NASCAR celebrates Throwback Weekend at Darlington Raceway. While the past is honored, it is the present and future that will be on the mind of competitors.
Sunday’s race is the eighth of the season and also can provide teams with data to prepare for the Southern 500, which will be the opening race of the playoffs on Labor Day weekend.
The last nine Darlington races have been won by nine different drivers. The last three spring races at Darlington have had a lead change in the final 10 laps.
Here is a look at the good news and bad news for Cup teams heading to Darlington.
23XI Racing —Good news: Bubba Wallace has scored back-to-back third-place finishes. … Tyler Reddick has three top-three finishes at Darlington in the Next Gen car. … Rookie Riley Herbst has finished in the top 20 in four of the season’s seven races. Bad news: Reddick has three finishes of 14th or worse in the last four races this season.
Front Row Motorsports — Good news: Todd Gilliland is coming off a 10th-place finish last weekend at Martinsville. … Noah Gragson is a two-time Xfinity winner Darlington. … Zane Smith has three finishes of 16th or better in the last four races this year. … Smith has improved his average finish by a series-high 9.7 spots to 19.3 from this time a year ago. … Bad news: Smith is one of four full-time Cup drivers yet to score stage points, joining Cody Ware, Justin Haley and Riley Herbst.
Haas Factory Team — Good news: Cole Custer scored two stage points last weekend at Martinsville, his first stage points of the season. Bad News: Custer has finished 26th or worse in each of the last four races this year.
Hendrick Motorsports — Good news: William Byron has the best average running position (6.32) at Darlington in the Next Gen car. … Kyle Larson has finished in the top 10 in the last four races this season. … Larson and Alex Bowman each has five top 10s in the first seven races of the season. … Chase Elliott also is entered in the Xfinity Series race this weekend. Bad news: Elliott has started in the top 15 once in the last six races at Darlington. … William Byron has had back-to-back finishes outside the top 10, his only consecutive finishes outside the top 10 in the last 14 races. … Bowman has been penalized for speeding on pit road in two of the last three races this season.
Hyak Motorsports — Good news: Ricky Stenhouse Jr. has five top-20 finishes in seven starts this season after placing 20th at Martinsville last weekend. Bad news: Stenhouse’s average start of 28.7 is the worst of his career through the first seven races of a season.
Joe Gibbs Racing — Good news: Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe were the only two drivers to finish in the top 10 at both Darlington races last year. … Briscoe, who won last year’s Southern 500, was the only driver to finish in the top five in both Darlington races last year. … Hamlin has led in each of the last 10 Cup races at Darlington. … Hamlin has an average finish of 8.2 at Darlington, the best all-time by a driver with more than two starts there. … All three of Christopher Bell’s top 10s at Darlington have come in the past six races there. … Bell also is entered in the Xfinity race there this weekend. Bad news: Joe Gibbs Racing has had more DNFs (six) than top-five finishes (five) at Darlington in the Next Gen car. … Ty Gibbs’ average finish this season is 23.9 after it was 9.0 at this time a year ago. The change of 14.9 is the worst in the series.
