Playoffs kickoff at the historic Darlington Raceway

For the first-time in its 70-year existence (1950-Present), the historic Darlington Raceway will host the opening event for the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, the Cook Out Southern 500 on Sunday at 6 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

2020 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Schedule
Track	Dates
Darlington	Sunday, September 6, 2020
Richmond	Saturday, September 12, 2020
Bristol	Saturday, September 19, 2020
Las Vegas	Sunday, September 27, 2020
Talladega	Sunday, October 4, 2020
Charlotte RC	Sunday, October 11, 2020
Kansas	Sunday, October 18, 2020
Texas	Sunday, October 25, 2020
Martinsville	Sunday, November 1, 2020
Phoenix	Sunday, November 8, 2020

Darlington Raceway is the fourth different track to host the first race of the NASCAR Cup Series postseason. New Hampshire Motor Speedway hosted the first race of the Playoffs from 2004–2010, then Chicagoland Speedway held the first race of the Playoffs from 2011–2017 and Las Vegas Motor Speedway hosted the first race of the Playoffs from 2018-2019. 

Prior to the 2020 season, Darlington Raceway had hosted just one other Playoff race, the penultimate event in the inaugural Playoffs in 2004. The race was won by seven-time series champion and Hendrick Motorsports driver Jimmie Johnson.

Darlington Raceway will become just the second track in the NASCAR Cup Series Modern Era (1972-Present) to have the series compete in points-paying races more than twice in a single season; joining Riverside International Raceway in 1981. Darlington hosted its first two events of 2020 on May 17 (won by Kevin Harvick) and May 20 (won by Denny Hamlin). Darlington Raceway has hosted 118 NASCAR Cup Series races producing 51 different pole winners and 51 different race winners. Jimmie Johnson (2004 sweep, 2012), and Denny Hamlin (2010, 2017, 2020) lead all active drivers in victories at Darlington with three wins each. Eight former Darlington Cup winners are entered this weekend – Johnson (three), Hamlin (three), Kevin Harvick (two), Erik Jones, Brad Keselowski, Matt Kenseth, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. (each have one).   

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Martin Truex Jr. (2016, 2017, 2019) and Team Penske’s Brad Keselowski (2012, 2014, 2018) lead the series in Playoff opener wins with three each.

First Race Of The NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs - Race Winners
Track	Playoff Race Winners	Date
New Hampshire	Kurt Busch	Sunday, September 19, 2004
New Hampshire	Ryan Newman	Sunday, September 18, 2005
New Hampshire	Kevin Harvick	Sunday, September 17, 2006
New Hampshire	Clint Bowyer	Sunday, September 16, 2007
New Hampshire	Greg Biffle	Sunday, September 14, 2008
New Hampshire	Mark Martin	Sunday, September 20, 2009
New Hampshire	Clint Bowyer	Sunday, September 19, 2010
Chicago	Tony Stewart	Monday, September 19, 2011
Chicago	Brad Keselowski	Sunday, September 16, 2012
Chicago	Matt Kenseth	Sunday, September 15, 2013
Chicago	Brad Keselowski	Sunday, September 14, 2014
Chicago	Denny Hamlin	Sunday, September 20, 2015
Chicago	Martin Truex Jr	Sunday, September 18, 2016
Chicago	Martin Truex Jr	Sunday, September 17, 2017
Las Vegas	Brad Keselowski	Sunday, September 16, 2018
Las Vegas	Martin Truex Jr	Sunday, September 15, 2019

The winner of the opening race of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs has gone on to win the title four times. In 2004 (inaugural Cup Playoffs), Kurt Busch won the opening race of the Playoffs at New Hampshire and went on to win the title. In 2011 (race was delayed until Monday due to rain) Tony Stewart won his first race of the season at Chicago to open the Playoffs. Stewart went on to set the record for the most wins in a Playoff run with five victories and the title. In 2012, Brad Keselowski won the Playoff race at Chicago and went on to win the title. And in 2017, Martin Truex Jr. won the Playoff race at Chicago and went on to win his first championship.

The worst finish in the opening race of the Playoffs by a driver that went on to win the title was Jimmie Johnson’s 39th-place finish at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in the 2006 postseason. The worst finish in the opening Playoff race at Chicago for a driver that went on to win the title was Jimmie Johnson’s 12th-place finish in 2016. The worst finish in the opening race of the Playoffs at Las Vegas by a driver that went on to win the title was Kyle Busch’s 19th-place finish last season.

No non-Playoff driver has ever won the opening race of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.

Since the inception of the elimination-style format of the Playoffs in 2014, entering the Playoffs as the No. 1 seed has been the most successful seeding, producing three championships among two drivers – Kyle Busch (2015, 2019) and Martin Truex Jr. (2017). The deepest seed an eventual champion has started the Playoffs was seventh by Kevin Harvick (2014) and Joey Logano (2018).

NASCAR Video: Micah Roberts Discusses Betting Odds for 2020 Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington

William Byron is 30/1 to win 2020 Southern 500 at Darlington

William Byron was 12th in his last Darlington race.

