Drivers to watch in NASCAR Cup Series race at Darlington

By Mike HembreeAug 31, 2022, 4:00 PM EDT

Sixteen drivers will continue their pursuit of the NASCAR Cup Series championship in Sunday’s Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.

Austin Dillon, winner of last Sunday’s race at Daytona International Speedway, and Ryan Blaney, who drove into the playoffs via points, filled the final two slots on the playoff grid.

The first round of the playoffs has drivers competing at Darlington, Kansas and Bristol. After the Bristol race, the playoff grid will be trimmed by four drivers to 12. Texas, Talladega and the Charlotte Roval make up the next round, followed by Round 3 (Las Vegas, Homestead and Martinsville). After the Martinsville race, the final four drivers will race for the title at Phoenix Raceway.

First, though, there is tough ol’ Darlington and the playoff opener.

Drivers to watch at Darlington:

FRONT RUNNERS

Chase Elliott

Points position: 1st
Last three races: 29th at Daytona, 4th at Watkins Glen, 5th at Richmond
Past at Darlington: Best career finish is 4th

Elliott scored one of the most amazing wins of his NASCAR career in an Xfinity Series race at Darlington in 2014. He passed several cars over the closing laps to win in dramatic fashion in his first race at the track. In Cup, however, Elliott is still looking for win No. 1 at Darlington.

Kevin Harvick

Points position: 9th
Last three races: 20th at Daytona, 12th at Watkins Glen, won at Richmond
Past at Darlington: 3 career wins

Harvick has cooled off somewhat since scoring back-to-back wins at Michigan and Richmond, but he is expected to be a serious threat in the playoffs. He last won at Darlington in 2020 and has 13 straight top 10s at the track.

Denny Hamlin

Points position: 6th
Last three races: 25th at Daytona, 20th at Watkins Glen, 4th at Richmond
Past at Darlington: 4 career wins

If past results can be trusted, Hamlin should start the playoffs with a strong result. He owns Darlington wins in 2010, 2017, 2020 and 2021. Although he finished 21st in last May’s Darlington race, he has four top fives in the past seven Darlington events.

QUESTIONS TO ANSWER

Austin Dillon

Points position: 16th
Last three races: Won at Daytona, 17th at Watkins Glen, 16th at Michigan
Past at Darlington: Best career finish is 2nd

Dillon dropped into the playoffs at the last minute Sunday at Daytona, winning for the first time this season. Now the question is: Can he cash the opportunity? Dillon has a better-than-average record at Darlington with three top 10s in the past four races.

Ross Chastain

Points position: 3rd
Last three races: 33rd at Daytona, 21st at Watkins Glen, 18th at Richmond
Past at Darlington: Best career finish is 3rd

Can the season’s breakout new star perform in his first shot in the playoffs? He has been cold lately with a best finish of 18th in the past six races. He has five finishes of 15th or worse in six starts at Darlington.

Ryan Blaney

Points position: 7th
Last three races: 15th at Daytona, 24th at Watkins Glen, 10th at Richmond
Past at Darlington: Best career finish is 8th

Blaney will be the only non-winner of the season on the playoff grid. This is his sixth straight playoff appearance. At Darlington, he has 10 finishes of 13th or worse in 11 starts.

Sonoma Xfinity starting lineup: Kyle Larson wins pole

By Dustin LongJun 10, 2023, 4:07 PM EDT

SONOMA, Calif. — Kyle Larson will start on the pole for Saturday’s inaugural Xfinity Series race at Sonoma Raceway.

Larson won the pole with an average speed of 91.393 mph around the 1.99-mile road course. Justin Allgaier joins Larson on the front row after a lap of 90.562 mph. Sheldon Creed (90.429 mph) qualified third. Aric Almirola (90.375) will start fourth. AJ Allmendinger (90.274) will start fifth.

MORE: Sonoma Xfinity starting lineup

MORE: Alpha Prime Racing’s road woes don’t keep team from competing

Larson is one of seven Cup drivers entered. The others are Almirola (starting fourth), Allmendinger (fifth), Ty Gibbs (seventh), Ross Chastain (15th), Daniel Suarez (17th) and Ty Dillon (32nd).

The green flag is scheduled to wave at 8:20 p.m. ET Saturday on FS1.

Could Daytona International Speedway host NFL games?

By Dustin LongJun 10, 2023, 1:54 PM EDT

The president of Daytona International Speedway says track officials plan to speak with the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars about hosting the team’s games if Jacksonville’s stadium is renovated.

The Jaguars will need a temporary home site if plans go forward to renovate the team’s stadium. Daytona International Speedway has been mentioned as a possible candidate. The Jaguars released details Wednesday of what the stadium will look like after the renovation project.

