Darlington Gives NASCAR Another Classic, Now Give the Lady Her Due

It was every thing that NASCAR is.

Sunday (Sept. 1) evening’s Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway might need been the ultimate race earlier than the playoffs, with every thing on the road that that means, however it was additionally what it has at all times been: the one each driver needs to win.

Subsequent to the Daytona 500, the Southern 500, NASCAR’s oldest race, has been the one circled on each driver’s want checklist. Successful it meant one thing greater than successful wherever else.

In the event you want proof, hearken to race winner Chase Briscoe’s radio after he crossed the end line. Briscoe, by tears, shouts to his group not that he has made the playoffs in a shocking, completely executed go, however that he had received the Southern 500.

And he received it in traditional vogue. Kyle Larson might need dominated, however Briscoe and his group performed their alternative precisely proper. When Ross Chastain gambled on older tires on a late warning, Larson was challenged on the entrance for the primary time, and Briscoe took full benefit, sweeping by each Larson and Chastain to take the lead. He held on by another restart, dispatching Larson.

However then got here Kyle Busch. Busch, hungry, bored with falling quick, roared from eighth to second after which set out after Briscoe. He received shut a few instances. Briscoe received free a few instances, however regardless of Busch, one of many best drivers of his technology, couldn’t fairly get shut sufficient to make a transfer. The evening was Briscoe’s.

Maybe it wasn’t on the extent of the door-to-door, knockdown drag-out race to the end that Ricky Craven and Kurt Busch placed on in Darlington’s spring race in 2003, nor was it the 14-lap drubbing that Ned Jarrett placed on the sector within the 1965 Southern 500.

But it surely was a traditional Darlington present nonetheless. 

Nicknamed the Girl in Black and the Observe Too Robust to Tame, drivers should race Darlington first and one another second. Overlook that for a single lap and the Girl will attain out and gut-punch you. However dance with the Girl and do it proper and she is going to reward you properly. 

As a result of it was the Southern 500, the ultimate race earlier than the payoffs and it was a improbable race, Sunday’s race will go down as one to recollect for years to return.

There have been a number of nice races this yr, with finishes that ought to resonate on any fan’s scale. There have been nearer finishes…however this was Darlington, and it was particular. All of the ghosts of what NASCAR has been and nonetheless might be gathered at Darlington in droves, forcing not only a look into the game’s storied previous, but additionally into its future,

NASCAR as soon as tried to decrease Darlington, transferring the Southern 500’s conventional date to California after which Atlanta Motor Speedway. However no person, not the followers, not the drivers and crews, not the ghosts, ever let NASCAR overlook the one race that belonged on that weekend. The Southern 500.

The race is again the place it belongs on the schedule now, and he or she nonetheless makes the drivers take note of her all race lengthy. 

The race owes the Olympics a debt of gratitude as a result of the pressured two-week break allowed the Southern 500, NASCAR’s oldest custom, to set the sector for its playoffs, its new period of crowning a champion. There’s one thing poetic about that; if NASCAR has to have a playoff system (the common season got here right down to a single level on the ultimate lap of the ultimate race, so whether or not the rest is important is open to interpretation) then it’s solely proper that to make the sector, drivers should tame Darlington one final time annually.

However the very best factor about Sunday’s race was that it wasn’t simply concerning the playoffs. Briscoe’s group is closing its doorways in ten weeks. Briscoe will transfer on, however there was greater than a playoff berth at stake for the motive force who Tony Stewart handpicked to drive his personal No. 14 automobile. There was proving that there was no give up in his group or himself. There have been questions on whether or not he might be a NASCAR Cup Collection contender. It was concerning the playoffs as a result of every thing needs to be nowadays, however it was a couple of driver and his group and one thing to show.

Kyle Busch, too, had extra on the road than a title run. A two-time champion, Busch has struggled this season, usually with unhealthy luck moderately than something tangible, but additionally with a group that was a step behind the elite this yr, and his position in bringing it again to glory. Busch additionally had, and nonetheless has, a 19-year successful streak to battle for. Twenty years is a very long time to be on the high in racing. Automobiles change, tracks change and the principles change. To maintain successful regardless of that’s, in some methods, as a lot a testomony to Busch’s tenacity and expertise as his two titles. He confirmed Sunday that he received’t go down with no battle, playoffs be damned.

The race outshone the earlier week’s typical Daytona Worldwide Speedway mayhem by a county mile. The 2025 schedule is already set, however going ahead, the Southern 500, run on Labor Day weekend when summer season unofficially involves its shut, simply appears proper because the race that units the sector and determines the common season champion, the champion who nonetheless will get topped based mostly on a full season of excellence as a substitute of a stick-and-ball format that was by no means meant for racing.

Tyler Reddick completed tenth Sunday evening, not contending for the win and the common season title doesn’t get the eye it ought to, however the truth that he ran 500 miles at Darlington, one of many hardest tracks within the sport, whereas miserably sick with a abdomen bug, to win that honor by one level can be the stuff of legend, a narrative that individuals ought to be telling a decade from now. His race was as gritty and difficult a run as any driver has run.

The bonus of ending the common season with the Girl in Black is that it permits for multiple week off for the whole season. NASCAR may maintain the standard Easter break and add per week in late summer season. Groups deserve that point to reset and gird for a playoff run.

Maybe the distinction is finest summed up by the final two finishes.

Harrison Burton’s first profession win at Daytona was thrilling, with all of the crashes and mayhem that followers have come to anticipate from the speedway on the seaside. It was wild and loopy and can make the spotlight reels for some time.

However Briscoe’s Darlington grit will probably be remembered for years. It was a traditional race with technique gambles, gritty drivers, and the desire of the Girl in Black. It’ll be remembered as a result of it was every thing that NASCAR is, was, and ought to be. 

That’s what ought to arrange the making of a champion.