TEAM CHEVY ADVANCE
BOJANGLES SOUTHERN 500
DARLINGTON RACEWAY
DARLINGTON, SOUTH CAROLINA
SEPTEMBER 1, 2019
BOWTIE BULLETS:
TOO TOUGH TO TAME?
Chevrolet has won 41 of the 115 races at the 1.366-mile venue dubbed “The Track Too Tough to Tame” and “The Lady in Black.” Twenty different Chevrolet drivers and teams have hoisted the winner’s trophy at the egg-shaped racetrack. That list includes Herb Thomas, who produced the Bowtie’s inaugural win at the track on September 5, 1955. He qualified eighth in a Chevrolet Bel Air with an SBC Chevy V8 engine and earned $7,480 for the victory in the 336-lap race that took 5 hours, 25 minutes.
IMPRESSIVE STREAKS:
Dale Earnhardt won three consecutive races at the track — in September 1989, and April and September 1990 — in a Chevrolet. He also won three of the four races at the track in the 1986 and ’87 seasons. Tim Richmond, driving a Chevrolet, won the other on August 31, 1986. Overall, Earnhardt had eight wins at the track driving a Chevrolet. Career Chevrolet driver Jeff Gordon matched Earnhardt’s three-race winning streak at the track – the March and September 1996 races and the September ’95 race. Sterling Martin, driving a Chevrolet, won the March ’95 race.
TAKING IT STAGE BY STAGE:
Team Chevy drivers have notched 16 stage victories. Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson both have four stage wins to lead the Bowtie Brigade. Elliott has also 18 top-five finishes and is fourth among drivers with 184 bonus points. Larson has nine top-five finishes and 134 points.
TUNE-IN:
NBCSN will telecast the Bojangles Southern 500 live at 6 p.m. ET Sunday, Sept. 1. The NBCSports Gold app will stream the race and live coverage can also be found on MRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
BY THE NUMBERS:
* Victories by current Chevrolet drivers at Darlington Raceway:
Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1, has three wins (March 2004, November ’04, May 2012).
* Kurt Busch, No. 1 Monster Energy Camaro ZL1, has two pole starts at the track (September 2001, May 2013).
* A Chevrolet driver has started from the pole 21 times at Darlington.
* Kyle Larson has an average finish of 7.6 and has led 456 laps in five starts at the track.
* With 851 green flag passes at Darlington, Johnson leads active drivers.
* Johnson leads active drivers with nine top-five finishes at the track.
* Johnson maintains a streak of 35 consecutive races running at the finish.
* Team Chevy drivers have scored 183 top-five and 386 top-10 finishes at Darlington Raceway.
* Chevrolet reached 4,000 top-five finishes dating to 1949. Team Chevy has recorded 31 top fives this season.
* Chevrolet has won 39 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Manufacturer Championships.
QUOTABLE QUOTES:
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA THROWBACK CAMARO ZL1 – 7th IN STANDINGS
“It’s always a cool thing to be able to honor family or throw back to something within your own blood. I have enjoyed doing that the past couple years. I felt like it was another good opportunity to do so, kind of fits the NAPA colors, car looks good. Look forward to getting to the track and seeing it in person.”
ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 AXALTA THROWBACK CAMARO ZL1 – 10th IN STANDINGS
“Running this Tim Richmond scheme is so amazing. These iconic Axalta colors look great on this Chevrolet and I can’t wait to get this car on track. We have had a week off to dig back into the notebooks and get ready for Darlington. We qualified well there last year, but didn’t get the result we needed. I know this number 88 team can get the car dialed in and ready to go for Sunday. The last time Tim (Richmond) ran at Darlington for Hendrick Motorsports, he won so maybe that will bring our team some luck this weekend.
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 CLOVER CAMARO ZL1 – 11th IN STANDINGS
“Darlington has proven to be a really good track for my team over the years, and we’re excited to get there this weekend and hopefully show the speed we had in last season’s race. I think our team and myself just have a good feel for worn out surfaces at intermediate tracks, and we’ve shown good speed at each of those types tracks so far this season. Racing at a place like Darlington seems to fit my style and we usually show up for this race with a really good package in our Chevy. I’m really proud of the work everyone has put in over the last few races, after a rough start to the summer, and I feel like our cars have gotten a little better each week. We’ll look to have another strong race at Darlington and keep building our momentum heading into the playoffs.”
WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 HENDRICK AUTOGUARD/CITY CHEVROLET THROWBACK CAMARO ZL1 – 12th IN STANDINGS
“I’m really excited about our throwback scheme this year. Obviously, the Cole Trickle throwback from Days of Thunder is going to look really cool on track and under the lights. It fits us as a team, as a whole really well, especially with it being City Chevrolet and Hendrick Autoguard on board. It makes for a perfect fit. I’m definitely a fan of the movie though and I’ve seen it a number of times. My dad actually just watched it for the first time a few weeks ago when I told him what we were doing. It’s a great movie and it’s really good for fans outside of the sport because it’s so encompassing of what NASCAR is about. It pretty much covers all the basics, so I feel like it’s a pretty good representative of what the sport is like.”
