Host of the opening round of the NASCAR Playoffs, Darlington is an unforgiving track. It demands precision, with a narrow racing line and changing conditions, and that makes it the perfect proving ground for all sixteen NASCAR Playoff drivers.
Each driver’s performance at Darlington is scored on a 1-to-10 scale, with a score of 1 reserved for a terrible performance with no redeeming qualities and 10 reserved for a perfect and dominating performance. Performance over the entire weekend is factored in, since qualifying results make race days easier or more difficult.
Darlington is the opening race of the Round of 16. The Playoff field will be filtered down to twelve drivers after races at Kansas and Bristol, and strong runs are essential to moving on in the postseason. This rating gives an indication of each driver’s relative performance.
9.5 – Kyle Larson (1st)
Despite starting back in 18th, Kyle Larson showed his speed early, finishing third in Stage 1. And that speed continued all night, including a second-place finish in Stage 2. A large hit to the wall cost him some time and a spot around lap 260 of 367, but the damage didn’t affect his car. He and his team were able to use a series of cautions to great effect, securing him the lead.
Larson never looked back after the final restart and, despite a few brushes with the wall, maintained the gap to a hard-charging Tyler Reddick behind. A mediocre qualifying performance was all that separated the No. 5 team from a perfect weekend, and Larson leaves Darlington locked into the Round of 12.
9 – Chris Buescher (3rd)
Chris Buescher started eighth and finished third. He ran up front most of the race, including grabbing two stage points for a ninth-place finish in Stage 1. He was in sight of the lead battle at the end but just didn’t have the speed to take the fight to Reddick and Larson and ended up having to hold off William Byron to the line to secure third place.
Still, a quietly good day is a win at Darlington, and Buescher was able to secure both a best-ever Darlington finish and a solid points position, leaving Darlington in fourth, 27 points above the Playoff cutline.
8.5 – Tyler Reddick (2nd)
Starting third and finishing second, plus racking up stage points from a second-place finish in Stage 1 and a fourth in Stage 2, Tyler Reddick should be higher on this list. But a key mistake brings his score down. Reddick was leading in the final fifty laps when the pit cycle began, and he attempted to slow down and turn onto pit road when he saw second-place Kevin Harvick pitting behind him. He slowed in the racing line right in front of Ryan Newman, who spun on the brakes trying to avoid him, which brought out the caution just before Harvick made it onto pit road.
Regardless of the careless move, Reddick had a very good points day: “The day that we need to have,” he described it. It puts him third in the Playoff standings leaving Darlington, 30 points above the cutline.
8.5 – William Byron (4th)
Byron started even deeper in the field than his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson, in 23rd. “Just didn’t get the lap right,” Byron admitted of his poor qualifying effort. And it took him longer to get to the front than Larson. Still, Byron was able to get up to fifth by Stage 2 and continued his climb up to third with 60 laps to go.
The strong run, coupled with all the Playoff points from his five regular season wins – the most of any driver, Larson is in the best points position, with a 45-point buffer over the cutline leaving Darlington. A solid race performance is all the No. 24 team needed, but a good result would’ve been easier to get with a better qualifying performance.
8.5 – Brad Keselowski (6th)
Like his RFK Racing teammate Chris Buescher, Brad Keselowski had a quietly strong day, starting fifth and ending up sixth. He actually earned more stage points than his teammate, finishing sixth in Stage 1 and ninth in Stage 2. A few brushes with the wall couldn’t stop his late climb from the bottom of the top-ten to the top five, but he ended the day just outside the top five in sixth.
The strong points haul is especially helpful for Keselowski, who doesn’t have the extra Playoff points from wins that his teammate does. Leaving Darlington, he has an eighteen-point cushion over the Playoff cutline and sits eight in the standings.
7.5 – Ryan Blaney (9th)
Entering Darlington right on the Playoff cutline, Ryan Blaney needed a solid, uneventful points day. And that’s exactly what he got at Darlington, starting fourth and ending ninth. He earned his fair share of stage points too, with a fifth-place finish in Stage 1 and a seventh-place finish in Stage 2. It’s enough to move up to ninth in the Playoff standings as well, with sixteen points over the cutline.