Driver William Byron winning the final race before the playoffs:
"Fortunately, we have pretty long weeks now with no practice or qualifying. We get two extra days, essentially. So we have had a couple days to take everything in and enjoy the win before turning on to Darlington. Darlington is a track that we’ve traditionally run well at and had a decent car in the spring this year. We’ll make some changes off of our previous setup and I think we’ll be in a good place.”

Byron on his feelings of getting his first Cup win:
“It was honestly just a big relief. I’ve been driving the No. 24 car for the last couple years and it was a relief to win that race in that car. There’s a lot of pressure that comes with that and the legacy of the car. These last couple years I’ve been really trying to work on being comfortable in the car and make it my own. I don’t remember much from crossing the finish line, but watching it back it just makes me smile. I’m still on Cloud 9. It’s been pretty special.”

Byron on racing at Darlington:
“Hopefully, we can have a good race and execute really well. Darlington is a really tough racetrack but luckily we’ve been there twice already this year. I have a pretty good idea of what the track is going to feel like and how it’s going to drive and handle. It definitely is a very temperature-sensitive track and it’s going to be warmer than when we were there in May. It rubbers up a lot, especially up by the wall. You have to move your line around and try to avoid the rubber at times until it covers the full track. Once it does, you can run wherever your car handles the best. It’s a balancing act of trying to chase clean track and trying to find good racetrack to run on.”

Crew chief Chad Knaus on the pressure of winning and the playoffs:
“The intensity was way higher and the pressure we felt was high, really high in Daytona. Quite honestly, I love it. That’s why we do what we do. That’s why we compete. If it was easy no one would want to do it. It felt really good after the race to get that checkered flag. Going into the playoffs now, it’s all in the details and we have to make sure that we execute properly. Going to Darlington now, it’s a great racetrack for us. We’ve ran well there. We sat on the pole last year, we ran up front in the first spring race until we had a loose wheel, and we were decent in the second May race. If we look at the details this week, I think we have an opportunity to be really competitive this weekend and run up towards the front.”


HERE TO STAY: Coming off his first NASCAR Cup win and heading into his second series playoff appearance, William Byron confirmed Tuesday that he will continue to bring home the hardware behind the wheel of the No. 24 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE for the 2021 and 2022 seasons. While his contract extension was signed in early August prior to Saturday’s win, Byron’s success in the national ranks of NASCAR speaks for itself. Signing with Hendrick Motorsports in August 2016, he climbed the ladder to the Xfinity Series in 2017, winning the circuit championship before making his way to the Cup level in 2018. With a combined 12 NASCAR national series race wins, Byron is the fifth-youngest driver to score a victory in all three major touring levels and is one of only two drivers to be crowned rookie of the year in three consecutive seasons.
WINNER WINNER: With Saturday night’s event at Daytona International Speedway signaling the final race of the 2020 regular season, Byron rolled off from the sixth position in the No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE but quickly took the lead early on. The Charlotte, North Carolina, native continued to show speed throughout the night and narrowly avoided multiple incidents to position himself on the front row for the final restart heading into overtime. Jumping out to the lead just before taking the white flag, Byron got help from Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott, who gave him the push he needed to maintain the lead and capture the checkered flag for his first career Cup Series win.

THE NUMBER IS 24: The “24” car number, made famous by four-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon, has an extensive history in NASCAR. Byron can now add his name to the legacy. En route to his Daytona win, Byron led 24 laps, including the final two in overtime, before capturing the checkered flag – the first time the No. 24 has been to victory lane with someone other than Gordon behind the wheel. Gordon’s first Cup Series win came at the age of 22 years, 9 months and 25 days, while Byron’s first victory came at 22 years, 9 months and 1 day – a difference of exactly 24 days. In fact, Saturday marked the first summer Cup race at Daytona not held on the Fourth of July weekend since 1998 when the event was held in October. The winner was Gordon in the No. 24.

LOCKED IT UP: Not only did his Daytona win signal the first of his Cup career but it also solidified Byron’s position in the 2020 NASCAR playoffs. Making his second appearance during his three-year Cup Series career, Byron is now seeded ninth, three points above the cutline heading into the first of three races in the Round of 16.

NIGHT VISION: While racing under the lights seems to bring a different level of intensity, it also brings success for Byron. In the last four races run at night, including Saturday’s Daytona win, the Charlotte, North Carolina, native has finished in the top 10 – a streak he plans to continue Sunday at Darlington.

DARLINGTON DEETS: With four previous Cup Series starts at Darlington, Byron is looking to capitalize on his strong showings at the track this Sunday and is hoping to find a little luck along the way. Despite running well early in races, Byron only has a track-best finish of 12th, which came earlier this year in the second race of the Darlington doubleheader. Last year in a “Days of Thunder” throwback paint scheme, Byron channeled his inner Cole Trickle and captured the pole for the prestigious Southern 500, becoming the youngest-ever pole sitter at Darlington Raceway at 21 years, 9 months and 2 days.

