In The Know – DARLINGTON
We’re ready to throw it back this weekend in Darlington. The track, affectionately known as “Too Tough To Tame” because of its tricky egg-shaped configuration and thin racing groove, has hosted 121 NASCAR Cup Series races. As we gear up for the weekend, the question begs: who will tame the Lady In Black?
The Details
NASCAR Cup Series Overview
● Event: Goodyear 400 (Round 12 of 36)
● Time/Date: 3:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, May 8
● Location: Darlington (S.C.) Raceway
● Layout: 1.366-mile oval
● Laps/Miles: 293 laps/400.2 miles
● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 90 laps / Stage 2: 95 laps / Final Stage: 108 laps
● TV/Radio: FS1 / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
The BROADCAST
Ready for all the tough action? You can watch all the racing from Darlington on FS1.
SHR FAST FACTS
Kevin Harvick:
Darlington is known as “The Track Too Tough To Tame” but Harvick has tamed the venerable 1.366-mile oval three times. The 46-year-old racer from Bakersfield, California, owns two Southern 500 victories (2014 and 2020) and one win in the track’s 400-mile race. In fact, Harvick enters Darlington with an impressive record – he hasn’t finished outside the top-10 since 2012. How long ago was that? “Gangnam Style” and its music video by South Korean singer Psy went viral in 2012, four years before the social media app TikTok became reality.
Harvick’s win on May 17, 2020, at Darlington was his milestone 50th career NASCAR Cup Series victory. Harvick led 159 of the race’s 293 laps to secure his 11th straight season as a Cup Series winner. His career win total now stands at 58, which puts him 10th on the all-time Cup Series win list.
Among active NASCAR Cup Series drivers, Harvick leads the following categories at Darlington:
● Most starts: 28 (tied with Kurt Busch)
● Most top-fives: 12 (next best is Denny Hamlin with 11)
● Most top-10s: 17 (next best is Hamlin with 15)
● Most laps led: 812 (next best is Hamlin with 744)
● Most laps completed: 9,370 (next best is Kurt Busch with 9,311)
Aric Almirola:
Almirola was the only NASCAR Cup Series driver to finish in the top-10 in this year’s opening three races. He finished fifth in the season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, sixth at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, and sixth at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Almirola’s top-10 streak ended with a 12th-place finish at Phoenix Raceway despite running inside the top-10 throughout the race.
This weekend at Darlington marks Almirola’s 400th career Cup Series start.
Chase Briscoe:
Briscoe, with just 47 Cup Series starts under his belt, has already demonstrated just how tough he can be on track, but one of the more iconic moments of his career took place at Darlington in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. On May 21, 2020, in a Thursday-night Xfinity Series race at The Track Too Tough To Tame, Briscoe captured the attention of the sports world as he bested Kyle Busch in the first NASCAR event after a 10-week hiatus due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The NASCAR season was set to resume with the Xfinity Series race at Darlington on Tuesday, May 19, but a full day of rain forced the event to be postponed to Thursday. During the delay on Tuesday, Briscoe learned that his wife had suffered a miscarriage, and when the driver from Mitchell, Indiana, returned to the track with a heavy heart on Thursday, he was overwhelmed by the support of the industry and fans. He started 11th for the 200-lap race around the 1.366-mile oval and ran among the top-10 through the first 90 laps. A quick pit stop on lap 91 for four tires and fuel allowed Briscoe to restart in second place on lap 96. He promptly took the lead, and another lightning-fast stop on lap 134 put Briscoe in the lead for a lap-138 restart. This set up a battle between Briscoe and Busch, the winningest driver in Xfinity Series history with 96 career victories. Briscoe would not be denied, crossing the finish line first in a fender-scraping, tire-rubbing duel where the margin of victory was just .086 of a second. The win’s significance was amplified when Briscoe climbed from the car and dropped to his knees in prayer before giving a tear-filled interview.
Cole Custer:
Sunday’s 400-mile race will be Custer’s 87th Cup Series start and his sixth on the 1.366-mile, egg-shaped oval. The 2020 Cup Series Rookie of the Year’s 11th-place finish in last September’s Southern 500 was the best of his previous five Darlington outings.
The native of Ladera Ranch, California, was credited with the victory in his most recent NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Darlington in 2019 after finishing second the previous year and ninth in 2017, all behind the wheel of the No. 00 SHR Ford. In the 2019 race, he crossed the finish line .602 of a second behind the apparent race-winner Denny Hamlin. But Hamlin’s racecar was disqualified after a ride-height violation was discovered in postrace inspection, giving Custer his eighth of 10 career Xfinity series victories. In the September 2018 Xfinity Series race at Darlington, Custer was runner-up to Brad Keselowski by .738 of a second.
OUR WEEKLY WRAPS
Check out our classic wraps for the throwback weekend in Darlington.
STEP INTO OUR TIME MACHINE
Kevin Harvick’s Throwback With Rheem
As Kevin Harvick chases a fourth NASCAR Cup Series victory at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway in Sunday’s Goodyear 400, Rheem will promote its Chasing a Cure campaign to support cancer research by adding a touch of pink to Harvick’s No. 4 Rheem Ford Mustang. On the Official Throwback Weekend of NASCAR, the pink-and-black design Harvick will sport at Darlington is a throwback to the liveries Harvick ran in October 2011 and October 2012 when Rheem first launched its Chasing a Cure campaign. In the 2022 edition, the primary beneficiary is St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, with the No. 4 Rheem/Chasing a Cure Ford Mustang serving as a call to action for fans to support pediatric cancer research by visiting StJude.org/Donate. Meanwhile, Rheem’s Heart of Comfort program will donate $25,000 to St. Jude.
