{"id":60489,"date":"2026-09-03T11:46:21","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T16:46:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=60489"},"modified":"2026-09-05T17:50:48","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T22:50:48","slug":"nascar-weekend-preview-darlington-raceway-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/03\/nascar-weekend-preview-darlington-raceway-8\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR Weekend Preview: Darlington Raceway"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

Sixteen Drivers, One Crown: NASCAR\u2019s Chase Begins at Darlington<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

DARLINGTON, S.C. \u2013 Throughout the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season, drivers have maintained that to have a shot at this year\u2019s championship, they need to go into the 10-race, 16-driver Chase ranked among the top-four or five in the reseeded standings.<\/p>\n

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DARLINGTON, SOUTH CAROLINA – MARCH 22: Tyler Reddick, driver of the #45 Xfinity Toyota, drives during the NASCAR Cup Series Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway on March 22, 2026 in Darlington, South Carolina. (Photo by David Jensen\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However, as the series prepares for the opening Chase green flag in Sunday\u2019s Cook Out Southern 500 at the venerable Darlington (S.C.) Raceway (5 p.m. ET on USA, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), there exists a fresh outlook at that title shot. Momentum, history, and passion cannot be discounted. And the 1.366-mile Darlington oval certainly has a history of delivering big storylines.<\/p>\n

No. 1 Chase seed and perennial title challenger Denny Hamlin certainly expects as much.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you would use numbers, you would say yes,” Hamlin said of the title favoring the six Toyota drivers in the Chase field. \u201cBut there are drivers that I believe step up in these scenarios in the playoffs, in the Chase. So, I don’t believe that the advantage is quite as steep maybe as what it was.\u201d<\/p>\n

Certainly, Hamlin, the driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota heads to Darlington feeling very good about his own chances in the Chase opener and the opportunity after the points reset to reestablish himself the season\u2019s top contender.<\/p>\n

His five wins at Darlington are most among active drivers and his 8.0 average finish in 28 starts at the track is best all-time. It\u2019s his personal best at tracks he\u2019s competed on more than eight times.<\/p>\n

And when it comes to winning one of the sport\u2019s \u201ccrown jewel\u201d races \u2013 the Daytona 500, Coca-Cola 600, Brickyard 400 and Southern 500 \u2013 no one on the grid has won more than Hamlin (seven).<\/p>\n

He and his JGR teammate Chase Briscoe \u2013 the two-time defending Southern 500 champion \u2013 are the only two drivers in the field with multiple wins at the track in the last 13 races there.<\/p>\n

Briscoe, the driver of the No. 19 JGR Toyota, comes into the Chase ranked fifth in the championship after a solid performance in the closing regular season races. Last year, his 309 laps led to victory were the most at the track since the late Dale Earnhardt led 335 laps in the 1986 spring race there. A win Sunday would tie Briscoe with NASCAR Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon as the only drivers to win three consecutive Southern 500s.<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely am excited to start [the Chase] with the Southern 500,” Briscoe said, adding, \u201cI don’t feel like there’s really a weakness out of any of the Chase races for us. To hopefully go to, Darlington, the goal is a 76-point day, win both stages, win the race, and have the fastest lap.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we were able to do that last year, so there’s no reason why we can’t do it again. If we do that the 45 points to Denny, even if he runs second in all the stages, it’s cut in half already. That’s the goal and hopefully we can do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney is ranked second to Hamlin in the reseeded Chase point standings, now only 25 points back. 23XI Racing\u2019s Tyler Reddick, who leads the series with five wins this year is third, 35 points off his team co-owner Hamlin, with JGR\u2019s Ty Gibbs (-40) and Briscoe (-45) completing the top-five in the standings.<\/p>\n

JGR\u2019s Christopher Bell, reigning series champ Kyle Larson and his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott, Penske\u2019s Joey Logano and Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing\u2019s Chris Buescher round out the reseeded top-10. Spire Motorsports teammates Daniel Suarez and Carson Hocevar, followed by Hendrick\u2019s William Byron, 23XI Racing\u2019s Bubba Wallace and Penske\u2019s Austin Cindric are ranked 11th-15th.<\/p>\n

RFK\u2019s Ryan Preece, who delivered the most clutch effort of the season \u2013 and perhaps his own career – raced his way into the 16th and final Chase position with a stunning victory in last week\u2019s regular season finale at Daytona International Speedway.<\/p>\n