“It was just a weird pit strategy race,” Blaney explained. “You usually don’t get that here, but just the way the cautions fell. Luckily, we were able to get back to ninth. It was a hard-fought battle, for sure. I’m proud of the effort and it was a decent day on points.”
7 – Ross Chastain (5th)
Ross Chastain finished fifth, but it took a race’s-worth of adjustments to get him there. He was only able to get as high as 27th position in qualifying and was so slow early in the race that he fell down a lap. That lack of speed was exacerbated by overshooting his pit stall on the first round of pit stops, an unnecessary mistake.
But in the grand scheme of the race, it wasn’t a bad mistake for Chastain, and his team showed impressive resilience to keep adjusting and ensure that the No. 1 car was up front when the pay window opened. Not collecting any stage points limited his overall gain from the day, though, and he leaves Darlington tenth in the Playoff standings with just a 13-point buffer to the cutline.
6.5 – Bubba Wallace (7th)
Bubba Wallace entered the Playoffs in the worst position, last in the standings. Being a winless driver, he lacked the five extra Playoff points from a win that most of his competitors enjoyed. But a strong run up to seventh in the race puts him in much more manageable position, and he leaves Darlington just one point below the Playoff cutline in thirteenth.
It could’ve been better result if Wallace had any stage points to add to that, but an unnecessarily aggressive move early cost him. Battling Joey Logano for twelfth at the end of Stage 1, he got loose, hit Logano, and spun, all for a position that didn’t confer any stage points to begin with. Wallace showed has the speed and the resilience to bounce back by the end that could take him far in the Playoffs, but a little better judgement would boost his rating.
6 – Denny Hamlin (25th)
Denny Hamlin’s race was the perfect example of one issue destroying an otherwise-perfect day. Hamlin started in second, but showed the most speed in short and long runs in practice and put that speed to good use, sweeping both stages and running up front until he felt a vibration early in Stage 3. Fearing a loose wheel, Hamlin chose to pit, which cost him a lap. Running deep in the field put him in vulnerable position, and he ended up caught up in a wreck with 38 laps to go after being unable to avoid a spinning David Gilliland.
Hamlin was nonplussed about his 25th-place finish, though: “Just part of it,” he said. “You’ve got to play the game and sometimes when you play the game it doesn’t work out the way you planned. I am happy about the speed the car had and the restarts that I had.” Despite the wreck, his stage wins gave him the ninth-most points of any driver, and he leaves Darlington fifth in the standings, 27 points above the cutline.
6 – Joey Logano (12th)
Joey Logano had to deal with the consequences of an early mistake all day. After starting sixth and running up front in the opening laps, Logano scraped the wall on lap 80 of 367, which destroyed the handling of his car. He was also forced to spend a lengthy time on pit road at the end of stage one to repair damage to the toe link, which cost him extra positions besides the spots he lost on track.
He even ended up a lap down at the beginning of Stage 2, but his team was able to make the necessary repairs and adjustments all race and keep him in contention at the end. A twelfth-place finish is a solid result for the No. 22 team, all things considered. However, the lack of stage points hurts a driver who came into the postseason with few Playoff points; he leaves Darlington in eleventh in the standings, just three points above the Playoff cutline.
5.5 – Kyle Busch (11th)
Kyle Busch had enough speed in qualifying to earn an eleventh-place starting spot, but damage from hitting the wall in practice forced the team to make repairs and he actually started the race from the rear. He was able to gain spots quickly and made his way into the top ten by Stage 2, finishing sixth in the stage. Despite battling to get into the top ten, he could manage no better than eleventh.
Busch’s day was made unnecessarily difficult by a mistake in the very beginning of the weekend. Still, he brought home a respectable amount of points, which, coupled with the Playoff points from his regular season wins, leave him seventh in the standings with a 20 point advantage over the cutline.
4.5 – Kevin Harvick (19th)
Kevin Harvick came desperately close to getting his first win in his retirement season, but bad circumstances made worse by a bad decision cost him. When Ryan Newman spun trying to avoid a rapidly slowing Tyler Reddick, second place Harvick continued onto pit road despite NASCAR rules closing pit road during caution. He could’ve just driven down pit road and retained his position from before the caution, but he and his team chose to pit on a closed pit road and incurred NASCAR’s penalty of starting from the tail end of the longest line.
