{"id":40077,"date":"2022-09-02T10:15:20","date_gmt":"2022-09-02T15:15:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=40077"},"modified":"2022-09-03T14:49:31","modified_gmt":"2022-09-03T19:49:31","slug":"nascar-weekend-preview-darlington-raceway-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2022\/09\/02\/nascar-weekend-preview-darlington-raceway-3\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR Weekend Preview: Darlington Raceway"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer<\/em><\/p>\n

NASCAR Wire Service <\/em><\/p>\n

Tightly bunched NASCAR Playoff field faces major test at Darlington<\/b><\/p>\n

Since the introduction of the elimination format into the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff in 2014, no 16th seed has come close to qualifying for the Championship 4 race.<\/p>\n

\"\"

(Photo by Jared East\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Then again, before University of Maryland Baltimore County drubbed Virginia in the first round of the 2018 NCAA basketball tournament, no 16th seed had ever beaten a No. 1.<\/p>\n

So why can\u2019t Richard Childress Racing driver Austin Dillon, who barged into the postseason with a dramatic victory in last Sunday\u2019s regular-season finale at Daytona, dream about a deep run in the Playoffs, which start with Sunday\u2019s Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway (6 p.m. ET on USA, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)?<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy not?\u201d Dillon asked rhetorically during Thursday\u2019s NASCAR Cup Series Playoff Media Day at the Charlotte Convention Center. \u201cI\u2019m confident at the tracks in the Playoffs. RCR has shown speed at every type of track with Tyler (Reddick) winning the road courses, us winning the speedway (Daytona). Martinsville, I finished third but was probably the second-best car there. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we probably should have won the 600 at Charlotte; I was really close there when you got down to it. I\u2019m happy to be in this spot, and I think we\u2019re the dog. Some people are already putting us out, which is just fine with me, because it takes pressure off, and we\u2019ll go have fun and try to upset some of these guys and take it as survive-and-advance mode from here on out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another cause for optimism among the lower seeds is the unprecedented tightness of the Playoff field in terms of starting points positions. Only 20 points separate second-place Joey Logano from 16th-place Dillon, and positions five (William Byron) through 16 in the standings are covered by a nine-point spread.<\/p>\n

Only Regular Season Champion Chase Elliott has anything that resembles a working margin. He\u2019s 15 points clear of Logano, who won the 2022 spring race at Darlington from the pole.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve never been in that position before,\u201d said Elliott, who starts the postseason with 40 Playoff points in the bank. \u201cThis is a good thing. I\u2019d love us to put ourselves in that position more often year after year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt means you\u2019ve probably had more fun that year. It also means you\u2019re trying to hedge your bet. Nothing is guaranteed, but it can certainly help. That\u2019s the big one\u2026 we want to hedge that bet and better our odds as much as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Darlington is likely to create more separation between the Playoff contenders. The Cook Out Southern 500 is a grueling race in which drivers run close to the outside walls at the 1.366-mile egg-shaped track, where tensions remain high throughout.<\/p>\n

One lapse of concentration can lead to disaster.<\/p>\n

Dillon, for one, is up to the challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love that track,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople ask me what\u2019s my favorite track, and I\u2019ve gone to saying the places you win, so Daytona and Charlotte. But Darlington is my favorite. It\u2019s like driving back in time. It\u2019s a driver\u2019s track.<\/p>\n

\u201cTire management comes into play. It\u2019s a long race, and you\u2019re racing the race track. Historically, that\u2019s been good for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Race for NASCAR Xfinity Series Regular Season Championship heats up at Darlington<\/b><\/p>\n

If Ty Gibbs plans to make a move toward the NASCAR Xfinity Series Regular Season Championship, now would be a good time.<\/p>\n

The driver of the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota has a series-best five victories this season, but he trails three-time winner AJ Allmendinger in the standings by 58 points with three races left in the regular season.<\/p>\n

Allmendinger has held the top spot in the standings for 17 straight races. Darlington, however, is not one of his best tracks, and if Gibbs wants to make a dent in Allmendinger\u2019s hefty points lead, he can start with Saturday\u2019s Sports Clips Haircuts VFW Help A Hero 200 at the Lady in Black (3 p.m. ET on USA, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

Allmendinger has other ideas, but his attitude toward Saturday\u2019s race can best be described as cautiously optimistic.<\/p>\n

\u201cDarlington is such a tough race track to master,\u201d said Allmendinger, who finished eighth at the speedway in May\u2014his first top 10 there in three Xfinity starts. \u201cThe last time we raced there in the spring, we didn\u2019t quite have the grip and speed we needed, but still came away with a top-10 finish. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think we were able to learn a lot from that, and hopefully that shows this weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sports Clips Haircuts VFW Help A Hero 200 also features entries from three NASCAR Cup Series Playoff drivers\u2014Kyle Larson, who won his most recent series start Aug. 20 at Watkins Glen; Christopher Bell, subbing for Denny Hamlin, still sore from an incident last Sunday at Daytona; and Ross Chastain, whose breakout performance at Darlington in 2018 propelled him toward the national spotlight.<\/p>\n

NASCAR Cup Series<\/b><\/p>\n

Next Race: Cook Out Southern 500<\/b><\/p>\n

The Place: Darlington Raceway<\/b><\/p>\n

The Date: Sunday, September 4<\/b><\/p>\n

The Time: 6 p.m. ET<\/b><\/p>\n

The Purse: $7,823,733<\/b><\/p>\n

TV: USA, 5 p.m. ET<\/b><\/p>\n

Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR (Channel 90)<\/b><\/p>\n

Distance: 501.3 miles (367 Laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 115),<\/b><\/p>\n

Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 230), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 367)<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/b><\/p>\n

NASCAR Xfinity Series<\/b><\/p>\n

Next Race: Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help A Hero 200<\/b><\/p>\n

The Place: Darlington Raceway<\/b><\/p>\n

The Date: Saturday, September 3<\/b><\/p>\n

The Time: 3 p.m. ET<\/b><\/p>\n

The Purse: $1,208,129<\/b><\/p>\n

TV: USA, 2:30 p.m. ET<\/b><\/p>\n

Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR (Channel 90)<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer NASCAR Wire Service  Tightly bunched NASCAR Playoff field faces major test at Darlington Since the introduction of the elimination format into the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff in 2014, no 16th seed has come close to qualifying for the Championship 4 race. Then again, before University of Maryland Baltimore County drubbed Virginia in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":35615,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_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}},"categories":[11],"tags":[651,16],"class_list":["post-40077","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\/2021\/09\/GettyImages-1338542615-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-aqp","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40077"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40077\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40079,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40077\/revisions\/40079"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}