Darlington Raceway Tag

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Darlington Raceway is typically mean on Sunoco Rookie of the Year contenders, especially when a driver starts deep in the field. John Hunter Nemechek wasn’t one of those rookies as he worked from the 34th starting position to scoring a ninth-place result for his maiden NASCAR Cup Series top-10 in Sunday’s The Real Heroes 400. Although he was two spots behind the highest finishing rookie Tyler Reddick, Nemechek’s eighth career Cup race was a tremendous surprise as Front Row Motorsports hasn’t scored a top-10 on aRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer If there was a driver that improved throughout Sunday’s The Real Heroes 400 at Darlington Raceway, it would be Martin Truex, Jr. as he brought home a season-high sixth in the sport’s return to competition. At the start of the race, it appeared for a period of time that it would’ve been another rough outing for the 2017 NASCAR Cup Series champion as he punched a hole on the right front of his No. 19 Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Boats & ATVs Toyota Camry. It was believedRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Arguably the two most talked about drivers of the 2003 NASCAR Cup Series season made their racing returns in Sunday’s The Real Heroes 400 and showcased they’re far from reaching their career climax. Those two were the series champion Matt Kenseth and Ryan Newman, the winningest driver that season. Kenseth made his debut with Chip Ganassi Racing and had a consistently solid top-10 car throughout the 293-lap race. Racing rust was non-existent as Kenseth brought home a 10th place finish, marking his second straight top-10 finishRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service NASCAR’s return to real-time action Sunday afternoon was a resumption of the close-quarter, high-action brand of racing that fans have long expected at historic Darlington Raceway, culminating with Kevin Harvick claiming his first trophy of the season in front of a robust television and radio audience eager to welcome sports back. The Real Heroes 400 was the first on-track activity in nearly two months after NASCAR suspended competition because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The return to track included specific guidelines unique to this unprecedentedRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer It was a tale of two stories for Hendrick Motorsports in Sunday’s The Real Heroes 400 at Darlington Raceway. Two of them ended up crashing while being front runners (Jimmie Johnson and William Byron) while two others (Alex Bowman and Chase Elliott) brought home top-fives. The best of the bunch was Bowman, who not only is fresh off signing a contract extension through 2021, but scored a runner-up finish. The black and gold No. 88 NOCO/ChevyGoods.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE led 41 of 293 laps andRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Jimmie Johnson’s bid for a fourth Darlington Raceway victory ended in a last lap Stage 1 crash during Sunday’s The Real Heroes 400. Throughout the stage, the seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion had a superb No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE. This came into fruition once long green flag runs began to unravel and had a shot of being one of the guys to beat in the 293-lap race. That became apparent after cutting his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alex Bowman’s lead from 3.5 seconds downRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Sunday’s The Real Heroes 400 at Darlington Raceway has multiple storylines and one of them is the return of 2003 NASCAR Cup Series champion Matt Kenseth, who’ll start his tenure at Chip Ganassi Racing by piloting the No. 42 Credit One Bank Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE for the rest of the 2020 season. The ride offer was well publicized after owner Chip Ganassi fired Kyle Larson due to using a racial slur on a Twitch stream last month. Since then, Kenseth is focused on being smartRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor There have been plenty of weird and quirky moments in NASCAR history — then there’s the 1999 Transouth Financial 400 at Darlington Raceway. Having been delayed once already due to rain, Mother Nature had one more trick up her sleeve with 130 laps remaining in the race, leading to one of the most bizarre finishes in recent memory. As Jeff Burton led the way over Jeremy Mayfield, the skies darkened and rain started falling again as the leaders made their way off Turn 4 and ontoRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer The entry list for Sunday’s resumption of the NASCAR Cup Series campaign at Darlington Raceway came out Monday with 40 cars slated to run the 400-mile one-day event. Among the 40, two teams stand out and those were Tommy Baldwin Racing and B.J. McLeod Motorsports. Making their first attempt since Ryan Truex failed to qualify in the 2019 Daytona 500, TBR confirmed that they’ll be running the 293-lap race with Josh Bilicki behind the wheel of the No. 7 Gravely/CNC Swiss Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. Baldwin, who’llRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer When the dust settled on NASCAR’s 2020 schedule realignment due to COVID-19 last Thursday, it became apparent that by having multiple races at both Darlington Raceway and Charlotte Motor Speedway, certain tracks will pay the unfortunate price. On Friday, NASCAR announced that three tracks will lose their dates in favor of having additional races at Darlington and Charlotte. Those were Sonoma Raceway, Chicagoland Speedway and Richmond Raceway, with the first two no longer having a race at their venue in 2020. The latter track maintained itsRead More