raceway on Sunday.
“It kept me up this week thinking about that,” said Ross Chastain, who has won twice this season. “The Cup car right now is just so volatile to drive, especially the first few laps of practice, and I don’t expect Darlington to be easy.”
It rarely has been over 72 years of racing.
The adage is that only the most experienced pilots succeed at the track called “Too Tough To Tame.” Only a handful of racers — Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick and Kyle Larson — took part in a tire test here last month, according to track president Kerry Tharp.
Tire falloff seemed as severe as always, Tharp said, although defending Cup champ Larson had some difficulty finding a balance at the test.
“Kyle spunt and hit wall a couple of times,” Tharp said.
Erik Jones, who won here in 2019, believes things can’t be much different from always. Darlington is always a handful as drivers are forced to run close to the wall — and avoid the dreaded “Darlington Stripe” — to compete.
Turns 1 and 2 are shaped differently from 3 and 4 (the result of a minnow pond that builder Harold Brasington contractually could not fill in), meaning racers can’t rest easy entering the corners.
“I expect a lot of sliding around, just like always,” said Brad Keselowski, the former NASCAR champion who won the Southern 500 here in 2018.
The Next Gen reviews have been positive in the first half of this season. There have been nine drivers winning the first 11 races, with only Chastain and William Byron taking the checkered flag more than once this season.
Chances are strong it will be a Hendrick Motorsports driver out front at the end of Sunday’s 293-lap race.
Chase Elliott won Dover’s raindelayed race, becoming the last of Hendrick’s four entries to win a race this season. He likes what he’s seen of the Next Gen car so far and expects his team to have another strong showing at NASCAR’s most unconventional track.
Elliott said he hadn’t been able to put a complete race together until last week’s win at the Monster Mile.
Odds and ends
No surprise here: Drivers from Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing are the favorites to win at Darlington this Mother’s Day, according to FanDuel Sportsbook. Hendrick’s Larson is the betting favorite at 5-1, followed by JGR’s Martin Truex Jr. at 6.5-1. Hendick’s Elliott and Gibbs’ Hamlin are next at 8-1, with Kyle Busch of JGR at 10-1 and Hendrick driver Byron at 12-1.
Throwing it back
Darlington is hosting its latest tribute to NASCAR history with its throwback weekend. Many cars competing in the Cup Series, the Xfinity Series and the truck series will have paint schemes honoring the sport’s rich history. This is the first time since 2019 that the celebration will be run without COVID-19 guidelines in place.
Surprise
Retiring Cup racer Aric Almirola paid tribute to the man he considers his inspiration, his grandfather Sam Rodriguez.
Rodriguez was a three-time Tampa Bay Area Racing Association (TBARA) Dirt Sprint Car champion and passed his love of motorsports to Almirola. So Almirola has decked out his No. 10 Cup car in his grandfather’s vivid red paint scheme.
Stable stable
Hendrick Motorsports announced a three-year contract agreement with Byron this week, meaning all four of its drivers are locked into the company through 2023.
Elliott is signed through 2027 and Byron through 2025. Their teammates Larson and Alex Bowman have deals that run out after next season.
Xfinity: Justin Allgaier put JR Motorsports in victory lane for the third consecutive week in the series by winning at Darlington Raceway. Allgaier ended a 34-race winless streak when he passed AJ Allmendinger to start a two-lap sprint following a caution and cruised the final 2.7 miles to give team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. another victory in NASCAR’s second-tier feeder series.
Formula One: Ferrari stormed to the front of the grid for the inaugural Miami Grand Prix as Formula One championship leader Charles Leclerc and teammate Carlos Sainz Jr. locked up the front row in qualifying. It’s the first time Ferrari will lead the field to green in the United States since Michael Schumacher won the pole at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2006. It’s the first front row this season for Sainz, who has been outqualified by Leclerc in all five sessions. Leclerc has won three poles this year headed into Sunday, the first F1 race at the purpose-built circuit around Hard Rock Stadium. The race marks the first of two this year in the U.S. — which has not hosted two F1 races in the same year since 1984.