Harvick could only recover to nineteenth place after the late incident but finishing fourth in Stage 1 added to his points total. Still, he leaves Darlington like he came in: below the cutline, now by a very manageable two points. As for that sentimental final win, he’ll just have to wait.
4 – Ricky Stenhouse (16th)
Ricky Stenhouse came into the Playoffs with low expectations. He was able to secure the win that guaranteed him a spot in the Daytona 500, but his performances in the regular season failed to suggest that Stenhouse had much hope of moving onto the second round of the NASCAR Playoffs. And a speeding penalty in the very first pit cycle of the day, which resulted in a pass-through penalty that put him a lap down, only added to that sentiment.
But Stenhouse and his JTG Daugherty team managed the situation admirably, earning the free pass when the caution waved for lighting issues at the track. Strategy put him in tenth in Stage 2 as well, giving him an extra point, and his finishing position of sixteenth is better than five other Playoff drivers. He still leaves Darlington in fifteenth place on the Playoff leaderboard, four points below the cutline, but results like that are what the No. 47 needs if those fortunes are going to be reversed.
4 – Christopher Bell (23rd)
Christopher Bell had just about everything go wrong at Darlington. He started on the pole and came in with high hopes, having replaced his pit crew with teammate Ty Gibbs’, a team which has been consistently third-best on pit road this season. However, that crew had a very slow first pit stop with jack issues that cost him position before a big hit to the wall compounded his issues. He finished eighth in Stage 1, but toe link problems from the wall contact left him bleeding positions on the Stage 2 restart.
Extensive repairs under caution early in Stage 2 put him back in the running, but his back-of-the-pack result was sealed after being involved in the wreck with 38-to-go with nowhere to go to avoid Hamlin and McDowell. A few stage points help, but Bell leaves Darlington in very precarious points position, sitting in twelfth place, just one point above the Playoff cutline. He’ll need things to start going right for his No. 20 team if he’s going to stay on the positive side of the cutline.
3 – Martin Truex (18th)
Martin Truex, Jr. just could never break into the front of the field at Darlington. Starting 31st, he made some progress through the field before a loose wheel early in Stage 2 forced him down pit road, relegating him one lap down, where he remained for much of the race before getting the free pass back onto the lead lap with 45 laps to go.
Truex ended up eighteenth. The huge point advantage of the regular season championship gives Truex a buffer, but he’ll need to start his weekends on a better note to avoid the compounding issues that Darlington presented his No. 19 team. Truex leaves Darlington sixth in the Playoff standings, a fall from where he entered, with a 25-point advantage to the cutline. Though he should be able to advance from the Round of 16, little of the No. 19’s performance at Darlington suggested a championship-caliber team.
2 – Michael McDowell (32nd)
A strong qualifying performance was the only positive for Michael McDowell. Starting ninth showed some speed from the Front Row Motorsports team, a decided underdog in the Playoffs. But McDowell wasn’t able to keep the position for long. He bled positions in Stage 1, ultimately falling down a lap while complaining about the handling of his car. A speeding late speeding penalty in the final fifty laps sealed his fate.
McDowell’s bad day even ended early after getting caught up in his teammate’s wreck. When David Gilliland wrecked and collected Denny Hamlin, McDowell was unable to avoid and ploughed in. A 32nd-place finish and no stage points digs a deep hole for McDowell leaving Darlington, and he sits sixteenth in the standings, 19 points below the cutline. The No. 34 camp will either need incredible runs or a win to advance out of the first round of the Playoffs after a poor start.
The CupScene Playoff Ratings continue after the second race of the Round of 16 in the Playoffs at Kansas Speedway.
- Denny does Dover after surviving hard-charging Kyle Larson to tame the Monster - April 28, 2024
- The Monster Mile brings short track style to high banking - April 25, 2024
- Sam Mayer scores Xfinity win by an inch in photo finish at Texas - April 13, 2024