(Photo: Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
By Aaron Bearden
Post-race review and analysis from the NASCAR Cup Series race at Darlington Raceway.
Who Won?
Kevin Harvick. He outlasted the field to score his 50th Cup Series win.
Top Stories
Strange, surreal success
With all eyes on it as one of the first notable sport entities to return, NASCAR delivered a successful show, albeit one that lacked the normalcy of a typical race.
Everything went according to plan, and the sport emerged without any blemishes in the first of many tests over the coming weeks.
That’s not to say the day wasn’t strange, though.
NASCAR’s return race was the first of many that will run without fans, leaving Darlington’s traditionally-packed grandstands empty save for spotters. Media and track personnel were extremely limited, wearing masks and maintaining distance when possible. Drivers were totally isolated from their teams from the start of the day through post-race procedures.
The race itself was fine, not far off from a typical Darlington show with the current rules package. Kevin Harvick emerged as the top driver on the day, scoring his 50th-career NASCAR Cup Series victory as the checkered flag flew.
He went through the usual post-race celebrations, thanking his team and performing a burnout. But when he emerged from his car to deafening silence the reality of the moment began to set it.
“I didn’t think it was gonna be that much different and then we won the race and it’s dead silent out here,” Harvick said in the front stretch interview with FOX Sports. “We miss the fans.”
Third-place finisher Kurt Busch echoed Harvick’s sentiment, enjoying racing’s return but feeling the empty sting of doing so without a crowd.
“I’m the happiest guy in the world,” he said. “I got to drive 200 mph today, pass some cars, felt the energy of the race car, and just to be out here and have a job. Thank you to Monster Energy and Chevrolet.
“I miss you race fans. We didn’t have you here, but I felt you through the camera. Thank you to FOX and NASCAR for making this happen.”
Sunday’s race was the first in a stretch of events NASCAR will hold without fans, implementing distancing measures and limiting exposure for all involved. It saw no practice or qualifying, temperature testing for those participating and a controlled competition caution in the early stages.
With the rest of the sporting world watching on, it was easy for unease to creep in. NASCAR had planned a similar run at Atlanta Motor Speedway in March only to see it called off just as teams were arriving, and any signs of COVID-19’s presence could have threatened to do the same in Darlington.
But in the end, everything went off without significant setbacks. The only notable “controversies” were a surprise grassfire outside of the track and brief squabble over spotters practicing social distancing after a camera angle on the broadcast suggested otherwise – they were, though there were reports of NASCAR asking two spotters to distance themselves during the race.
Given the doubts entering the day, NASCAR pulled off a near-flawless event. They won’t likely celebrate just yet, because a COVID-19 outbreak could undo all progress at a moment’s notice. But the sanctioning body’s plan appears to have worked in its first true test.
“Up until probably two or three hours before the race, I was ready for something to go wrong,” Brad Keselowski said of the day. “Like, ‘All right, what is it going to be? Is someone going to be sick? Is there going to be somebody boycotting outside the racetrack?’
“Nobody did. Nothing bad happened. They pulled this thing off, and it feels a little like a Christmas miracle.”
Now they have a guideline to pull off the same “miracle” six more times in the next 10 days.
No practice, no problem for Kenseth and others
When the NASCAR Cup Series field rolled off into Turn 1 on the opening lap of the Real Heroes 400, it marked the first official lap they’d ran since the final race before the hiatus at Phoenix Raceway.
Darlington Raceway’s treacherous turns offered a stiff challenge to each of the 40 competitors, and one quickly fell by the wayside.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was rolling through the exit of Turn 2 when he slid up into Corey LaJoie The two-time winner lost control of his No. 47 Chevrolet, spun down the track and pounded the inside wall.
His day was over before he’d completed a single lap at pace.
“Not really sure what to say there about our first lap, first corner,” Stenhouse said of the spin. “Pretty embarrassing for myself, our team. My crew guys, I feel awful for them. They put a lot of hard work into getting our cars ready and coming all the way down here to Darlington. I put myself in a bad spot there.”