Aric Almirola’s Throwback With Smithfield / Haas Automation
Every kid had a hero growing up. In Aric Almirola’s case, it was his grandfather Sam Rodriguez, who was a three-time Tampa Bay Area Racing Association (TBARA) Dirt Sprint Car champion. As a result, Almirola traces his racing success to Rodriguez and became passionate about motorsports while sitting in the grandstands and watching his hero cross the finish line first, then running across the track to get his picture taken with him in victory lane. Almirola says his grandfather instilled a hard work ethic in him at a young age that ultimately propelled him into NASCAR’s top series. In Almirola’s final fulltime NASCAR Cup Series season, he will bring it all full circle at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway this weekend with a special throwback paint scheme honoring the iconic Dirt Sprint Car of his hero “Slammin’ Sammy.” And how better to bring it all full circle than to recreate the images of Almirola and Rodriguez in victory lane with that same paint scheme Sunday at Darlington – this time letting Rodriguez hold the flag.
Chase Briscoe’s Throwback With Smithfield / Haas Automation
Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), is set to honor his childhood hero and SHR co-owner Tony Stewart at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway during the Official Throwback Weekend of NASCAR. The now-familiar look of the Official Tractor of Tough will be replaced with a red-and-yellow design that mirrors Stewart’s 2001 Indianapolis 500 entry that kicked off what’s safe to call the most grueling day of his career and the achievement of a lifetime – the 2001 Indianapolis 500 / Coca-Cola 600 double. On May 27, 2001, Stewart started seventh, led 13 laps and finished sixth in the Indy 500 before flying to Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway for that night’s 600-mile Cup Series race, where he started 12th and finished third. Stewart became the first driver to complete all 1,100 combined laps of the Indy 500 and Coca-Cola 600 on the same day.
Cole Custer’s Throwback With HaasTooling.com
Cole Custer will be paying tribute to his favorite driver as a youngster when he takes to the track for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Goodyear 400, the featured event of this year’s Official Throwback Weekend of NASCAR at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway. Custer’s No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) this weekend will mimic the red-and-black paint scheme of the No. 0 NetZero-sponsored racecar for Haas CNC Racing that was driven by the late Jason Leffler in 10 Cup Series races in 2003, including the Southern 500 at Darlington in September of that year. Leffler went on to score the team’s first NASCAR Xfinity Series victory in the April 2004 race at Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway.
What Our Drivers are Saying:
Kevin Harvick, Driver of the No. 4 Rheem/Chasing a Cure Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:
You have three wins at Darlington and a series-best 812 laps led in 28 career starts. How satisfying it to have that kind of success at a track that’s so notoriously difficult its nickname is “The Track Too Tough To Tame”?
“It’s been a lot of fun to have been able to win there a few times now. Darlington is one of those historic racetracks that everybody loves going to because of the fact that it’s forever tied to the guys that used to race there with the same shape of the racetrack. It may be a different surface, but it’s the same racetrack that they raced on in the 1950s. It’s a unique place to go race and a place that has so much history in our sport.”
Aric Almirola, Driver of the No. 10 Smithfield/Haas Automation Throwback Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:
Tell us about Sam’s paint scheme.
“So my grandfather was very particular about his paint scheme. He loved red because red is fast. He was very particular about his racecars always looking immaculate. Every single weekend when they showed up to the track, they looked brand new. Everything was polished perfectly. Every dent and ding from rocks or racing would get touched up. He was just very particular. He would hire an artist to hand-paint the number on the car and the sponsor lettering so it would be perfect. It was all painted by hand. I remember, vividly, the car sitting on jackstands and the car coming over at 6 o’clock at night, after hours, and spending several hours laying out the design. It would take him a couple of nights to hand-paint it all – on the engine cover and on the wing and tail tank. That attributed to a lot of the reasons he was so successful. It was because that attention to detail that got passed on to me, as well. He never had the attitude like ‘that’s good enough.’ Everything can always be improved. If you’re going to do something, do it the right way. My grandfather used to tell me all the time when I was young that ‘the lazy man works twice as hard.’ I didn’t fully understand until I got older, but it’s so true. If you’re going to do it, do it the first time and do it right.”
Chase Briscoe, Driver of the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:
Your car pays tribute to your boss Tony Stewart’s Indy 500 / Coke 600 double in 2001, and you’re now in a position where you’ve run the Coca-Cola 600, one leg of that feat. Knowing how physically demanding that race is, are you able to put into perspective just how tough of a driver you have to be to compete in both races and complete every lap of each on the same day?
“Yeah, I couldn’t imagine just the physical side and also the mental side of running both races. Indy cars are, from what I’ve been told, physically demanding. On the mental side of that, I can’t imagine what you go through. A 600-mile race is definitely a long one. Mentally, it’s tough to kind of stay in the game for 600 miles, and physically it’s hot and wears you down. To run 1,100 miles in one day is tough, and then you add in all the stress that comes with the Indy 500 and the stress of traveling to make it back to the (Coca-Cola) 600. I couldn’t imagine doing both, and there aren’t many who have done both, but to do it at the caliber and the level Tony did it was impressive.”
Cole Custer, Driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:
Your paint scheme this weekend is one that is very special to you, personally. Talk about what it means to race it.
“For me, I’m pretty pumped up about this one. I’ve been around the garage since I was a little kid and this was the paint scheme I kind of grew up around. Jason drove it several times and he was always a big hero of mine. I’ve always had the (initials) JL on the back of my helmets ever since I’ve had them painted. Obviously, he was always my hero and I always try to honor him as much as I can, whenever I can. Now, seeing his paint scheme in the shop with my name on it was actually surreal because I remember when I was a little kid and just loving to see this car, and now I get to drive it. It’s a pretty surreal feeling, for sure.
