DARLINGTON NEXT FOR NEW NEXT GEN

It’s Next Gen vs. Old School when NASCAR’S new racer takes on its oldest superspeedway at Darlington Raceway today.

“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 spun 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 today’s 293-lap race.

Chase Elliott won Dover’s rain-delayed 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.

Notable

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. Leclerc has won three poles this year headed into today, 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. for the first time since 1984.

• Justin Allgaier put JR Motorsports in victory lane for the third consecutive week in the Xfinity Series by winning at Darlington. 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.