The NASCAR Cup Series closes out the regular season at historic Darlington Raceway with the Southern 500.
The playoffs will be held at Darlington. Three of the 16 spots remain. But for most, the focus is on winning one of the greatest races in the sport.
Here’s a look at each Cup organization’s situation heading into the Southern 500 (6 p.m. ET Sunday on USA Network).
Race 23XI — Good news: Tyler Reddick nearly won the regular-season title. … Reddick leads the series in top-fives (11) and top-10s (17). … Bubba Wallace has finished in the top 10 in his last four Darlington races, his longest streak of top-10s at a Cup track. Bad news: Wallace was 21 points behind the playoff cutoff entering Darlington.
One new rider joins the Top 10 this week.
Front Row Motorsports — Good news: Front Row Motorsports swept the front row last weekend at Daytona. Michael McDowell won the pole. Todd Gilliland started second. … McDowell was 10th at Darlington in May. He has three top-10s in his last five starts at Darlington. Bad news: Gilliland has crashed out of two of the last five races.
McDowell thrown into air in huge crash at Daytona
Michael McDowell spun on the front row and the No. 34 car lifted off the line after a hard hit from Joey Logano, gathering 14 Cup Series drivers at the end of the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona.
Hendrick Motorsports — Good news: Kyle Larson moved up to second in the season standings. He is 17 points behind the leader. … Larson won last year’s Southern 500. … Chase Elliott is 18 points behind the leader this season. … Larson has a playoff-best 28 points. … Larson also has a stage-best 235 points. … William Byron has four straight top-10s at Darlington. … Alex Bowman has 12 top-10s this season, more than he had all of last year. Bad news: Elliott failed to finish last week’s Daytona race, ending his career-high streak of 37 consecutive finishes.
Joe Gibbs Racing — Good news: Ty Gibbs has two straight top-five finishes. … Martin Truex Jr. is 58 points clear of the finish line, making him a near-certain playoff spot. The most points any driver has scored in a single race is 59. … Denny Hamlin has led the last nine races at Darlington. … Christopher Bell is second in playoff points with 25. That includes a series-best 10 stage wins. Bad news: Coming out of Michigan, Hamlin was third in the points standings. But after last week’s penalty and a 38th-place finish at Daytona, he dropped to eighth in the standings this season. … Joe Gibbs Racing has never won at Darlington with a Next Gen car. The organization won five of the eight races there before the Next Gen car.
“It’s hard not to feel and be negative in the moment, and I am in the moment,” Denny Hamlin said Friday at Daytona.
JTG Daugherty Racing — Good news: Ricky Stenhouse has finished in the top 15 in five of his last nine races. Bad news: Stenhouse has finished 30th or worse in four of his last nine races.
Kaulig Racing — Good news: Daniel Hemric has completed more laps than any other driver this season. He has completed 6,567 of the 6,602 laps (99.5%). … Hemric’s best finish this season is ninth. He has finished there four times this year, including last week at Daytona. … Shane van Gisbergen was 16th this weekend. Bad news: van Gisbergen has finished 28th or worse in four of his five starts this season, including a 35th-place finish last week at Daytona after his engine failed.
Trackhouse Racing expanded to three teams next season after acquiring a charter from Stewart-Haas Racing.
Legacy Motor Club — Good news: Erik Jones has won the Southern 500 twice, taking the checkered flag in 2019 and ’22. … John Hunter Nemechek’s 15th-place finish at Daytona was his best in the last seven races. Bad news: It’s been 30 races since Jones led a lap in a Cup race. … Nemechek has started 30th or worse in eight of his last 11 races.
Richard Childress Racing — Good news: Austin Dillon is the last driver to advance to the playoffs in the final race of the regular season, winning the 2022 regular season finale at Daytona. Bad news: Kyle Busch is just 0.054 seconds off the pace of the two-time winner this season. He finished third at Atlanta by 0.007 seconds to winner Daniel Suarez. Busch was runner-up by 0.047 seconds to Harrison Burton last weekend at Daytona.
Austin Dillon’s win at Richmond won’t count toward playoff eligibility.
Rick Ware Racing — Good news: Cody Ware’s fourth-place finish at Daytona matched the best Cup result in the organization’s history. … The team has had at least one car finish in the top 20 in five of its last seven races. Justin Haley has three top-10s in his last five starts at Darlington, including a ninth-place finish in May. … Kaz Grala is in the No. 15 this weekend. Bad news: Grala has finished outside the top 20 in his last five starts.
RFK Racing — Good news: Brad Keselowski won at Darlington in May in the most recent Cup race there. … Keselowski has four straight top-10s at Darlington. … Chris Buescher, who holds the final playoff spot, finished third in last year’s Southern 500. Bad news: Buescher is winless in his last 35 Cup starts.
Chris Buescher holds the final playoff spot ahead of Sunday’s Southern 500 on USA Network.
Spire Motorsports — Good news: Carson Hocevar’s 11th-place finish at Daytona marked his fourth straight finish of 12th or better, his longest streak of the season. … Zane Smith has recorded back-to-back top-15 finishes for the first time this season. Bad news: Corey LaJoie has finished 32nd and fourth this season. He has also finished 34th in two of his last three races.
Stewart-Haas Racing — Good news: Josh Berry was third and Chase Briscoe was fifth at Darlington in May. … Noah Gragson has five top-20 finishes in his last seven races. Bad news: Ryan Preece has finished 25th or worse in five of his last six races.
Berry takes a wild ride, crashing into a wall upside down.
Josh Berry’s No. 4 car was speeding on the backstretch at Daytona and hit the wall while flipping. He was able to get out of his car under his own power.
Team Penske — Good news: Ryan Blaney has finished in the top 10 in six of his last 10 races. Bad news: Joey Logano has finished 30th or worse in three of his last four races. He was eliminated by a crash each time. … Austin Cindric has never finished better than 16th in five Cup starts at Darlington. … Blaney has an average finish of 18.5 at Darlington.
Trackhouse Racing — Good news: Daniel Suarez celebrated the news this week that the NASCAR Cup Series will be racing on a road course in Mexico City next year, calling the move a dream come true. … Bad news: Ross Chastain is 27 points out of a playoff spot heading into the end of the regular season. … Suarez has one top-10 finish in 13 career Darlington Cup starts.
Both series will race on the 17-turn, 2.674-mile Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez circuit in June.
Wood Brothers Racing — Good news: Harrison Burton gave the team its 100th Cup win with his final-round victory at Daytona, which was one of the standout moments of the season. … The win also put Burton and the team in the playoffs. Bad news: Burton still scores the fewest points of the 34 full-time drivers even after his win at Daytona.
Harrison Burton’s first NASCAR Cup win was a special one for many families.
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