PLAYOFF MASTER: When the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports team solidified its spot in the battle for the championship Saturday night, veteran crew chief Chad Knaus made history of his own. This year’s post-season berth continued his streak of 17 consecutive playoff appearances. Not only does that stat rank first among all crew chiefs – with Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alan Gustafson second with 13 appearances – but Knaus has yet to miss the playoffs since the format’s inception in 2004. Through his 17 trips, Knaus has gone on to win an incredible 29 races and seven championships, which are both records in the playoff format.

KNAUS DIGS DARLINGTON: Making his 25th start at Darlington Raceway atop the pit box, Knaus is optimistic that his previous success at the 1.366-mile oval will continue Sunday. With three crown jewel wins at “The Lady in Black,” all with Jimmie Johnson and the No. 48 team, Knaus also has one pole award at Darlington, which came last year with Byron and the No. 24 team for the Southern 500.

LIBERTY HONORS JOHNSON: On board for his win at Daytona, Liberty University will remain on Byron’s No. 24 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE for Sunday’s race at Darlington – but with a different look. Embodying this year’s theme of “past champions” for the Southern 500, Liberty University is honoring seven-time champion Johnson by running his 2013 NASCAR All-Star Race paint scheme. Featuring a red, white and blue design with stars and stripes, the throwback scheme represents Johnson’s fourth and final All-Star Race win – the most of any driver – at Byron’s hometown track of Charlotte Motor Speedway. To see Byron’s No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE for Sunday’s race, click here.

SOUTH CAROLINA STATE OF MIND: While the fueler on the No. 24 team hails from North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, Landon Walker has significant ties to the southernmost Carolina state. The former college football player earned a scholarship to Clemson University in 2007 after being named an All-American offensive lineman in his hometown at East Wilkes High School. While playing at Clemson, Walker recorded 3,131 snaps with 49 starts at tackle through four seasons. In 2011, he was named team captain, the same year Clemson went on to win the Atlantic Coast Conference championship. The college football standout was then recruited by Hendrick Motorsports in 2012 and earned a position as a starting fueler for crew chief Gustafson in 2015.

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2020 Season 9th in standings 26 starts 1 win 0 pole positions 2 top-five finishes 9 top-10 finishes 97 laps led      Career 98 starts 1 win 5 pole positions 7 top-five finishes 26 top-10 finishes 391 laps led     Track Career  4 starts 0 wins 1 pole position 0 top-five finishes 0 top-10 finishes 3 laps led

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Kyle Busch is 12/1 to win 2020 Southern 500 at Darlington

KYLE BUSCH Throwing it Back to 2004 HUNTERSVILLE, North Carolina (Sept. 1, 2020) –While Mars Wrigley Confectionery’s involvement with NASCAR team sponsorship started all the way back in 1990, the beginnings of the M&M’S brand scheme fans see today with the core yellow M&M’S scheme started back in 2004, when the M&M’S lentils first fully adorned the No. 38 Robert Yates Racing machine. As Kyle Busch heads back to Darlington (S.C.) Raceway for the annual “Throwback Weekend”, M&M'S will go back to the base of the scheme he’s taken to victory lane so many times during his 13-plus seasons driving the No. 18 M&M’S Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing. In this most unusual year, Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500 will be the third NASCAR Cup Series race of 2020 at Darlington, where the series made its return from the 10-week layoff during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and conducted its first two races back on May 17 and 20. Making this year’s Labor Day-weekend race at Darlington even more intriguing is that it’s the first time the historic, egg-shaped oval has kicked off the 16-driver, 10-race Cup Series playoffs. Busch has conquered Darlington before, having brought home the Cup Series win at “The Track Too Tough To Tame” in May 2008. It earned him the distinction of being the youngest Cup Series winner – at 23 years of age – in the track’s storied history. Busch also has two NASCAR Xfinity Series wins at Darlington, coming in May 2011 and 2013. From 1950 through 2003, the traditional Southern 500 at Darlington was held every Labor Day weekend. In 2004, the race was moved to the penultimate race of the season during the first year of NASCAR’s playoffs before it was moved to the Saturday of Mother’s Day weekend from 2005 through 2014. In 2015, the race returned to its rightful and traditional spot on the calendar, and Sunday night’s race will mark the 60th time NASCAR’s top series will race in Darlington on Labor Day weekend, albeit it's first turn at kicking off the 10-race Cup Series playoffs.  So, as Busch returns to “The Lady in Black” for Sunday night’s 500-mile marathon, he and the M&M’S team look to bring home their second win in what many consider to be one of NASCAR’s crown jewel races. They’ll also take a trip down memory lane with a throwback scheme that takes them back to the original core yellow M&M’S scheme fans are very familiar with today.

