NASCAR is back this weekend. If you remember way back to March, the last time we raced, you would have seen that Ryan Blaney has had the quickest race car each race. You also saw that Joey Logano has won half of the races run and Brad Keselowski has three finishes of 11th or better in four tries.

But, can that translate well over to Sunday in the first race in 70 days?

Yes, the speed is there. Yes, the past history is there also with Keselowski a winner of the Southern 500 in 2018 and Logano coming home second that year. Keselowski, has four top 10 finishes in his last five Darlington starts including three of which being in the top five. Logano, has three top fives in his last five Darlington tries too.

More: Darlington Race Preview

So, you may ask, what’s the issue?

New crew chiefs for all three drivers.

Back in January, Penske swapped the crew chief combos for all three teams. Logano, got Paul Wolfe, Keselowski got Jeremy Bullins and Blaney Todd Gordon. With only six races under their belts (Clash and Duels included) is that enough for these pairings to know what each other needs?

It takes time for crew chiefs and drivers for mesh and gel. I don’t know if they’ve had enough time yet to get these race cars dialed in for a full race. Plus, we don’t have the luxury of practice or qualifying this weekend to make things work. We know adjustments are going to have to be made all race as a result of that. Do they know each other well enough yet to communicate those to one another?