Of these drivers, it\u2019s worth noting, Reddick won from pole position at Darlington this spring. \u2026Buescher\u2019s eight top-10 finishes at the track since 2021 are the most in the field. \u2026the driver who has led the most laps in the Southern 500 has finished 22nd or worse in half the last six races. \u2026the three-time series champ Logano has not led a lap in the last seven Darlington races. \u2026Elliott has only a single top-10 in the last 12 races of the season coming into Darlington. \u2026Blaney\u2019s average finish in the spring races at Darlington is 14th, but his average finish in the Southern 500 is 20th. \u2026 Larson\u2019s average finish in his first eight races at Darlington was 5.5 but in the last nine races at the track it\u2019s 21.7.<\/p>\n

Although he did not qualify for this year\u2019s Chase, owner-driver Brad Keselowski goes to Darlington optimistic. He swept both Stage wins in the Spring and finished runner-up to Reddick. His average running position of 2.5 is best among all drivers and Darlington is also the site of his last victory (May 2024).<\/p>\n

Practice for the Southern 500 is at 4 p.m. ET on Saturday with Busch Light Pole Qualifying set for 5:15 p.m. ET. Both will be broadcast on TruTv, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. Hamlin is the defending pole winner.<\/p>\n

Justin Allgaier leads the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series into the Chase<\/b><\/p>\n

As with his NASCAR Cup Series\u2019 No. 1 seed in the Chase counterpart, Denny Hamlin, the NASCAR O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series’ No. 1 seed, JR Motorsports\u2019 Justin Allgaier arrives at Darlington Raceway with plenty of reason to feel confident.<\/p>\n

The series opens its 12-driver, nine-race Chase under the Darlington lights in Saturday\u2019s Fleetio 200 (7:30 p.m. ET on the CW, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) marking the first time this historic track has been a Chase race for this series.<\/p>\n

What was a massive 200-point plus advantage for Allgaier atop the standings is now a 25-point gap on his JRM teammate Carson Kvapil as the points reset to decide the 2026 title. It\u2019s remarkably now the smallest advantage for Allgaier since the fifth race (Las Vegas) of the season.<\/p>\n

Chasing the teammates will be Haas Factory Team\u2019s Sheldon Creed, who earned his first victory this year, reigning series champion, Richard Childress Racing\u2019s Jesse Love and his teammate Austin Hill along with Joe Gibbs Racing\u2019s Brandon Jones, Hendrick Motorsports rookie Corey Day, JRM\u2019s Sammy Smith and another first-time title-contender, Viking Motorsports\u2019 Parker Retzlaff.<\/p>\n

Haas Factory Team driver Sam Mayer, JGR\u2019s Taylor Gray and JR Motorsports\u2019 Rajah Caruth round out the 12 drivers competing for the championship trophy. Among them only Allgaier (2024) and Love (2025) have won a title.<\/p>\n

Allgaier is a series-leading four-time winner at Darlington, including this Spring and his 17 top-10 finishes is second all-time to Mark Martin\u2019s 18. Brandon Jones is the only other former winner at the track, claiming a pair of trophies himself (2020, 2025).<\/p>\n

Only two other Chase drivers have an average finish of 10th or better here \u2013 Love (9.0) and Corey Day, who finished sixth in his track debut this Spring.<\/p>\n

While JRM \u2013 led by Allgaier\u2019s six wins – has been a dominant force this season, Joe Gibbs Racing team has kept them honest at Darlington recently. The Gibbs team has four wins compared to six for JR Motorsports in the last 11 races.<\/p>\n

The driver who leads the most laps at Darlington has won half of the last eight races. Only three times in the last 12 races has a last lap pass produced the winner.<\/p>\n

Among the nine Chase tracks, it\u2019s worth noting that this season, the 2024 series champion Allgaier has scored the most points, followed by Day, Love, Creed and Smith.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t think of a better place to get this Chase started than Darlington,” Allgaier said. \u201cThis place is such a fun track to race on. [Crew chief] Andrew [Overstreet] and everyone on this team have been working their tails off to get us to this point and I know that we are going to unload just as strong this weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just need to go out and execute like we know we can and if we do, we will get the Chase started on a good note.”<\/p>\n

Practice gets underway Saturday at 1:30 p.m. ET followed immediately by Kennametal Pole Qualifying at 2:35 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Sixteen Drivers, One Crown: NASCAR\u2019s Chase Begins at Darlington DARLINGTON, S.C. \u2013 Throughout the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season, drivers have maintained that to have a shot at this year\u2019s championship, they need to go into the 10-race, 16-driver Chase ranked among the top-four or five in the reseeded<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":57011,"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_feature_clip_id":0,"_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-60489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-darlington-raceway","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-fJD","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2267885519-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1708&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60489","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=60489"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60492,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60489\/revisions\/60492"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}