KYLE BUSCH, Driver of the No. 18 M&M'S Throwback Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing:

What are your mindset and expectations as you head into the playoffs? “I have no expectations. Just take every event as it comes to us, every opportunity that comes to us, try to do what we can do. We’re going to start every single one of these playoff scenarios behind the eight-ball, basically on the outside looking in. We’re going to have to do everything right. In a perfect world, you win races in each of those rounds to push you all the way through to the final round, and you’re good at Phoenix. That’s kind of the name of the game. If we can Tony Stewart it, hopefully that will be what we can do. Just need to kick it off right this weekend. We raced well at Darlington back in May, just didn’t get the finish in the first race we deserved. Looking forward to getting our M&M’S Throwback scheme up front and see if we can’t get a win this weekend.” What makes Darlington a track that is too tough to tame? “It’s a very narrow and challenging racetrack, especially for the speeds that we carry around there, now. We’re looking forward to the challenge with our M&M’S Throwback Camry this weekend. You’ve really got to be able to get as close as you can to the wall in order to carry your momentum through the corners because you’ve got to make the straightaways as long as you can. The track is very narrow on entries and exits, so you’re always trying to round the place as much as you can. It’s very one-groovish. You can’t really run side-by-side there. Any time you get alongside somebody, you basically have to let them go. It’s a very big give-and-take type of track. It’s a lot harder to pass now, with the fresh asphalt, than it used to be. It’s really aero-sensitive now, to where it used to be more about mechanical grip and getting your car to handle well and handle over the bumps well and keep the tires on it. Now you’re restricted off the car in front of you and are trying to find some air, basically.” How do you assess your 2020 season heading into the playoffs? “It’s been a lot like a lot of people’s 2020. The roller coaster of finishes, and we’ve had good races and bad races. Thinking you’re going to have a good run and someone runs into you and you get a flat tire, or a long list of other unfortunate things have happened. We certainly want to get a win here soon. I also look at 2011, I think, when Tony Stewart didn’t do anything in the regular season and came out in the final 10 weeks and won five of those 10 races and won the championship. Also in 2016, Jimmie Johnson wasn’t a huge factor in a lot of the season but made it to the final four and certain circumstances put him in a position to be able to win the championship. So anything is possible. It’s all right there, but we just got to be able to execute when it matters.” What do drivers mean when they say you have to “race the track” at Darlington? “It’s tough to pass there, for sure. It’s so difficult. So you run your laps until you get to a pit stop and try to get your guys to have a good stop for you so you can jump a couple of guys. Pit stops become really important there, as is track position and trying to stay up front.” Can you describe the “Darlington Stripe” and what it’s like to get one? “A Darlington Stripe is pretty easy to receive. Running at Darlington is so tough and we are carrying so much speed there nowadays that you have to run right up there against the wall in order to get your car pointed correctly for the next corner, the next apex you have to make. So, running next to the wall in (turn) one and (turn) two and turning down coming off of two and carrying big momentum and big speed down the backstretch in order to set yourself up for turn three is important. Running high in three and four all the way through the corner, trying to keep the momentum going, because it’s such a tighter corner that the radius difference between each end of the track, you try to spread that radius as wide as you can and that’s right up against the wall. So, at any moment that car can slip and, during a run when the tires fall off, you have to be aware of one to two seconds of tire fall-off and your car is slowing down and at any moment you might slip a little bit and tag that wall. It can be very easy to do.”

Kevin Harvick is 3/1 favorite to win 2020 Southern 500

KEVIN HARVICK Back to the Future KANNAPOLIS, North Carolina (Sept. 1​, 2020) – Everyone who grew up in the 1980s loved the movie Back to the Future, starring Michael J. Fox. Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Busch Beer Throwback Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing, is hoping to go Back to the Future for the next week en route the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series championship. The Busch Beer Throwback scheme pays tribute to Harvick’s championships in what was then known as the NASCAR Busch (now Xfinity) Series. He won his first in 2001 and followed that up with another in 2006. Those titles helped Harvick learn how to win championships, which he did at the Cup Series level in 2014. He’s hoping to add the 2020 title to his Cup Series resume and become just the 17th driver to win it twice or more. He’s had a tremendous year with a series-high seven victories, 17, top-five finishes and 21 top-10s. Harvick is now tied for ninth with Kyle Busch on the all-time NASCAR Cup Series wins list with 56, and he’s 20 behind the late Dale Earnhardt, who is eighth with 76 checkered flags. Harvick is tied for second with Busch on the active driver list as both are behind Jimmie Johnson, who has 83 victories. On Aug. 23 at Dover, Harvick led the 15,000th lap of his NASCAR career. He is 11th all-time, now with 15,151 laps led, and trails 10th-place Busch, who has led 17,676, and Johnson, who is ninth with 18,936. Harvick has led 10,725 laps as an SHR driver, having reached the 10,000-laps-led milestone as an SHR driver when he took the lead on lap 37 on June 7 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. All those records are nice, but the No. 4 team is all about winning championships and it starts at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway this Sunday night. Harvick has two wins, three poles, 10 top-five finishes, 14 top-10s and has led a total of 750 laps in his 25 career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Darlington. But the combination of Harvick competing at Darlington in SHR equipment is impressive. In his last eight Cup Series starts at the “Track Too Tough To Tame” – all of which have come with SHR – he has finished inside the top-10 at each, seven of which were top-fives, with two wins. There are 10 races until the title is decided Nov. 8 at Phoenix International Raceway. And the road to the championship starts on Sunday.