Provided the project is approved by the city of Jacksonville, it is believed the Jaguars would need to find another home site for a couple of seasons while work is being done to its stadium. Daytona International Speedway is among possible sites for the Jaguars to play. More than 100,000 people saw Ricky Stenhouse Jr. win this year’s Daytona 500.

“Daytona International Speedway is a world-renowned sports and entertainment venue and hosts a full schedule of events each year,” said Frank Kelleher, president of Daytona International Speedway, in a statement. “As good neighbors in the Florida sports community, DIS will be speaking with the Jacksonville Jaguars to see if we can assist them with their potential upcoming facility needs around our scheduled events.”

Daytona International Speedway hosted Soccer Fest in July 2022. An announced crowd of 7,573 fans saw the Orlando Pride and Racing Louisville play in a National Women’s Soccer League game at Daytona.

NASCAR displays counterfeit part from Chase Briscoe car

By Dustin LongJun 10, 2023, 12:33 PM EDT

SONOMA, Calif. — NASCAR displayed the counterfeit part from Chase Briscoe‘s car on Saturday at Sonoma Raceway, showing how the part did not correspond to what should have been in the car.

NASCAR found the issue at its R&D Center after last month’s Coca-Cola 600. The sanctioning body fined crew chief John Klausmeier $250,000 and suspended him for six races. NASCAR also docked Briscoe and the team 120 points and 25 playoff points for the L3 infraction.

“We want to be transparent on the penalties,” said Brad Moran, managing director of the Cup Series as he displayed the counterfeit part to media.

Moran displayed a a portion of the engine panel from Briscoe’s car. He noted the engine duct was counterfeit. He said the proper pieces are 3D printed at the R&D Center and Fiberworks Composites sells them and installs them for teams. Moran said the duct is “in the bottom of the car under the engine panel. It’s to help cool the driver. It was added prior to the first race. During testing … we realized we wanted to get heat out of the engine compartment, and that’s what this piece does.”

Moran noted that with the counterfeit part, “we can clearly see the textures are different (from the proper part).”

He displayed what officials call a gauge that determines if the duct fits the proper parameters. He showed it fitting a proper duct and not properly fitting in the counterfeit part.

“It was a part that was made, and it was made for whatever reason,” Moran said. “It was, I guess, put on by error, but it was on the vehicle. It is a piece that should not have been made in the first place, and it was spotted at our teardown at the R&D Center.”

Moran said the issue was found in a visual inspection of the part. NASCAR inspected it further and Moran said “there are certain little characteristics that are in (a proper piece)” that officials did not see in the one on Briscoe’s car. “The more we examined it, the more we realized that’s not a part they bought.”

Moran noted that while the penalties were severe, they could have been worse based on the rulebook.

“It was the low end of the L3,” Moran said. “It’s a real big hit for any team. If it continues, and we feel we are not where we need to be, unfortunately, it’s going to ramp up. We’re not going to stop.

“The deal with this car is it needs to be run without modifying. It costs teams a lot of money in development. All the owners agreed. We all agreed where we need to be to make this a successful program, and we’re not going to give up.”

Sunday Cup race at Sonoma Raceway: Start time, TV info, weather

By Dustin LongJun 10, 2023, 10:00 AM EDT

The Cup Series heads to wine country to compete on the 1.99-mile road course at Sonoma Raceway. This race leads into the final off weekend of the season. After the break, the series races 20 consecutive weekends. NBC and USA will broadcast those races.

Details for Sunday’s Cup race at Sonoma Raceway

(All times Eastern)

START: Adam Devine will give the command to start engines at 3:38 p.m. … The green flag is scheduled to wave at 3:50 p.m.

PRERACE: Cup garage opens at 12:30 p.m. … Drivers meeting is at 2:45 p.m. … Driver intros are at 3 p.m. … Earl Smith, pastor for the Golden State Warriors and San Francisco 49ers, will give the invocation at 3:30 p.m. … Tiffany Woys will perform the national anthem at 3:31 p.m.

DISTANCE: The race is 110 laps (218.9 miles) on the 1.99-mile road course.

STAGES: Stage 1 ends at Lap 25. Stage 2 ends at Lap 55.

STARTING LINEUP: Qualifying begins at 6 p.m. Saturday

TV/RADIO: Fox will broadcast the race at 3:30 p.m. … Coverage begins at 2 p.m. on FS1 and switches to Fox at 3 p.m. … Performance Racing Network coverage begins at 2:30 p.m. and also will stream at goprn.com. SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will carry the PRN broadcast.

STREAMING: Fox Sports

FORECAST: Weather Underground — Partly cloudy with a high of 69 degrees and a 1% chance of rain at the start of the race.

LAST YEAR: Daniel Suarez won his first career Cup race last year at Sonoma. Chris Buescher finished second. Michael McDowell placed third.