William Byron's Attempt To Lead From Start To Finish Cost Him Darlington Race

In Sunday's Goodyear 400 at Darlington, pole-sitter William Byron started the race with 243 consecutive laps led, the most since Jeff Burton led every lap in the second Loudon race of 2000. However, Byron's attempt to lead every lap arguably ended up costing him the race, as the race had several green-flag pit cycles, meaning […]

Christopher Bell Struggles At Darlington Until Being Bailed Out By Pit Strategy

Christopher Bell finished third at Darlington on Sunday, but that was more because he was lucky than good. Despite the fact that Denny Hamlin won the race and Bell ended up with a third-place finish, all the Joe Gibbs Racing cars seemed to be very slow on long runs as Bell started 17th but shockingly […]

Kyle Larson Bookends Darlington Race With Crashes

Kyle Larson had a race to forget at Darlington on Sunday. His race finished nearly before it started, as an unforced error caused him to crash into the inside retaining wall on Lap 4. Although he spent over half the race in the garage, he did return to the track. Shortly after Ryan Blaney passed […]

Ross Chastain Recovers From Untimely Pit Stop To Finish Seventh

Ross Chastain has a history of qualifying poorly at Darlington and getting good finishes, and that continued again in Sunday's race as he started 25th before eventually finishing seventh. He had just worked his way into the top 10 for the first time in the middle of Stage 2 when he got trapped a lap […]

Denny Hamlin Starts Third At Darlington, One Of His Top Tracks

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin will start third for Sunday's race at Darlington Raceway, the Goodyear 400. Hamlin is the highest qualifying Toyota driver in the field for this week's race. In 25 races, Hamlin has four wins, 18 top-10 finishes, 1,000 laps led, and an average finish of 8.2, all of which rank […]

Chase Elliott Will Start 15th At Darlington This Week

Chase Elliott of Hendrick Motorsports will start 15th for this week's Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway. Elliott qualified higher than this current position only thrice during the 2025 season so far. In 16 races at Darlington in his Cup career, Elliott has 10 top-15 finishes, including four straight finishes of 12th or better in his […]

Is Bubba Wallace Worth Rostering For Darlington This Week?

23XI Racing's Bubba Wallace will start fifth for Sunday's Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway. This will be the third time ever in his Cup career that he will start inside the top five at the site. In 13 starts at Darlington, Wallace has four top-10 finishes, which he all scored in his last five appearances […]

Tyler Reddick Is One Of The Top Favorites To Win At Darlington

Tyler Reddick of 23XI Racing will start seventh for the Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway, continuing a streak of starting every race at the site in the top 10 since 2021. In 11 races at Darlington in his Cup career, Reddick has five top-10 finishes, including four of the last six Cup events at the […]

Joey Logano's Increased Speed But Worse Results Make Darlington Outcome Unclear

Joey Logano finally got his first top-10 finish of the season last week at Martinsville, the latest a defending champion has posted their first top-10 result. He looks to make that two in a row at Darlington, but his 18th-place starting position is actually his second-worst starting position here, behind only his 23rd starting spot […]

Chase Briscoe Likely To Benefit From Toyota Speed At Darlington

Chase Briscoe improbably delivered Stewart-Haas Racing's last win in last year's Southern 500, the last race at Darlington Raceway. Today he starts fourth in the Goodyear 400 with a much faster Joe Gibbs Racing Team and he is coming off from back-to-back top five finishes at the track, even though he had never earned a […]

Ross Chastain Is One Of The Best DFS Options

Ross Chastain has never won at Darlington, but that does not reflect how well he has run, as he has led 134 laps at the track. Oddly, 119 of those laps led came in two races he crashed out of. More typically, Chastain qualifies poorly and gains numerous positions in the field, as he did […]

Carson Hocevar Still A Work In Progress

Although Carson Hocevar failed to replicate his second-place starting position from last year's Southern 500, his 13th-place starting position on Sunday is still pretty solid, and the speed he had last year suggests there is a chance he will have speed on Sunday, even though he fell off quickly and failed to score any stage […]

Chris Buescher Likely Motivated After Last Year's Darlington Near Miss

Although he couldn't have known it at the time, Chris Buescher's and Tyler Reddick's slight contact while battling for the lead in last year's spring Darlington race arguably knocked Buescher out of the playoffs since he was leading with nine laps left when Reddick cut his tire and was relegated to a 30th-place finish. The […]

Ty Gibbs Returns To Site Of Best Career Finish

Ty Gibbs finally stopped the bleeding somewhat in last week's race at Martinsville as he had his best run and finish in an otherwise disastrous season after his crew chief Chris Gayle was replaced by Tyler Allen. Gibbs did earn the only second-place finish of his career in last year's Darlington event, but that came […]

Michael McDowell Probably Won't Overcome Darlington Mediocrity

Michael McDowell outqualified both of his Spire Motorsports teammates on Saturday and starts 10th for Sunday's race at Darlington. His record is very close to Ricky Stenhouse Jr.'s in that his only two top-10 finishes came in the two attrition-heavy races in 2022, where his average running positions of 18th and 11th were substantially worse […]