KEVIN HARVICK, Driver of the No. 4 Busch Beer Throwback Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

With the points margin that you have, particularly the bonus playoff points, would it be disappointing if you don’t make it to Phoenix to fight for the championship? “Yeah, look, right now we’re one week at a time. Our goal is to really worry about what’s happening this week. We’re not even close to Phoenix. I think, for us, we want to be competitive week in and week out because the season is too long to not be competitive. Putting it all together at one race is tough to do, and I think as you look at going to Phoenix, we ran well there at the beginning of the year, but that’s a long way away at this particular point, and it would be silly for us to look that far ahead.” In previous years, you made it to the Championship Four numerous times. Have you thought about what you can do differently to get that second championship, or are there so many circumstances that are out of your control? “Yeah, there are a number of circumstances. Phoenix is a way better racetrack for us than Homestead was. We were able to put that together one year, but those low-grip, high-downforce racetracks for us – (like) Homestead – have just been a struggle to kind of hit on everything that we need to do to make our car run like it does everywhere else. I think it’s a better scenario for us, Phoenix, but like I say, it’s still a long way away.” You’ve accomplished a lot of records this year. What does it mean to you to be on a list with some of the guys who are in the Hall of Fame? “Well, I’ve been fortunate, especially over the last seven years, to drive really fast racecars and capitalize on the things we’ve been given. But when you start talking about those lists and the names of people who you’re around and passing, whether it’s laps led or race wins or whatever the category is, it’s just an honor to be on those lists and be around those guys. So hopefully we can keep it going.”

Cole Custer is 125/1 to win 2020 Southern 500 at Darlington

COLE CUSTER First Playoff Race for Cup Series Rookie of the Year KANNAPOLIS, North Carolina (Sept. 2, 2020) – Cole Custer and the No. 41 HaasTooling.com team for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) make the short jaunt down to South Carolina for Sunday night’s Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. Custer will make his 30th career start in NASCAR’s premiere series. While HaasTooling.com will adorn Custer’s No. 41 Ford Mustang this weekend at Darlington, the car will have a unique look as part of Throwback Weekend at the historic track. In keeping with the theme, Custer’s Mustang is modeled after Curtis Turner’s 1965 Ford Galaxie. Turner is a 2016 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee who won the 1956 Southern 500 at Darlington. Turner is the only series driver to win two consecutive races from the pole while leading every lap – Monroe County Fairgrounds in Rochester, New York, and Charlotte (N.C.) Speedway in July 1950.   Last May, Darlington hosted the first two events in the Cup Series’ return to racing after a 10-week hiatus due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. In his May 17 start, Custer started 14th and finished 22nd. On May 20, the rookie started 22nd and ran as high as fifth before making contact with the wall, which forced him to pit for repairs, and he ended his day with a 31st-place finish.   In the Xfinity Series, Custer has three Darlington appearances and has started and finished in the top-10 in each. Last year at Darlington, Custer started third and took the victory by a margin of .602 of a second over second-place Tyler Reddick. In total, Custer has an average Darlington Xfinity Series starting position of 4.3 and an average finish of 4.0, and he’s completed all 442 laps available.   So far this season, the Mustang has won 14 races for Ford. Custer and his SHR teammate Kevin Harvick have both earned wins for the Blue Oval this season and have accounted for a total of eight victories. Harvick’s win two weeks ago at Dover gave Ford its milestone 700th in the Cup Series. Ford captured its first victory on June 25, 1950. Ford drivers make up 50 percent of this year’s playoff field, with eight drivers representing the Michigan manufacturer.   With Custer’s Cup Series win July 12 at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta, he became one of 10 drivers who have won in each of NASCAR’s top three national series, as well as in ARCA and one of NASCAR’s developmental series. Team co-owner Gene Haas’ newest holding, Haas Tooling, was launched as a way for CNC machinists to purchase high quality cutting tools at great prices. Haas’ cutting tools are sold exclusively online at HaasTooling.com and shipped directly to end users. Beginning July 1, HaasTooling.com products became available nationally. The cutting tools available for purchase at HaasTooling.com are even more important during the current COVID-19 pandemic as CNC machines have become vital to producing personal protective equipment.   SHR has two wins at Darlington. Harvick started from the pole and won in April 2014, and most recently he won this year’s May 17 event on the South Carolina oval. The championship-winning organization has all four of its entries locked into the playoffs and is the only four-car team to do so in the Cup Series. Custer enters the first round of the playoffs 11th in points. Haas Automation, founded by Haas in 1983, is America’s leading builder of CNC machine tools. The company manufactures a complete line of vertical and horizontal machining centers, turning centers and rotary tables and indexers. All Haas products are constructed in the company’s 1.1-million-square-foot manufacturing facility in Oxnard, California, and distributed through a worldwide network of Haas Factory Outlets. Custer, who had a trio of starts in the Cup Series in 2018, clinched 2020 Rookie of the Year honors in his official rookie season in NASCAR’s most prestigious series. Competing against fellow rookie notables Christopher Bell and Reddick, he was the only rookie to clinch a playoff spot this season.