That may have been an ominous sign for the field at the time, but from there the race progressed in traditional Darlington fashion. Everyone shook off the rust and adjusted well from there, putting on a show that matched up with last September’s Southern 500 at the same track.
Included in the group that adjusted well was a driver that had never even ran the 550-horsepower package beforehand – Matt Kenseth.
The Wisconsinite made his first start with Chip Ganassi Racing on Sunday, piloting the No. 42 Chevrolet with Credit One Bank as a sponsor. The run was to be his first since the 2018 season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Given his lack of seat time and experience with the package and team, Kenseth could have been forgiven for struggling a bit in his return to NASCAR. But the 2003 champion was smooth as ever, avoiding any issues and notching a respectable 10th-place result at race’s end.
“The first few laps today were kind of nerve-racking, but then it was sort of back to racing and thinking about what we needed to be better,” Kenseth said. “Everyone on the team has worked extremely hard the last couple weeks to prepare for today, and I’m proud of what we accomplished.
“I learned a lot throughout the race about the way the car handles and reacts to different situations, and it was nice to really get acclimated to the Camaro and the team in a real racing environment.”.
The end result came after a consistent day.
Kenseth started 12th after benefitting from the team’s strong position in the owner’s standings. While he dropped a few spots early on, the 48-year-old never fell deep in the field. By the race’s midway point he was moving back up the grid.
Kenseth entered the top-10 on Lap 210 and spent the majority of the final run in the spot, holding on to his first top-10 in 18 months. There was nothing flashy to the run, but Kenseth was quiet and consistent.
His competitors expected no less.
“Here’s the thing about Matt Kenseth: He should have never (stopped),” Harvick said. “Matt Kenseth was winning races when he retired.
“I think as you look at that whole situation of when he got kind of moved out of Gibbs, Matt Kenseth is going to be a huge part of that race team and making Chip Ganassi Racing better. He’s going to be great for the sponsors.”
Hendrick Motorsports’ up-and-down day
In the opening stage of Sunday’s race, NASCAR’s return appeared to have brought the Jimmie Johnson of old with it.
Then everything fell apart in an instant.
Johnson made his presence known in the opening stint at Darlington, rising into the top-five and joining teammates Alex Bowman and William Byron at the front of the field. He spent the majority of the stage just outside of the lead, but surged past Bowman with 10 laps remaining for the lead and a chance to secure his first playoff point of 2020.
Byron and Denny Hamlin mounted charges of their own in the closing moments, but as Johnson entered the final lap of the stage he needed only to avoid calamity for his first stage win of the year.
There was only one small issue: the No. 17 Ford of Chris Buescher.
Johnson found himself just behind the Texan heading into Turn 1, so he sailed his No. 48 Chevrolet deep into the turn. It gave him a run off of Turn 2, and the Californian attempted to take advantage with a dive under Buescher heading onto the backstretch,
But somewhere along the way, the pair misjudged the move. Johnson got up into Buescher and spun down into the inside wall.
Less than a mile from his first stage win of 2020, Johnson pounded the wall and crashed out in 38th.
“Gosh, what I would do to get that corner back to do it over again,” he said of the incident. “Coming to the end of the stage, I was just trying to make sure I got a good run off of turn two. I felt like I was going to be able to exit the corner side-by-side with him, things just went horribly wrong there.”
Johnson’s loss proved to be his former crew chief’s gain. Byron and Chad Knaus inherited the stage win, giving the third-year driver his first playoff point of the year.
That would prove to be Byron’s only bright moment of the day. Tire issues ruined his race in Stage 2, resulting in a crash and significant damage. Byron continued on but was relegated to 35th at race’s end.
That left Alex Bowman and Chase Elliott to lead the way for Hendrick Motorsports.
Days after confirming a contract extension through 2021, Bowman fell just shy of his second win of the year with a runner-up result. He led 41 laps, but couldn’t mount a charge on Kevin Harvick with the laps winding down.
Elliott finished two spots back in fourth, scoring a top-five after a relatively quiet afternoon.
All four Hendrick cars showed top-tier speed throughout the day at Darlington, but only two teams made it to the end. The two that crashed will get a chance to redeem themselves in Wednesday’s Toyota 500, where all four teams figure to be among the favorites based on Sunday’s pace.
