NASCAR at Darlington 2015: Winners, Losers from the Bojangles' Southern 500
NASCAR heading to Darlington Raceway on Labor Day weekend is always a chance to throw it back to the old school.
The Bojangles’ Southern 500 also marked the penultimate race for drivers to qualify for the Chase for the Sprint Cup, and it promised to be one of the greater challenges all season. And it was Carl Edwards and the No. 19 team that rose to the moment when it mattered most at a track that tested all 43 drivers.
NBC analyst Jeff Burton said during the broadcast, “This race track is so narrow and slick, you have to be on top of your game all night long. You drive into the corners and are right against the wall, and because there is very little grip, this is the toughest race track on the circuit.”
There were a record 18 cautions and several stripes on the Darlington walls. Steve Letarte, another NBC NASCAR analyst added, “This track is very asymmetrical, and Turns 1, 2, 3 and 4 are all completely different. It’s a very tough race track on new tires and old tires. Now let’s add in the fact that we’re going to have less downforce than we have ever had here with this new aerodynamic package.”
Darlington proved a tough mistress Sunday night. Read on for the winners and losers who survived their encounter with the "Lady in Black."
Loser: The Lady in Black at the Lady in Black
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The Lady in Black claimed the lady in black about halfway through the Southern 500. Danica Patrick, a driver who hasn’t had the greatest of successes at Darlington, got loose heading into Turn 4. Something snapped and her car launched into the wall.
The resulting collision ended her day. Dressed in black, Patrick spoke with NBC in the garage during the broadcast:
"Everything seemed under control. I was in a decent rhythm and I snapped hard in [Turn] 4. It definitely got loose. For a few laps before that, I could hold that off in Turns 3, 4. We fought our way back to the lead lap after taking two tires…Not a good idea at Darlington.
Carl [Edwards] took no tires…not a good idea at Darlington. I love this car, love this suit, lady in black...
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Patrick can’t get near the top 10. She started the season with two top 10s in the first eight races, but since then she has struggled to break the top 20.
Darlington took no prisoners Sunday night, and the Lady in Black took out the lone lady in the field.
Winner: Throwbacks All Around
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Whether it was Denny Hamlin sporting the Cale Yarborough colors or Kyle Larson rocking the Mello Yello scheme, Darlington threw us back to the 1970s with paint designs and four-tire pit stops. But maybe the greatest throwback was hearing Ken Squier’s voice in the box alongside Ned and Dale Jarrett.
The whole night felt like it was passed through Instagram’s lo-fi filter.
"I think it's really important to understand where you came from to know where you're going, and what a perfect weekend to do it,'' NBC analyst and former Darlington winner Jeff Burton said in Holly Cain’s NASCAR.com story. "At a time we look back and celebrate the past, we can celebrate what's going on now too."
Seeing this race back on Labor Day weekend was also a move lauded by just about everybody. There’s not a single person who follows NASCAR—either tangentially or passionately—who doesn’t get Darlington in this spot on the calendar.
Squier called it “the best move NASCAR’s made in a decade,” which is saying something since the latest Chase format is as successful a move as we’ve seen in years.
The Lady in Black chewing up Goodyears on the first weekend in September feels right, and the throwback theme of the race fit the tone at the track called "Too Tough to Tame."
Loser: Chase Elliott
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Chase Elliott got another crack at the Sprint Cup Series before he trades in his No. 25 Chevy for Jeff Gordon’s No. 24 in 2016. Darlington promptly schooled him Sunday night.
It didn’t take long either. On Lap 7, Elliott wrecked with Cole Whitt, but Elliott did well to race his way back inside the top 20.
Later in the race, Lap 229 to be exact, he blew a right front tire and cooked his front end.
“He had made a nice recovery from the earlier accident,” NBC’s Jeff Burton said during the broadcast.
NBC caught up with Elliott in the garage after the second wreck.
“I’m not sure, just cut down the right front,” Elliott said during the broadcast. “We had to stay out, which was fine. I didn’t feel like it was going down. We were trying. I messed up early in the race and got us behind. You can’t do things like that.”
Certainly not at Darlington.
The race gave him a taste of what this track is like in a Sprint Cup car. Elliott will win a lot of races as he seeks to fill the shoes of 92-race winner Gordon next year.
“Gaining wisdom with every lap he turns, with every race he runs,” NBC’s Rick Allen said during the broadcast.
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Winner: Kyle Larson
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Kyle Larson was the only driver in the top 10 of Sunday’s Southern 500 without a win this year. Maybe that’s forecasting that next week is his time to earn his first career win and, as a result, a spot in the Chase.