Cole Custer: Driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

How do you take what you’ve learned in the last 26 races and apply it to this playoff stretch?   “It is about applying everything we’ve learned and I think we’ve shown we can compete with everyone when we do everything right, and that includes me. I think we can move through the rounds and have a good playoff run. A lot of it comes down to the people at the race shop, too. It’s really important for me that I’m contending for wins in the playoffs. It sure would be nice to be able to add a championship trophy to the case at the end of the season, whether that’s me or one of my teammates.”   When you look at this year, it’s a pretty great feat to win in your rookie season. How does that feel?   “Getting my first Cup win this year was awesome. That all goes back to the things we do at the shop to put ourselves in those situations. We have all of the tools we need. Our owners Gene Haas and Tony Stewart give us plenty of tools to go out on the track and win races.”   All four SHR cars made the playoffs. What does that feel like?   “It’s amazing to get all four Cup cars in the playoffs, and the Xfinity car, too. Everyone at SHR has really adapted during this time to things like working totally different hours in the shop. They’ve been thrown a lot of curveballs this year and haven’t had a ton of time to prepare cars. But they’ve still given us cars that win races and have done such a great job keeping up with all of the changes.”

Aric Almirola is 28/1 to win 2020 Southern 500 at Darlington

ARIC ALMIROLA Playoff Bound, Throwback Style  KANNAPOLIS, North Carolina (Sept. 2, 2020) – Aric Almirola, driver of the No. 10 Go Bowling Throwback Ford for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) in the NASCAR Cup Series, will sport a special paint scheme this weekend honoring Glenn “Fireball” Roberts’ 1957 season, during which he won eight races. It’s a fitting paint scheme as Almirola begins his 2020 Cup Series playoff journey starting with Sunday night’s Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway.  Roberts’ eight victories in 1957 was a career high for a single season. Roberts was from Central Florida and attended college at the University of Florida before fully pursing his career in auto racing. In addition, Roberts was a pitcher for an American Legion baseball team, which is how he received his nickname – because of his fastball. Sadly, Roberts died from injuries sustained in an accident at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway in 1964. He was named as one of NASCAR’s “50 Greatest Drivers” in 1998 and was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2014.  Almirola and Roberts have a lot in common off the track.  “I went to college at the University of Central Florida to become an engineer and pursued racing while I was in school,” Almirola said. “I always say, if I didn’t go into racing I would have wanted to take the baseball route. I loved baseball growing up and I was pretty good at it. We have a lot in common. That 1957 season was solid for him, so we’re hoping to channel some of that energy into our playoff run and have a lot more in common on the track.”  This marks the third year in a row since joining SHR that Almirola has made the NASCAR playoffs. It will be his fourth playoff appearance in his nine-year full-time career. His best playoff run was in 2018, when he finished fifth in the season standings.  “We accomplished our goal of making the playoffs and clinching early so we didn’t have to worry about racing for a spot at Daytona,” Almirola said. “We wish we could have had a ‘W’ along the way, but we’re still enjoying the most consistency we’ve ever had.” He’ll join his three SHR teammates in the playoffs. SHR is the only organization to place four cars in the playoffs. Last year, then-SHR driver Daniel Suarez fell just four points shy of earning a playoff berth, otherwise this would have been the third consecutive year SHR placed all four of its drivers in the playoffs.  Almirola enjoyed a career-best regular season with five top-five finishes, 14 top-10s and 286 laps led. In his last 15 races, he has 11 top-10s and five top-fives. He begins the playoffs 12th in the reset driver standings with 2,005 points. Almirola needs to remain in the top-12 in points to advance to Round 2 of the playoffs. That makes running well Sunday night at Darlington, Sept. 12 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway, and Sept. 19 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway that much more important.  “On paper, the first round looks great for the No. 10 team,” Almirola said. “These are all tracks that I feel confident at and enjoy racing at. I couldn’t say that before this year because Darlington was always such a tough track for me.” Go Bowling will adorn the No. 10 Ford this weekend at Darlington for the second time this year.  The Go Bowling America league program focuses on bringing families, young adults and kids back to the lanes in a healthy and safe fashion, as centers around the country have implemented strict measures to ensure the wellness of its employees and customers who come to bowl. Go Bowling, in conjunction with its industry partners, has introduced detailed safety protocols to the thousands of U.S. bowling centers that include social distancing recommendations, use of personal protective equipment where required, and guidelines for sanitizing balls and shoes, as well as other equipment in the facility. Additionally, the Go Bowling America league program provides every bowler who joins at a participating bowling center with his or her own, brand-new bowling ball to minimize shared contact. With two of Roberts’ 33 wins coming at Darlington, and Almirola and the No. 10 team earning their best Darlington finish in their last visit there in May, they are holding their heads high heading to the Round of 16 of the playoffs.