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Likely Needs Attrition To Earn A Good Darlington Result

Ricky Stenhouse Jr.'s career pretty much lives and dies on his performances on drafting tracks now, as he is never anything more than anonymous anywhere else these days. Don't expect that to change at Darlington, where he only earned a single top-10 finish in the 2022 spring race and has never led a lap. Even […]

Noah Gragson Looks To See if Xfinity Series Success At Darlington Can Carry Over

Noah Gragson has been one of the most invisible drivers in the Cup Series, and the fact that he qualified 26th for Sunday's Darlington race while his Front Row Motorsports teammates Todd Gilliland and Zane Smith start 12th and 16th, respectively, is consistent with that. Gragson did slice through the field in last year's race, […]

A.J. Allmendinger Has Never Earned A Top-10 Finish At Darlington

A.J. Allmendinger alternating between full-time and part-time status in the NASCAR Cup Series hasn't seemed to have done anything to slow him down, as he now sits six points below the playoff cut line for a not-great Kaulig Racing team after two top-10 finishes in the last three races. But Darlington is one of his […]

For Riley Herbst, Rookie Inexperience Likely To Overcome Toyota Speed Advantage

As usual, Riley Herbst was outqualified by his 23XI veteran teammates Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick on Saturday at Darlington, with Herbst only qualifying 32nd to Wallace's fifth and Reddick's seventh. He was a slow learner in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, so it is no surprise that this trend is repeating itself in the Cup […]

Cody Ware Seems Worse Than Before His Suspension

Ever since Cody Ware's return to full-time competition this season, he has seemingly been even slower than he was before his suspension in 2023 as he has a lower average start, lower average finish, and is thereby lower in points than he was at any time during his last full-time season in 2022. Since Rick […]

J.J. Yeley Qualifies Last For Third Time In 2025

J.J. Yeley qualified 38th and last at Darlington, marking the third time he has posted the slowest qualifying speed this season with the only exception being the Daytona 500, where he outqualified Cody Ware but failed to qualify because his NY Racing Team is a non-chartered team. Although Yeley gained two positions in both his […]

Should DFS Players Roster Christopher Bell At Darlington?

Christopher Bell of Joe Gibbs Racing will start 17th for Sunday's Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway. This is Bell's lowest Darlington Cup start since his first race at the site with JGR back in 2021. In 11 starts at Darlington, Bell has eight top-20 finishes, with three inside the top 10. With seven races completed […]

Alex Bowman Presents Huge Upside For Darlington DFS Lineups

Starting in the 33rd position for this week's Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway is Alex Bowman of Hendrick Motorsports. Bowman is the only Hendrick driver to qualify outside of the top 20 for this week's race. In 14 starts at Darlington, Bowman has eight top-20 finishes, including two top-10 finishes within his last four appearances […]

Ryan Preece Is An Intriguing Tournament Option For Darlington

Ryan Preece of RFK Racing will start in the second position after qualifying for this week's race, the Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway. This will be Preece's first start on the front row of any race since April 2023 at Martinsville when he won the pole position. In 10 previous starts at Darlington, Preece has […]

Is Daniel Suarez Worth Rostering At Darlington?

Daniel Suarez of Trackhouse Racing will start 30th for this week's Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway. This is the third time since 2022 that Suarez will start a race at the site either 30th or lower. In 14 starts at the site, Suarez has five top-20 finishes, with three of them being scored since 2022. […]

Austin Cindric Is A Big Risk For Darlington DFS Lineups

Team Penske's Austin Cindric nabbed a starting position of sixth after qualifying for Sunday's Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway. Cindric was the top qualifier of the three Penske entries for this week's race. In six starts at Darlington, Cindic has five top-20 finishes, but none inside the top 10, and he did score positive Place […]

Austin Dillon Is One Of The Top Value Options Of The Week At Darlington

Austin Dillon of Richard Childress Racing will start 23rd for this week's Cup Series race at Darlington Raceway, the Goodyear 400. Dillon's starting position in this race is the same exact one as last year's spring race at the site. In 17 races at Darlington, Dillon has 14 top-20 finishes, including four of the last […]

Kyle Larson Looking For Another Darlington Win With New Pit Crew

Kyle Larson is one of the best racers in the Cup Series garage, especially at tracks like Darlington Raceway, where the speed of the car gets put into the driver's hands a little bit more. Another important component of success at Darlington is the speed of a driver's pit crew, and Larson will have some […]

William Byron Should Challenge For Another Darlington Win This Weekend

Look for William Byron to be strong in this weekend's Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway. In addition to winning the pole for Sunday's race, the No. 24 Chevrolet was very strong in practice ranking fourth-best in 10-lap average. Additionally, Byron has been one of, if not the best at Darlington in the Next Gen era, […]

Will Ryan Blaney Remain Fool's Gold At Darlington?

Despite his strong practice speeds this weekend, you should be leery of Ryan Blaney this weekend for the Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway. Why? Because, for whatever reason, the Team Penske driver can't seem to figure this track out. In 16 career starts at "The Lady in Black," Blaney has led a combined 22 laps […]