Darlington Raceway Tag

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DARLINGTON, S.C. – Brad Keselowski took the lead in Saturday’s Sport Clips Haircuts VFW 200 at Darlington Raceway when the two cars in front of him tangled off Turn 2. That was all the driver of the No. 2 Team Penske Ford needed to collect his first NASCAR Xfinity Series victory at the Track Too Tough to Tame. From a restart on Lap 91, Keselowski chased pole winner and race leader Ross Chastain, who won the first and second stages in his maiden runRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DARLINGTON, S.C. – Denny Hamlin started his Bojangles’ Southern 500 title defense in the best possible way, grabbing the pole position in the final round of Saturday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series knockout qualifying at Darlington Raceway. Hustling his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota around the 1.366-mile track in 28.332 seconds (173.571 mph) in the money round, Hamlin edged Kyle Larson (173.411 mph) by .026 seconds to claim the top starting spot for Sunday’s race (6 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN and SiriusXMRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Maybe it took that victory lane celebration two weeks ago at Bristol Motor Speedway to remind fans and competitors that Kurt Busch is a player in the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship run. It was the first win for Busch, 39, since the 2017 Daytona 500, but it capped off a summer run where the former Cup champion has earned six consecutive top-10 finishes and moved up from seventh in the championship standings to fourth; with two regular season races remaining beforeRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service It’s been a fittingly sentimental kind of week for Denny Hamlin leading into Sunday’s Bojangles’ Southern 500 at the historic Darlington Raceway. Hamlin is the defending race winner and statistically brings the highest driver rating to the 1.3-mile track known for being so difficult it’s nicknamed “Too Tough To Tame.” In fact, last year Hamlin, 37, swept the nostalgic NASCAR weekend – also hoisting his fifth Xfinity Series race trophy as well. All five victories came from the pole position, too. And in theRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor After a weekend off to recharge the batteries before making the final 12 race push to finish off the season, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series heads to one of the crown jewels on the circuit, Darlington Raceway, for this weekend’s running of the Bojangles’ Southern 500. Darlington Raceway has been a staple of the Cup Series since opening in 1950 for its annual Labor Day weekend event with the Southern 500 being held on that date until a controversial decision was made to move theRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor The Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway has always been a special race for those in NASCAR, with a win in the 500-mile slugfest on the track “Too Tough to Tame” residing on the bucket list for nearly every driver and team that has ever turned a lap around the 1.366-mile oval. Entering the 1985 edition of the Southern 500, the pressure of winning at the storied track was ratcheted up even more for Bill Elliott, as a $1 million payday awaited him at the end ofRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor After driving for smaller teams for the majority of his NASCAR career, Ross Chastain will get to race for Chip Ganassi Racing’s Xfinity Series team in a three-race deal announced Thursday. Chastain, who currently sits 12th in the Xfinity Series points standings with four races remaining in the regular season, will take over the cockpit of the No. 42 Chevrolet beginning at Darlington Raceway on Labor Day weekend, followed by the regular season finale at Las Vegas and the first race of the Xfinity playoffs atRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Editor’s note: Motorsports Tribune will be previewing the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season for the top-30 drivers in the series leading into the 60th running of the Daytona 500. Age: 37 Years in Cup: 13 Career Wins: 31 2017 was another season of consistency for Denny Hamlin and his No. 11 team, finishing the year sixth in points, but for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series veteran and 2016 Daytona 500 champion, the focus turns to 2018 and trying to finally breakthrough for thatRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Penalty day in NASCAR has come following the race weekend at Darlington Raceway and this week’s penalty announcement is a doozy, with drivers from both the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series feeling the wrath of the sanctioning body. Denny Hamlin made headlines across the sport with his sweep of both races on the historic track, including a monster comeback in Sunday night’s Bojangles’ Southern 500, but now both of those wins have been ruled as encumbered by NASCAR due to issuesRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor With his rookie season in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series headed toward its finale in a couple of months, Ty Dillon’s future just got much brighter as he and Germain Racing announced a multi-year contract extension to keep him behind the wheel of the No. 13 GEICO Chevrolet for the foreseeable future. Along with Dillon and Germain announcing their deal, GEICO, which has sponsored the team since 2008, also announced that they will be a permanent fixture on the livery of Dillon’s car forRead More