{"id":21445,"date":"2018-09-01T13:05:27","date_gmt":"2018-09-01T18:05:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=21445"},"modified":"2018-09-01T18:19:30","modified_gmt":"2018-09-01T23:19:30","slug":"nascar-saturday-darlington-notebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2018\/09\/01\/nascar-saturday-darlington-notebook\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR: Saturday Darlington Notebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

Kurt Busch\u2019s teams takes a page from the driver\u2019s beloved Cubs<\/b><\/p>\n

DARLINGTON, S.C. \u2013 There\u2019s no more ardent Chicago Cubs fan than Kurt Busch.<\/p>\n

On more than one occasion, Busch has thrown the first pitch at Wrigley Field. And he has sung \u201cTake Me Out to the Ballgame\u201d from the press box during the seventh-inning stretch, in the tradition of legendary broadcaster Harry Caray.<\/p>\n

As the Cubs\u2019 streak without a World Series title grew to 108 years, Busch suffered. And when the North Siders finally broke the jinx in 2017, no one rejoiced more than the driver of the No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford.<\/p>\n

On Aug. 18 at Bristol Motor Speedway, Busch ended a drought of his own when he took the checkered flag in the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race. The victory was Busch\u2019s first since he won the season-opening Daytona 500 in 2017, a span of 58 races.<\/p>\n

When Busch arrived at Darlington to prepare for Sunday\u2019s Bojangles\u2019 Southern 500 (6 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), he noticed an extra flag on his team transporter. Along with the American flag and the usual Stewart-Haas and Ford banners was a white flag sporting only a blue \u201cW\u201d\u2014in other words, the same flag Cubs fans unfurl after a victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cCrew surprised me with the \u2018W\u2019 flag,\u201d Busch posted on Twitter, along with photos of the flags. \u201cGo @Cubs.\u201d<\/p>\n

DENNY HAMLIN SPORTS A SHINER DURING DARLINGTON PRESSER<\/b><\/p>\n

During a Friday question-and-answer session with reporters at Darlington Raceway, Denny Hamlin highlighted the grueling nature of the Bojangles\u2019 Southern 500.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Denny Hamlin, driver of the #11 FedEx Throwback Toyota, drives during practice for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway on August 31, 2018 in Darlington, South Carolina. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve fainted in the shower I think twice after this race, just because you just get so dehydrated,\u201d Hamlin said. \u201cI\u2019ve run the Xfinity race on Saturday for the last handful of years, so it really drains you after the Southern 500.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to prepare for that. I\u2019ll tell you, it\u2019s definitely one of the most physical race tracks that I can think of. Way more than the Coke 600 or any other race track. I consider this the endurance test of all, and so you got to have it all put together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two days before the Bojangles\u2019 Southern 500, Hamlin already looked the worse for wear\u2014as if he\u2019d just gone 10 rounds with Manny Pacquiao. Hamlin\u2019s left check was swollen, and there was a mouse under his left eye.<\/p>\n

The injury, however, wasn\u2019t the result of fisticuffs. Hamlin\u2019s penchant for pick-up basketball was the culprit.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy depth perception to someone\u2019s elbow wasn\u2019t very good in basketball,\u201d said Hamlin, the defending winner of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Darlington. \u201cI caught an elbow.\u201d<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/DR_MENCS_Hamlin_083118.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

CHRISTOPHER BELL THANKFUL TO BE BACK ON AN OVAL TRACK<\/b><\/p>\n

After racing on road courses in two of the last three NASCAR Xfinity Series events, Christopher Bell was thrilled to come to Darlington.<\/p>\n

In last Saturday\u2019s race at Road America, Justin Allgaier forced his way past Bell as he charged to the front and eventually won the race, vaulting past Bell into the series lead.<\/p>\n

But the contact with Allgaier wasn\u2019t the only incident that involved Bell, who spun off Matt Tifft\u2019s bumper while running fifth in the late going and finished 23rd<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not really mad at Justin,\u201d said Bell, who shares the series lead in victories with Allgaier (four each). \u201cIt\u2019s just a product of road racing. I definitely felt like I was a ping-pong ball out there at times, but that\u2019s all right.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s road racing, and we\u2019re not road racing this week\u2014thankfully.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Kurt Busch\u2019s teams takes a page from the driver\u2019s beloved Cubs DARLINGTON, S.C. \u2013 There\u2019s no more ardent Chicago Cubs fan than Kurt Busch. On more than one occasion, Busch has thrown the first pitch at Wrigley Field. And he has sung \u201cTake Me Out to the Ballgame\u201d from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":21447,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[651,16],"class_list":["post-21445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-darlington-raceway","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/357552.jpg?fit=4064%2C2705","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-5zT","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21445"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21450,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21445\/revisions\/21450"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}