Aric Almirola: Driver of the No. 10 Go Bowling Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

You ran well the last time you went to Darlington. Why was that?  “I thought we had a really good car that day. We ran up in the top-five quite a bit and had a really fast car on the long runs. Everyone else’s car would slow down a lot and my car wouldn’t slow down nearly as much on the long run. We would start beating all the leaders really good on the long run. If we could have had that race go green to the end, I think it would have been interesting because we were beating the leaders pretty bad. We came back with some setup changes from what we ran the race before and I felt like we made some real improvements to the car and were very competitive.” What would it mean to win at Darlington? “It is such a physically demanding track, it’s such a demanding track on the car, on the crew, on everybody. When you win at Darlington, you’ve done something. Darlington is just a really tough racetrack. It’s called ‘Too Tough to Tame’ and the ‘Lady in Black’ for a reason. It such a challenging place. To go there and have success, to walk away with a trophy, is a bucket list kind of race that you want to win and it would give us the peace of mind to earn as many playoff points as possible at Richmond and Bristol for the Round of 12.”   What has led to such a great season for you so far?  “A great team and organization. I feel like as a racecar driver I keep getting better. Every time this team has a weak point we address it and often times fix it. It's racing, so things happen. We just stay so motivated as a team. Buga is a great leader and motivator to this No. 10 Ford team. We mesh well together and now it's time to see how we handle the playoff pressure. I feel good about it."

Green Flag Drops on NASCAR's Playoffs Sunday at Darlington

Denny Hamlin won at Darlington in May.

It’s NASCAR Playoff time, and it’s right on schedule to begin at Darlington Raceway with no changes to dates or locations from the original schedule as we’ve seen with a makeshift schedule during the regular season due to the pandemic.

For the next 10 weeks, the 16 drivers eligible to compete for the 2020 NASCAR Cup Championship will be chopped slowly with four drivers being eliminated every three weeks until all we have left is four drivers, or the Championship 4, racing at Phoenix Raceway on Nov. 8. The best finish among those final four drivers wins the championship.

After tinkering with the setup over the years, NASCAR has a nice and easy-to-understand format where those who were great in the regular season are rewarded properly in the postseason with a head start.

Kevin Harvick led the regular season with seven wins and won a bunch of stages so he starts out off with a 57-point lead over the No. 16 seed Matt DiBenedetto when the drop the flag for the Cook Out Southern 500 in South Carolina. Denny Hamlin had the second-most wins with six and begins with a 47-point lead.

Just for perspective, William Byron gained 44 points for winning at Daytona Saturday. Those head start points will carry over into each of the next nine weeks, but the Championship 4 at Phoenix will be reset with all having equal points.

While accumulating the most points to advance is the goal, winning races is the name of the game. The eligible drivers who win races in each stage automatically qualify for the next round regardless of where they stand in points. Winning races is the best way to take care of business.

The added bonus of coolness this season is the final race being at the flat 1-mile layout at Phoenix after being at Homestead-Miami Speedway since the postseason began in 2004. Being successful at the 1.5-mile tracks became the main focus for teams because there were more races on them and those who did the best usually won the championship at Homestead.

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Clint Bowyer is 50/1 to win 2020 Southern 500 at Darlington