Larson has been driving well the past few weeks. If you draw a line through his race at Bristol, where he finished 41st, he has five top 15s and two top 10s.
He’ll need to win his way into the Chase, and Richmond is the final hurdle. His average finish is 13th in three starts, but if he can drive the way he did at Darlington where he led for three laps, perhaps he can sneak to the lead, get into the Chase and bump Clint Bowyer off the Chase Grid in Virginia.
Loser: Jeff Gordon's Short-Run Car
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With so many cautions and, as a result, so many short runs, Jeff Gordon should have finished far better than 16th in the Southern 500, a race he has won seven times.
He called over the radio that his car was quite good in the short run but became hard to wrestle in the long run. Gordon failed to capitalize and stay up front.
For much of the race, Gordon ran in the top 10, even the top five, but late in the Southern 500, Gordon just couldn’t keep pace. He slipped farther and farther back.
This has been the case with Gordon for much of the season—his final season. With one race to go, Gordon will point into the Chase (if he doesn’t win at Richmond), but his prospects for winning in the Challenger Round of the Chase and advancing to the Contender Round are awfully grim.
This wasn’t the swan song Gordon—and Gordon’s fans—hoped for when he won the pole at the Daytona 500 back in February. He could never get his wheels under him.
If it hasn’t happened by now, it won’t happen this year.
Winner: The Darlington Rules Package
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The rules package, first adopted at Kentucky and seemingly perfected at Darlington, satisfied the drivers and, by extension, the fans.
The low downforce and softer tires put more of the control in the driver’s hands, letting them lose position and gain it back. You know, racing.
“I don’t think I can get into trouble for saying how much I liked it,” Edwards said of the rules package at the end of the race. “I loved it! This is as good as it gets. This is what it’s about, sliding cars, tires are falling off; this is the style of racing that I love.”
Denny Hamlin, Edwards’ teammate, agreed that it was a better way of moving.
“It’s unbelievable how much tire falloff there is. You’re sliding around, there’s more wrecks than usual and that’s good because it means guys are messing up. That happens every now and again in racing. It’s a lot of fun from our perspective.”
The drivers in the top 10 kept shifting positions, and the cautions put pressure on the crew chiefs since they only had 12 sets of stickers to work with.
Kyle Petty, a NASCAR analyst with NBC Sports, said after after the race:
"We heard these guys, put it back in the drivers hands where the drivers could make a difference. Guys would run somebody down, couldn’t get by them, slip a little bit, boom, somebody would get passed. I think that’s what these drivers want. ‘Give me some of the responsibility. Make me a driver, not just a passenger.’
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When it’s a better experience for the driver, it becomes a better experience for the fan and the viewer. There was a lot of action and a lot of pit strategy that made this renewal of the Southern 500 as entertaining a race as we’ve seen all year.
Loser: Brad Keselowski Loses Final Pit Stop
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Brad Keselowski led 196 laps, tops on the night, and had the lead through the final caution. As the cars came down pit road for what promised to be the final stop, the No. 2 team was third out of the box behind Edwards and Hamlin.
Keselowski failed to catch Edwards and saw all those laps lead to nothing.
“We were definitely right there,” Keselowski said during the NBC Sports post-race broadcast. “Just one spot short in the end. Our game’s strong, lot of top 10s, seconds, thirds, fifths, sixths, just want to turn them into wins. We’ve got to find one more level to win these races and win this championship.”
Team Penske is right there with the Gibbs cars, and the way Kez handled the lead for most of the race, along with teammate Joey Logano, the Nos. 2 and 22 cars are two chief threats to JGR.
“We’re not that far off,” Keselowski said.
Winner: No. 19 Team Crushes It on Pit Road
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Carl Edwards stayed out on Lap 61 and took no tires. He fell like a rock from first to way back in the field.
He suffered a flat tire and at one point fell two laps down, but over the course of the rest of the night, Edwards clawed his way back into the top 15, the top 10 and the top five.
Then a clutch pit stop after the night’s record 18th caution put the No. 19 car on the front row where Edwards seized the lead for good on the final restart.
“Our guys never quit,” Edwards said during the NBC broadcast. “Those guys are the best in the business."
And the Joe Gibbs cars keep rising. Denny Hamlin finished in third along with Kyle Busch in seventh. As for Edwards, the win was his second of the year (Coke 600) and the 25th of his career.
Winning the Southern 500 was the type of late-season win that can give his team serious Chase momentum.
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