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Darlington, SC – If the checkered flag flies to finish today’s cup race at Darlington Raceway, 30% of the usual season will be completed.
Could it be a day today that helps to turn a driver to a driver or continue their misery? Will it be a Backlash Scheme in Victory Lane or a car without such a scheme on a setback weekend?
Here is a look for what you should pay attention to in today’s race.
Drivers to look at
Favorites: William Byron and Denny Hamlin. Byron starts on the pole and has the best average running position in the next Gen Car in Darlington (6.32). Hamlin, who came from his Martinsville victory, started third and was one of only two drivers who ended in the top -10 in both Darlington races last year.
Keep an eye on: Kyle Larson and Ryan Blaney. Larson has a new pit staff this weekend, with changes with Tire Changers, The Tire Carrier and Jackman. Blaney does not have a good record at Darlington, but has shown in practice on a long -term speed.
Don’t overlook: Ryan Preece and Chase Briscoe. Former Stewart-Haas Racing teammates both start at the front. Preach qualified second; Briscoe fourth. Preece, which ended in the last three races in the top -10, was second in the average velocity of more than 20, 25 and 30 consecutive rounds in Saturday’s practice. Briscoe won last year’s Southern 500 and was the only manager who finished in the top five last year in both Darlington races. Briscoe enters the weekend after achieving a back-to-back-10s in his new Joe Gibbs Racing ride.
In a good run/win needed
Brad Keselowski, who won this race a year ago, entered the points in the points today. Its average finish of 25.1 is the lowest of his cup career through the first seven races of a season.
“I feel like we’re going to do all the right things and come where we need to be,” says Keselowski, who starts the 20th. “We just didn’t get the results.
‘We have not yet qualified as well as we want, but not the 60 car (from teammate Ryan Preece). In the race we couldn’t put it together – some of them are in our control, much of it is not in our control, so it was frustrating, but I have a feeling that we get a lot of bad luck, and it will stay all season, it will have the kind of transferable sentiment. Come back to us. “
The series returns to “The Track Too Tough to Tam.”
He is not the only one who needs a good run today.
Austin Cindric is 24th in the points. He finished 19th or worse in five of the first seven races. He starts sixth.
Ryan Blaney has not had a top -10 in the last five races, a piece that included three DNFs. He starts ninth.
Darlington’s challenge
Tire wear is extreme, the temperature will be in the middle of the 80s, and the focus will be intense for drivers these days.
So who will make mistakes and how much will it cost?
“I think Darlington is by far one of the most grueling races you are going to simply because it’s going to be a hot one this weekend,” says Denny Hamlin, a four -time Darlington winner, who starts third. “It’s going to be spiritual tax with the knowledge that you just have to hit your marks perfectly on this track and then just know the spiritual side of it, you have 35 other guys out there who don’t want to win you.
“It’s really hard to navigate it, and it’s a track that you can’t get away from others. Usually another kilometer and a half spores, traces of this size, it is wide enough to go to get clean air, you can probably go. Here there is just no escape. It’s hard to get running, fit every time. I just take the time here.
Look at the entrance
Darlington has one of the most difficult pit entries on any track. It is not uncommon to see how a driver turns to go to Pit Road or miss the entrance.
Let Austin Cindric explain: “If you go to Pit Road, you have no idea where Pit Road is, what the racetrack is, where you can run. All this is just a massive paved area. Your footage, you can’t see it, so you pick up different reference points. You can cut a lot of distance. Do you have to have bad as they will ever be under time, and it is really easy to make a mistake.
Hendrick Motorsports makes changes to four of the five pit crew positions in Kyle Larson’s team.
Thopback namesel
Nineteen of the 38 cars in the contemporary race have setback schemes and this led to a debate over the weekend if the setback weekend lost its brilliance.
“I thought I lost it about four or five years ago, so I was too early with the conversation, I think,” Chase Elliott said. “Not to be a fluffy – I joked this years ago, but if we continue to go down the street, we will throw it back to me in 2018. At some point, I think we should chew on it a little. I think we killed the horse, and we tend to do it a little too much. ‘
Pre-drive Motorsports will be Ray Fox, whose great-grandson a pit crew member in the no. 34 team was honored.
Ryan Blaney sees it in a different way.
“I love it,” he said. “I love it very much. I like to see every year what people come up with. There are so many neat schemes of drivers or teams that have inspired many people to be in the garage today that can throw it back.
“I love walking through the garage just. I really wish we would not announce (the schemes) on Twitter, X, whatever you want to mention. I wish you would just show up with it, and then people in the garage will see it for the first time, because it will be a big, neat reveal. It is still very special and the teams like to do so, and I hope the fans will still enjoy it. ‘