CLINT BOWYER NASCAR Playoffs: The Pay Window is Open KANNAPOLIS, North Carolina (Sept. 1, 2020) – As Clint Bowyer is fond of saying, the pay window in the NASCAR Cup Series is now officially open with the start of its 10-race, 16-driver playoffs Sunday night at historic Darlington (S.C.) Raceway during the 71st annual Southern 500. “Now is the time to make your money,” Bowyer said when asked about Darlington’s first-ever playoff race. “This is when it all starts in our sport. As a driver, no matter what’s happened up until now in 2020, and good lord there has been so much going on both on and off the track, the thing you are going to remember about this season, competition-wise, is what happens beginning Sunday and goes until we race in Phoenix in 10 weeks.” Bowyer arrives at Darlington carrying a special PEAK Antifreeze Throwback paint scheme on his No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) Ford Mustang. Bowyer’s paint scheme will celebrate PEAK’s first NASCAR victory when Kyle Petty and crew chief Gary Nelson dominated the 1990 race at Rockingham (N.C.) Speedway. Petty led 433 of 492 laps on his way to victory in one of the more memorable races in the sport’s history. “Ol’ Kyle had it going on that day,” Bowyer said with a laugh, adding that he joined Petty and Nelson earlier this summer to watch a replay of the race. “He put a whuppin’ on them. I’d love to do something like that in Darlington this weekend. I love watching those old races, and it was fun to hear Kyle and Gary talk about it. Kyle will be part of the NBC television coverage this weekend, so we want to make him proud.” Sunday night’s race will mark Bowyer’s fifth of six primary partner races planned for Old World Industries, the parent company of the PEAK Coolant & Antifreeze and BlueDEF® brands. The company’s legacy in motorsports spans 40 years and includes leading drivers such as Dale Earnhardt, Michael Waltrip and Petty. Besides Bowyer’s No. 14 team, PEAK is a partner with the Haas F1 team with drivers Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen, the NASCAR PEAK Mexico Series and drag racing’s winningest driver John Force. This weekend’s scheme is in keeping with “The Official Throwback Weekend of NASCAR,” during which the industry honors the sport’s history. Nearly all the Cup Series teams will sport throwback paint schemes in the Southern 500. Last year, Bowyer’s Ford carried a nearly identical paint scheme to his car owner and 2020 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee Tony Stewart’s 2011 championship-winning car at SHR. Bowyer has also raced throwback paint schemes honoring Mark Martin and Ned Jarrett at Darlington during his SHR tenure. As part of the Darlington weekend, PEAK will donate up to $5,000 to Petty’s Victory Junction Camp that enriches the lives of children with serious illnesses by providing life-changing camping experiences at no cost to children or their families. Beginning Tuesday, PEAK will donate $1 to the 84-acre Victory Junction camp in Randleman, North Carolina, for each of the first 5,000 new followers added to the PEAK Twitter page @PeakAuto.  “This is one of the best weekends of the year,” Bowyer said. “You get to see so much of this sport’s history come alive. You see the old paint scheme, the old style hats. The sponsors like PEAK really get into it and make it special. Now with this year being the first time the playoffs start in Darlington, it will be extra special.” Bowyer begins the playoffs 13th in the reset standings with 2,004 points thanks to a 19th-place finish last Saturday night at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway. Bowyer battled for the victory on the final lap before contact sent him into the wall, leaving him with a 19th-place finish. Despite the disappointing result at Daytona, the recent run of solid results continued for Bowyer, who has scored the sixth-most points of any driver in the last six races. Sunday marks Bowyer’s ninth career playoff appearance, as well as third consecutive appearance with SHR. To advance to Round 2 of the playoffs, Bowyer needs to remain in the top-12 in points through Round 1. That makes running well Sunday at Darlington, Sept. 12 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway, and Sept. 19 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway imperative to a chance for the title. “I’ve always thought the first round is the toughest,” he said. “You have to be ready to go right out of the box. You can’t have any mistakes. You sure as heck can’t afford to get behind.” Bowyer might not have had the regular season he wanted in terms of victories, but it wasn’t a bad year. He earned two top-five finishes and seven top-10s in 26 regular-season races. He earned the 10th-most bonus points of any driver. But the regular season is over and he is ready for the playoffs.   He’ll join a four-Mustang contingent of SHR drivers in the playoffs as he joins teammates Kevin Harvick, Aric Almirola and Cole Custer. SHR is the only organization to place four cars in the playoffs. Then-SHR driver Daniel Suarez fell just four points shy of earning a playoff berth in 2019. It would have marked the third consecutive year SHR placed all four of its drivers in the playoffs. Darlington hasn’t always been kind to Bowyer over the years, where he has two top-10 finishes and a pole in 16 starts. But, the 41 year-old Emporia, Kansas native flashed real speed in the two 400-mile Darlington races held in a three-day period earlier this year when NASCAR returned from a 10-week hiatus due to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in March. On Sunday May 17, Bowyer finished fifth in the second stage and appeared ready to battle for a top-five finish but a loose car dropped him back in the field, leaving him with a 17th-place finish. On Wednesday May 20, Bowyer won the first two stages and led 71 laps in a dominating first half of the night race. An untimely caution dropped him off the lead lap in the final stage and contact with the wall and a cut tire left him with a 22nd-place finish. Showing that speed again on Sunday should make Bowyer one of the favorites in a race that will be held in front of 8,000 to 10,000 fans in the 47,000-seat facility, nicknamed the “Track Too Tough To Tame,” received state approval earlier this month. All fans are required to wear face coverings or masks and temperature checks will be given while entering. Bowyer knows he has some big shoes to fill Sunday if his Mustang is to duplicate Petty’s PEAK performance 30 years ago at Rockingham, but he also knows the stakes have never been higher with Darlington as the playoff opener during one of the sport’s biggest weekends of the season

CLINT BOWYER, Driver of the No. 14 PEAK Antifreeze Throwback Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

What is your strategy Sunday? “That’s easy – our strategy is to win, simple as that. What a great time it would be for a win! We did that in 2010, won the first race in the playoffs. It’s a great way to set the tone for the whole playoff run. We ran really well the last time we were in Darlington, plus these first tracks coming up are in my wheelhouse. We feel very confident.” What are your thoughts on Darlington? “I like the uniqueness of the track. I’ve struggled to have good finishes there but we’ve always raced well. We just can’t seem to seal the deal at the end. Something always goes haywire in the end but, sooner or later, we are going to overcome that and have a good weekend. Doing that this weekend would be perfect.” What do you think of the older cars racing at Darlington? “I always thought it would be neat, if you could, to be able to put those cars back on the track and have us be able to race them – or even today’s technology, just make the rules mandate those old cars and see. The crazy thing is, you can’t unlearn the evolution of racing and everything that we’ve learned over the years. These engineers and guys, they could make those guys so much faster than they were back then, but it’s not fair. It’s not fair to the guys back then. They didn’t have the tools and simulation and all the things they have today, so I can tell you it’s because of those cars that racing is where it is. Those guys taught these kids and these guys who are building chassis and making these cars go fast today learned from those guys, and they learn pretty fast. But it would be cool to be able to go back and put those old jalopies back on the track and see what would happen.”