Darlington Raceway is set to host all three of NASCAR’s top divisions this weekend, including the playoff opener for the Cup Series in Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500 (MRN, 5 p.m. ET).
Since returning to its traditional Labor Day weekend date in 2015, Darlington has helped honor NASCAR’s history with its throwback weekend. This will mark the first time the track “too tough to tame” has held the first race in the playoffs after Las Vegas hosted it the previous two seasons.
Regular-season Champion Kevin Harvick will enter the postseason, that ends this year at Phoenix Raceway, with a record 57 Playoff points. He collected those points with seven race wins, seven stage wins and the 15-point bonus for the 26-race title.
“That’s really what you want to accomplish in the regular season – to gain as many Playoff points as you can,” said Harvick, who will have a Busch Beer throwback paint scheme this weekend. “We’ve done that in a number of different ways throughout the year just trying to be consistent and make up for days when things aren’t going good and make finishes out of them.
“Right now we’re one week at a time. Our goal is to really worry about what’s happening this week. We’re not even close to Phoenix.”
See Also: Darlington Race Info and Lineups
Due to the realignment of this year’s schedule because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Cup Series has already competed at Darlington two times this season with Harvick scoring his second win at the track and Denny Hamlin, who is seeded second with 47 playoff points, going to Victory Lane for the third time there.
“I think we need to continue what we’ve been doing all season,” Hamlin said. “I know my team will bring the best car possible, like they do every week, and we’ll do our best to go out and secure the win. Darlington is a great track for us, so I certainly think we’re capable of coming away with a win.”
Along with Harvick and Hamlin, playoff contenders Brad Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch each have a win at Darlington. Busch, who only has three playoff points, has not scored a win yet this year, the deepest he’s gone in his career in a season without a visit to Victory Lane.
“The fact of trying to be able to come out of this year with a victory is certainly high on my list, that might be number one on the list actually even more so than winning the championship just with the way this year has gone,” Busch said. “Anything can happen, we just have to keep working through it and myself and Adam (Stevens, crew chief), we can get down on each other or down on our team or whatever as much as possible, but in all reality, we’re last year’s champions.”
Jimmie Johnson, who was eliminated from competing for a possible eighth title last weekend at Daytona, leads all drivers with three wins at Darlington. Erik Jones, who finished in the top 10 in all five of his track starts, and Matt Kenseth are the other previous winners in the field.
Among the 16 playoff drivers, rookie Cole Custer, who won at Kentucky, and Matt DiBenedetto are each making their first postseason appearance.
“I think we’ve had a lot of peaks and valleys at times this year, but at the same time we just need to try and level it out more going into these playoffs,” Custer said. “If we can be consistent and we can put it all together and put all the pieces together for these last 10 races, I think we’ve shown that we can compete with anybody it’s just trying to put those pieces together every single race.”
This year’s throwback weekend celebrates “NASCAR’s Champions…Past, Present and Future” and “New Traditions…First Race of the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs”
Johnson will sport a legendary paint scheme for his final start at Darlington as a full-time driver. Johnson’s No. 48 Ally Chevrolet will carry the colors of NASCAR’s other two seven-time champions – Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt.
“We won’t have the chance to go for eight championships, but I am pretty damn proud of the seven we won,” Johnson said. “We do have 10 more chances and there are plenty of trophies up for grabs with nothing to lose. Darlington owes me one and we plan to finish this season strong. I’m proud to honor these two legends and what they’ve meant to me and the sport with this seven-time scheme at Darlington.”
See Also: Darlington Throwback Paint Schemes
The Xfinity Series will start the weekend at Darlington with Saturday’s Sport Clips Haircuts VFW 200 (MRN, 12 p.m. ET) as the series has four races left in the regular season.
Chase Briscoe, who is second in the standings behind Austin Cindric, won in May at Darlington after passing Kyle Busch on the final lap.
“Anytime you can go back to a racetrack where you’ve won before, you’re going to have added confidence – especially if you get to go back to that same track in the same year,” said Briscoe, who will start second. “It’s going to be little different this time. Everyone is on top of their game and ready to run at Darlington, where earlier in the year not everyone was prepared to run that track at that time.”
This time around Busch will not be in the No. 54 Toyota, but Denny Hamlin will. Hamlin is a five-time Xfinity Darlington winner and is making his lone series start of the year. He will start last in the 37-car field.
The event weekend expanded to include the Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series when the race was realigned from Canadian Tire Motorsports Park. Sunday’s South Carolina Education Lottery 200 (MRN, 1:30 p.m. ET) will mark the first time the series has competed at Darlington since 2011.
GMS Racing’s Sheldon Creed and Zane Smith each have a pair of wins in the last four races with Creed winning last weekend at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway.
Creed will start second on Sunday while his teammate Brett Moffitt will be on the pole.
For Darlington, GMS has added Greg Biffle to its roster to drive the No. 24 Chevrolet. Biffle will be joining fellow former Cup Series drivers Trevor Bayne (Niece Motorsports) and David Ragan (DGR-Crosley) in the race.
“This is such an amazing opportunity to get back on track and do what I love,” said Bayne, who is making his first NASCAR start since 2018. “Darlington is a track that requires both discipline and precision and that’s what I love about it. I’ve never driven a NASCAR Truck, so I’ll definitely be talking to lot of drivers to figure out what to expect.”
Biffle is making his first series start since last year when he won at Texas driving for Kyle Busch Motorsports and is looking forward to Darlington where he has two wins in Cup and one in Xfinity.
“I’m super excited to get back in the trucks,” Biffle said. “I kind of cut my teeth in NASCAR in the Truck Series. I love that race track.”
