DARLINGTON, S.C. — When the checkered flag flies to finish at the moment’s Cup race at Darlington Raceway, 30% of the common season may have been accomplished.
Might at the moment be a day that helps flip round a season for a driver or proceed their woes? On a throwback weekend, will it’s a throwback scheme in Victory Lane or a automobile with out such a scheme?
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Right here’s a have a look at what to look at for in at the moment’s race.
Drivers to look at
Favorites: William Byron and Denny Hamlin. Byron begins on the pole and has one of the best common operating place within the Subsequent Gen automobile at Darlington (6.32). Hamlin, coming off his Martinsville win, begins third and was considered one of solely two drivers to complete within the high 10 in each Darlington races final yr.
Control: Kyle Larson and Ryan Blaney. Larson has a brand new pit crew this weekend, that includes adjustments with each tire changers, the tire service and jackman. Blaney would not have a superb file at Darlington however confirmed long-run velocity in observe.
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Do not overlook: Ryan Preece and Chase Briscoe. The previous Stewart-Haas Racing teammates each begin on the entrance. Preece certified second; Briscoe fourth. Preece, who has completed within the high 10 within the final three races, ranked second in common velocity over 20, 25 and 30 consecutive laps in Saturday’s observe. Briscoe received final yr’s Southern 500 and was the one driver to complete within the high 5 in each Darlington races final yr. Briscoe enters this weekend having scored back-to-back high 10s in his new Joe Gibbs Racing experience.
In want of a superb run/win
Brad Keselowski, who received this race a yr in the past, enters at the moment’s occasion thirtieth within the factors. His common end of 25.1 is the bottom of his Cup profession by means of the primary seven races of a season.
“I really feel like we’re going to do all the proper issues and get the place we should be,” stated Keselowski, who begins twentieth. “We simply haven’t gotten the outcomes.
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“We haven’t certified in addition to we’d wish to, however neither has significantly the 60 automobile (of teammate Ryan Preece). Within the race, we haven’t been in a position to put it collectively – a few of it in our management, a number of it not in our management, so it’s been irritating, however I form of have this sense that we’re getting a number of the unhealthy luck out of the best way very early within the season. That’s form of the overwhelming sentiment and that if we keep the course, it’ll come again to us.”
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The sequence returns to “The Observe Too Powerful To Tame.”
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He’s not the one one in want of a superb run at the moment.
Austin Cindric is twenty fourth within the factors. He has completed nineteenth or worse in 5 of the primary seven races. He begins sixth.
Ryan Blaney has not had a high 10 within the final 5 races, a stretch that included three DNFs. He begins ninth.
Darlington’s problem
Tire put on is excessive, the temperature will likely be within the mid-80s, and the main focus will likely be intense for drivers at the moment.
So who will make errors and the way a lot will it price them?
“I feel Darlington is by far one of the grueling race tracks that you just go to easily as a result of it should be a heat one this weekend,” stated Denny Hamlin, a four-time Darlington winner, who begins third. “It should be mentally taxing realizing that you need to hit your marks simply excellent at this observe after which, simply realizing the psychological facet of it, you’ve 35 different guys on the market that don’t need to allow you to win.
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“It is actually exhausting to navigate that, and it’s a observe that you could’t get away from others. Normally different mile-and-a-half tracks, tracks of this measurement, it’s broad sufficient to the place you need to go get clear air, you’ll be able to in all probability go get it. Right here, there’s simply no escaping it. It’s actually exhausting to get runs, make passes on individuals. It simply takes its toll, or it has for me, on my physique, thoughts each time I race right here.
Watch pit entrance
Darlington has among the many most tough pit entries at any observe. It’s not unusual to see a driver spin attempting to get on to pit highway or miss the doorway.
Let Austin Cindric clarify: “While you go to pit highway, you haven’t any thought the place pit highway is, what the race observe is, the place you’ll be able to run. All of it only a large paved space. Your visuals, you’ll be able to’t see it, so that you choose up completely different reference factors. You’ll be able to reduce a number of distance. You’ll be able to brake exhausting and make a pointy angle. It’s form of no matter you are able to do persistently with out actually upsetting the automobile as a result of by the point you do must pit underneath inexperienced your tires are as unhealthy as they’ll ever be and it’s very easy to make a mistake due to it.”
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Hendrick Motorsports makes adjustments to 4 of the 5 pit crew positions on Kyle Larson’s crew.
Throwback weekend
Nineteen of the 38 vehicles in at the moment’s race have throwback schemes and it has led to a debate this weekend if the throwback weekend has misplaced its luster.
“I believed I misplaced it about 4 or 5 years in the past, so I used to be manner too early to that dialog, I feel,” Chase Elliott stated. “To not be a downer — I joked about this years in the past, but when we stored happening the highway, we’ll be throwing it again to me in 2018. Sooner or later, I feel we have to sit back on it a bit of bit. I feel we have rode the horse to dying, and we have a tendency to try this a bit of bit an excessive amount of.”
FRM Gilliland automobile.jpg
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Entrance Row Motorsports will honor Ray Fox, whose great-grandson is a pit crew member on the No. 34 crew.
Ryan Blaney sees it one other manner.
“I adore it,” he stated. “I completely adore it. I like to see what individuals provide you with yearly. There’s so many neat schemes from drivers or groups which have impressed lots of people to be within the storage at the moment that get to throw it again.
“I like simply strolling by means of the storage. I actually want we wouldn’t announce (the schemes) on Twitter, X, no matter you need to name it. I want you’d simply present up with it after which individuals within the storage see it for the primary time as a result of that might be an enormous, neat reveal. … It nonetheless could be very particular and the groups love doing it, and I hope the followers nonetheless take pleasure in it.”