“Hendrick Motorsports had four really fast race cars,” Bowman said. “It sucks to finish second, but it’s really good to restart the season this way with a strong car off the truck.”
Rookie uprising
Matt Kenseth’s top-10 may not have been a surprise, but two of the drivers that finished ahead of him were.
Making their first Darlington starts, NASCAR Cup Series rookies Tyler Reddick and John Hunter Nemechek delivered veteran drives that belied their lack of Cup experience on the tricky egg-shaped oval.
After graduating to NASCAR from the dirt late model scene, Reddick was among the best in the Xfinity Series on slick race tracks last year. That prowess transferred well to Darlington in the Cup Serieson Sunday, with the Richard Childress Racing rookie driving through the field twice to score a seventh-place finish.
“Well, we’re officially back to racing, and it felt great,” Reddick said. “Our first day back in the No. 8 Caterpillar Chevrolet was a little rough around the edges at times, but starting out in the 29th spot and racing our way into the top five in about the first 125 laps was just an outstanding kick off our race. It felt like we were bouncing right back from our good momentum that we had at Phoenix Raceway before this break.
“It was a hot, slick track for sure today, which I love, but we also saw the track change quite a bit. Our No. 8 Caterpillar Chevrolet was really good and took off so well at the start of the race, that it was tough to adjust on it throughout the day.”
Reddick’s run was a pleasant surprise, but not a total shock. He already had a top-10 for RCR at Kansas Speedway in 2019, and had shown glimpses of the pace necessary to run at the front of the field.
Nemechek’s run, though? That was a shocker, if just for the team he accomplished it with.
The 22-year-old’s first Cup top-10 came in his eighth start with Front Row Motorsports (FRM), a team he started with last fall after Matt Tifft was forced out by medical issues.
Nemechek had ran as high as the top-15 in previous starts, but his best non-superspeedway result entering Darlington was 23rd. FRM themselves had never scored a top-10 on an intermediate track in 15 years of competition, and only had 20 top-10s in total.
All signs pointed toward Nemechek struggling on Sunday, particularly entering with zero laps of Cup experience. But he ran inside of the top-15 for the majority of the day and rose to ninth before the checkered flag flew to cap off one of the best runs any FRM driver has managed to put together.
“I’m very excited that we were able to come home P9,” he said. “My entire No. 38 Scag Power Equipment team and pit crew did an amazing job.
“Everybody executed all day with no mistakes. We made the right adjustments. Seth and the engineers did a great job getting the car ready for this race. The pit crew was flawless and I couldn’t have asked for a better day.”
Other Notes
- Ryan Newman’s return from his Daytona 500 crash wasn’t as picturesque as he might have hoped, but it proved serviceable. Newman contended for a top-10 in the middle stages and overcame late tire issues to salvage a 15th-place finish.
- Kurt Busch has been on a roll in recent races, finishing sixth or better in each of his last three runs. The 2004 Cup champion’s two top-fives thus far are only four short of the six he’s managed in each of the past three seasons.
- Martin Truex Jr. struggled in the early stages, dropping outside of the top-20 and nearly losing a lap in Stage 1. But the 2017 champion and crew chief James Small bounced back, challenging for the lead at one point before settling for sixth at race’s end.
- Despite placing Denny Hamlin in the top-five and seeing Truex contend in the final 100 laps, Toyota was never able to put someone in the lead on Sunday. Ford and Chevrolet combined to pace each of the 293 laps, with Kevin Harvick leading a race-high 159 laps.
- While it wasn’t a win like last year, Sunday’s eight-place effort had to feel nice for Erik Jones. The Joe Gibbs Racing prospect had only one other top-10 this season prior to the run and has only six top-10s in the 16 races since his Southern 500 victory.
- Tommy Baldwin Racing enjoyed a quiet return to the Cup Series, staying out of trouble and finishing 34th with Josh Bilicki. It was Baldwin’s first Cup race as an owner since 2017.
- B.J. McLeod Motorsports’ Cup debut was short-lived. McLeod had run just 13 laps when engine issues forced him out of the race in 39th.
