It’s a throwback weekend at Darlington Raceway culminating with Sunday afternoon’s Goodyear 400 which will be only the ninth time NASCAR has raced on Mother’s Day. Happy Mother’s Day to all the wonderful Mom’s out there and thank you for all you do!
Chastain and Byron
The story goes that NASCAR founder Bill France’s wife Anne argued that Easter and Mother’s Day were family days and racing shouldn’t be on the schedule. She said a Mom should never have to see her son hurt or killed on Mother’s Day. The cars weren’t very safe back in the day, but the cars of today are built with safety as the main objective.
This will be the 122nd race since 1950 on Darlington’s 1.366-mile high-banked egg-shaped oval with each corner requiring a different approach and exit strategy. So the throwback angle is appropriate and we’ll see dozens of familiar old-school paint jobs on the cars paying respect to the past.
Part of the history on the track called Too Tough to Tame or The Lady in Black is the abrasive surface that tears up tires quickly so it’s up to the driver to manage them. Some drivers do it very well and their success shows in the numbers and trophies while others can’t quite get the hang of it.
GOODYEAR 400 PICKS & PREDICTIONS
Denny Hamlin, who leads all active drivers with four Cup wins at Darlington and also has five Xfinity Series wins, has said in the past that the key is to keep the steering at a minimum and try to drive a straight line all the way around the track with little movement while pacing himself for 25 to 35 laps and then when others fall off due to racing too hard, Hamlin can maintain higher speeds because he’s got more tire left for the final 25-to-35 laps on a fuel run. Goodyear’s director of racing expanded more on the Darlington tire wear
“We are obviously very excited about this week’s running of the Goodyear 400 at Darlington. To be the sponsor of this race, at a track where we have so much history, is really great for us.,” said Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s director of racing. “As far as the tires are concerned, Darlington’s abrasive surface always makes for an exciting race. Tires will wear and we will have a lot of fall-off over the course of a run, meaning tire management will be important. Drivers can impact their teams’ fortunes by not abusing their tires early in a run so they can fall off that little bit less and be faster than their competitors later. High wear also means four-tire stops all day, keeping the pit crews involved and highlighting the all-important team aspect of the sport.”
Sunday’s race will also be the first time the new 18-inch wide low-profile tire will be used at Darlington. But the strategy should remain the same regarding saving tires.
The difficulty of the track along with the abrasive surface comes with two differing corners. Think of the movie Days of Thunder which was filmed at Darlington and the lie that crew chief Harry Logge, played by Robert Duvall, told Cole Trickle, played by Tom Cruise, about having special tires that will stick around turn 4. I think it was Trickle’s first NASCAR win.
The thing about The Lady in Black is that she treats everyone the same and drivers have to play her game, but she hands out lots of Darlington Stripes along the way as she did to Cole Trickle in the movie. The stripe happens when a driver hits the wall trying to stick that high line. Happens often, but some do it much better than others.
READ MORE HERE.....TOP-5 FINISH PREDICTION ON VEGASINSIDER.COM
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