Green - White - Checkers

Stop #11: Darlington

By Ryan Frisco

Photo Cred www.thedarlingtonian.com

So here we are, the prestigious Darlington Motor Speedway for the Bojangles Southern 500.  This track goes way back to the glory days of NASCAR.  There are some races each year that mean more to drivers than your average race.  The Daytona 500 is one, as well as the Coca Cola 600, Brickyard 400 and tonight's Southern 500...under the lights, I might add.

Darlington has earned the nickname 'Lady in Black' for the way it seems to reach out and bite drivers who get to close to the wall.  No, there is no relation of this track to the awesomely suspenseful Daniel Radcliffe thriller 'The Woman in Black.'  If you haven't yet, watch it.  You will hide your eyes the whole movie and hate the ending.

But back to Darlington; no driver leaves unscathed.  The price to pass 500 miles at this track is at least one sideswipe to the wall during the race...the Lady will take nothing less.

So, before we preview, let's talk about some of the penalties going around in NASCAR.  First up, Penske Racing.  Both Penske teams (Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano) were penalized a few races back for rear end housing that was 'not in the spirit of NASCAR.'  They appealed the ruling, and while it was not reversed, their appeal helped.  Instead of losing personnel (crew chief, car chief, engineer) for 6 races, that suspension was cut down to 2 races.  Major win for both teams, especially defending champion Keselowski, whose partnership with crew chief Paul Wolfe is darn near unstoppable.

Photo Cred www.forbes.com

The other team working an appeal this week was Matt Kenseth and Joe Gibbs Racing.  We heard what the penalties originally cost them: 50 points, 1 win, $200,000 crew chief fine, 6 race suspension and no owners points for Joe Gibbs for 6 races.  What did the appeal do?

New totals: Only 12 point penalty, the win counts now, still a $200,000 crew chief fine, only 1 race suspension and no penalty on Joe Gibbs. Major win for this team!

The fine was lessened so much because this truly was a mistake on Toyota, the manufacturer, and not the team.  They had no access to the part in question and never touched it...not to mention it gave Kenseth no competitive advantage at all.

Whoo, I'm exhausted over talking about fines!  Please teams, no more rule infractions this season!!

So what's in store this weekend? 

Denny Hamlin will be back behind the wheel, and he's trying to run the entire race tonight.  That should be even tougher for him as driving Darlington is one of the toughest tracks on a driver's body.  I think Brian Vickers should be well prepared to climb in at some point tonight.

Kurt Busch starts on the pole tonight after breaking the track record in qualifying.  He could definitely be in the running.  I'm sure he'll be thinking about the 2003 race here all night, as he lost to Ricky Craven in the closest race ever.  Take a peak at that last lap 10 years ago...

Well, it's a milestone race for Jeff Gordon, as he is making his 700th career start!  He doesn't even seem that old, but I guess people haven't called him Wonderboy in a while. He's got 7 career wins here at Darlington, and he's my favorite to win the race tonight.  Go get 'em Jeff, show the world you're not an old washed up elder behind the wheel who should be using your sponsor (AARP)!