NASCAR drivers focus on playoff slots
Race to celebrate 70 years of sport at Darlington
In a weekend in which NASCAR will celebrate the glories of its past, several drivers and teams will be looking to the immediate future as the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series rolls into Darlington Raceway in South Carolina.
The Bojangles’ Southern 500, one of the biggest — and perhaps the toughest — races of the NASCAR season, is set for Sunday (6 p.m. ET, NBCSN) over the rough 1.366 miles of stock car racing’s oldest superspeedway.
Most of the entries will have paint schemes designed to celebrate drivers or cars from across NASCAR’s 70 years. Darlington’s annual “throwback” weekend has been one of the sport’s most successful promotional campaigns.
For those with a more pragmatic view, the Southern 500 is the next-tolast race of the regular season and one of the last mileposts on the way to determining the 16-driver playoff field.
Twelve drivers are in. Locked into the playoffs are Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr., Clint Bowyer, Kurt Busch, Austin Dillon, Joey Logano, Chase Elliott, Erik Jones, Ryan Blaney, Brad Keselowski and Kyle Larson.
If the current standings remain stable over the next two races (Darlington and next weekend’s race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway) and there is no new race winner, Denny Hamlin, Aric Almirola, Jimmie Johnson and Alex Bowman would fill the final four playoff spots. Bowman sits in the last playoff position entering Darlington, and he’s 79 points above the cutoff line.
Although Hamlin (214 points above the cutline) and Johnson (+111) appear to be safe bets for the playoffs, they roll into Darlington winless for the season, a situation that would have been difficult to predict at the start of the year.
In normal times, they would be considered favorites for Sunday. Johnson has won at Darlington three times, most among active drivers, and Hamlin owns two victories, including last season, but their worksheets this year have been less than impressive.
A race win by drivers not qualified for the playoffs would earn a playoff spot and move the cutline up. Among those below the cutoff line who’ll be trying to score an upset and make the playoffs are Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ryan Newman, Daniel Suarez, Paul Menard, William Byron and Jamie McMurray.
Sunday’s race field will be a wild mix of colors and designs from past seasons. Bowyer’s No. 14 Ford will carry a scheme similar to that used by NASCAR Hall of Famer Ned Jarrett when he won the 1965 Southern 500 by 14 — yes, 14 — laps.
“If you want to be the best, you might as well go and join the best, and Ned’s race down there that day is the best in the sport’s history,” Bowyer said. “I’m glad Ned will be with us this weekend. Maybe some of his success will rub off on us. Darlington has become such a cool weekend with our look back at the history of the sport.”
Among other “throwback” designs: Keselowski in the Miller Lite Ford; Byron in a Hendrick Chevrolet carrying a Jeff Gordon design; Darrell Wallace Jr. in a Petty blue Chevrolet; and Elliott riding with a design honoring his late cousin, Casey Elliott.
The competition, too, is a throwback. Fast and oddly shaped, Darlington hosts a marathon of a race that tests patience and endurance.
“You just have to survive that race,” David Ragan said. “At some of these other tracks, it’s almost a walk in the park to run 500 miles, and it’s really not a test on our equipment or engines and even the driver’s patience like it used to be. It was a big accomplishment 20 or 30 years ago to even finish a 500-mile race.
“But Darlington is very hard on equipment. It’s fast. It’s hard to handle mentally. Physically, it’s tough because it’s hot. It is a tough weekend. So if we could have any weekend that’s a throwback for a lot of different reasons, I think Darlington fits for all of them.”