Southern 500 Race Preview

Darlington Raceway -- 05/9/2009

Author: Becca Gladden

Published: Tuesday May 5 2009 11:05pm

In NASCAR circles, Darlington represents history. And how better to visit one of the sport’s oldest tracks than on a Saturday night under the lights.

NASCAR has been racing on ‘the track too tough to tame’ since 1950, making a total of 105 Cup races here. For years, the series visited the historic venue twice a year, but in 2005 it was reduced to just one race per year.

The Darlington track is a 1.366-mile egg-shaped oval, placing it in the intermediate track category, with turns 1 and 2 banked at 25 degrees and 3 and 4 at 23 degrees. In late 2007, the track was renovated, including repaving of the racing surface and aprons, adding concrete pit stalls, and creating a new infield access tunnel.

Although the track may look like the same old Darlington, Jeff Gordon’s crew chief Steve Letarte believes those 2007 alterations fundamentally changed things here. “We won at the old Darlington. Repaved Darlington is no longer Darlington. It has the same shape, same banking - but a huge part of that racetrack was the tire falloff, the abrasiveness, the asphalt. I assume that's still gone. I saw some pictures the other day on TV and it was very light gray. But I talked to the people at Goodyear, and they said the grip is still pretty high … it's just not Darlington of old. The pavement's changed. The track's changed.”

That means there’s only been one race at Darlington since the repaving – last year’s spring race – won by Kyle Busch. Busch is coming off an impressive win at Richmond last week and has already won three of the first 10 races this year.

In terms of overall winners at the track, current points leader Jeff Gordon is way ahead of the rest of the field with seven wins – his last in 2007 before the resurfacing. Jimmie Johnson, Greg Biffle and Jeff Burton have two wins each, while Bobby Labonte, Mark Martin, and Busch each have one win.

Kyle Busch’s Darlington win was the first for Toyota at this track. Gordon won in a Chevy in ’07, but before that Biffle’s two wins in ’05 and ’06 put Ford in Victory Lane twice. The last time a Dodge won here was Sterling Marlin in 2002.

In terms of average finish, short track talent Denny Hamlin leads all drivers with a low 6.3. He’s only had three starts at Darlington, but Hamlin has finishes of 10th, 2nd, and 7th here. Following him in this category are Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Burton, Jeff Gordon and Mark Martin. Martin has finished 2nd at Darlington six times.

Over the last five Darlington races, both before and after the resurfacing, Jeff Gordon has accumulated the most points including bonus points. Notably, in his last six Darlington starts, Gordon has finished 3rd, 2nd, 2nd, 1st, and 3rd.

Following Gordon in the total points category are Jimmie Johnson, Mark Martin, Matt Kenseth, and Carl Edwards.

When Kyle Busch won here last year, it was the fastest race in track history, as Busch averaged 140.35 mph, while Greg Biffle posted the fastest-ever track qualifying speed at 179.442 mph. These times are no doubt reflective of the 2007 track resurfacing.

Current odds for select drivers for the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway:

Kyle Busch +500

Jimmie Johnson +600

Jeff Gordon +700

Carl Edwards +800

Tony Stewart +1000

Kurt Busch +1000

Denny Hamlin +1000

Greg Biffle +1000

Mark Martin +1500

Dale Earnhardt Jr. +1500

Matt Kenseth +2000

Please check back before the race for our practice and qualifying update.

Comment on this article.

(255 chars max)

Username:
(No HTML)

Captcha: