Eric Smith

3 things I’m watching for Sunday’s Southern 500

Non Playoff Winner?

Last year was the first time in the history of the Cup Series playoffs that a non playoff driver won the postseason opener. In fact, not only was the entire first round was swept by non playoff drivers with Erik Jones (Darlington), Bubba Wallace (Kansas) and Chris Buescher (Bristol), so was Race 4 from Tyler Reddick (Texas) too.

Will we see another year of chaos?

When you have two Hendrick Motorsports drivers in Chase Elliott and Alex Bowman not in the playoff field, I can envision them going the entire year winless meaning we could very well see another year to where some playoff races are won by non playoff eligible drivers.

AVONDALE, ARIZONA – MARCH 10: Kyle Larson, driver of the #5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, enters his car in the garage areaduring practice for the NASCAR Cup Series United Rentals Work United 500 at Phoenix Raceway on March 10, 2023 in Avondale, Arizona. (Photo by Meg Oliphant/Getty Images)

Can Larson Finally Win Darlington?

Kyle Larson is starting to rack up race wins. The thing is, while he’s been close, he’s never won on the Lady in Black before. Does that change on Sunday night?

The two-time 2023 victor, was 36th and 12th last year.

 But I also can’t ignore three straight runner-up’s prior and two third place finishes in a three-race span even before that. He led 45 laps in 2016, 124 laps in 2017, 284 in 2018, 44 in 2019, 156 in the 2021 Southern 500 and 30 in this race last year. All he’s missing is a win…He was crashed while leading late in this past year’s spring race.

DARLINGTON, SOUTH CAROLINA – SEPTEMBER 04: Martin Truex Jr., driver of the #19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota, William Byron, driver of the #24 Valvoline Chevrolet, and Christopher Bell, driver of the #20 Yahoo! Toyota, race during the NASCAR Cup Series Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway on September 04, 2022 in Darlington, South Carolina. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)

Can Toyota Regain Darlington Glory?

Coming into last season, Toyota had won 7 of the last 10 Darlington races including 4 of the last 6. They were however shutout (0-for-3) last year and again this spring. Can they recapture that glory this weekend? The thing is, it’s not like they were all that far off last season.

Toyota drivers combined to lead 92 of 293 laps in the May 2022 race and if not for a late race crash that pretty much took out their entire fleet while running in the top five, they like would have won that day.

Then, in last year’s Southern 500, both Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. had problems while leading in the closing laps. Toyota drivers led 213 of 367 laps that night for which combined, they totaled 46.2% (305 of 660) of all laps led here a year ago. They led 157 more this past May.

Leave a comment