Darlington Raceway Tag

By David Morgan, Associate Editor A staple of the NASCAR Cup Series schedule since 1950, Darlington Raceway has served as a lifeline to help the sport get back on its feet in the midst of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Just three days after the 2020 season restarted with the running of the Real Heroes 400 at the 1.366-mile egg-shaped oval, the stars of NASCAR’s top division head back to South Carolina for another dance with the Lady in Black in Wednesday night’s Toyota 500. With no practice or qualifying heading intoRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Mother Nature reared its ugly head once again on the already enduring 2020 NASCAR season as the weekday races at Darlington Raceway have already taken a hit. Notably, the Xfinity Series race as the Toyota 200 will now commence Thursday at Noon EST on FS1. Prior to NASCAR pulling the plug on the 200-miler Tuesday evening, they’ve already made changes on the weekday schedule as the original time slot was supposed to be at 8 pm EST. However, the sport made the decision of moving theRead More

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