DARLINGTON IS NOTORIOUS FOR CHEWING UP TIRES, SO THE BIG TOPIC IS MANAGING THEM. HOW DO YOU ACHIEVE THAT IN THE CAR? IS THAT SOMETHING YOU HAVE TO KEEP IN THE BACK OF YOUR MIND?
“It definitely chews up tires like Richmond and tracks like that, but it really comes down to car setup. You can manage your tires to a certain degree if you have clean air and out front or if you’re back in traffic and have a large gap on the guy in front of and behind you. If you’re pressing for a position though, you’re always elbows up. My rule of thumb is trying not to make any big slides and trying to work the grip limit of the tire while not over taxing it. I was fortunate last year at Darlington that I never hit the wall in the race. We had a blown engine but we were running pretty well until then.”
CHRIS BUESCHER, NO. 37 KROGER FAST LANE TO FLAVOR CAMARO ZL1 – 20th IN STANDINGS
“I love racing at Darlington Raceway. It’s a really challenging and unique racetrack. That’s what I like the most – racing on tracks that are different from our standard 1.5-mile oval. It puts on fantastic racing, and for me, is really similar to racing at tracks like Berlin Raceway. When you drive through Turns 1 and 2, you’re on the apron and have a hard brake getting into Turn 3. Once tracks go through a repave, it seems like it’s really hard and takes a while to get that same tire fall off back. But at Darlington, I felt like they got it back really quickly, and it puts on some fantastic racing.”
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 AMERICAN ETHANOL CAMARO ZL1 – 23rd IN STANDINGS
ARE YOU GOING TO HAVE SOME THROWBACK FUN AT DARLINGTON RACEWAY THIS YEAR LIKE A LOT OF TEAMS ARE?
“Yeah, we are. Our paint scheme this year honors the Black Gold car my grandfather raced in the 1970s. We’ve had fun filming the car with American Ethanol and getting into the history of the era. It’s really special to be able to honor my grandfather with our Darlington Throwback scheme.”
IF YOU RUN AT DARLINGTON RACEWAY AND YOU DON’T HAVE A DARLINGTON STRIPE HAVE YOU TRULY RACED AT THAT TRACK?
“Yeah, I have actually made it through without a Darlington stripe, but I have wiped out two cars in first practice. It’s a place that will bite you quick and you just have to have the right mentality going into it of what you are racing against. It’s not necessarily the competition as much as yourself. Mentally it’s a challenging place and I love that about it.”
IS DARLINGTON RACEWAY A PLACE WHERE YOU FEEL LIKE IT’S MORE IN YOUR CONTROL VERSUS SOME OTHER TRACKS?
“For sure, it is. It’s a place where if you do your job and you have to have a good car, obviously, everybody that runs well there does, but doing your job rewards you at the end of the night.”
RYAN PREECE, NO. 47 KROGER CAMARO ZL1 – 26th IN STANDINGS
I’m really excited to head to Darlington Raceway this weekend. Obviously having a Modified driver as our ‘throwback’ scheme with Ron Bouchard is really cool and I’m very thankful to Kroger for allowing us to change our scheme for the weekend. Darlington is definitely a worn-out track, so it’s not going to be your typical oval, where you’re kind of committed to finding speed or trimming the car out. It’s going to be a combination of speed and balance. It’ll be hot, but we’ve had a couple of hot races so far this season that I think have prepared us for that.”
BUBBA WALLACE, NO. 43 VICTORY JUNCTION 15TH ANNIVERSARY CAMARO ZL1 – 27th IN STANDINGS
“I remember showing up at the Darlington Raceway for the first time three years ago, and really just could not find my way. Every corner of the track is different and it was tough to get a hold of. Our team was not the greatest car last year, but I have a better feel for the track now and how to race it. At that place, you don’t really race other people, you just race the track. Hopefully, this time, our No. 43 Victory Junction Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 is dialed-in a little bit better with a better package, and we’ll go from there.
“It’s such a special ‘Throwback Weekend’, being Labor Day weekend and the Southern 500 – a crown jewel of the sport. We’re running the awesome bright and wow-looking car that Adam Petty drove in the ARCA Racing Series, and won at the Charlotte Motor Speedway in 1998 in the No. 45 Spree Prepaid Foncard. I’m excited about that. Having Victory Junction on the side is really cool and a very special tribute.”
Chevrolet Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Statistics
Manufacturers Championships:
Total (1949-2018): 39
First title for Chevrolet: 1958
Highest number of consecutive titles: 13 (2003-15)
Years Won: 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015
Drivers Championships:
Total (1949-2018): 31
First Chevrolet champion: Buck Baker (1957)
Highest number of consecutive titles: 7 (2005-11)
Years Won: 1957, 1960, 1961, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2016
Event Victories:
Record for total race wins in single season: 26 (2007)
2019 STATISTICS:
Wins: 5
Poles: 11
Laps Led: 1,443
Top-five finishes: 31
Top-10 finishes: 75
CHEVROLET IN NASCAR CUMULATIVE STATISTICS:
Total Chevrolet race wins: 784 (1949 to date)
Poles won to date: 710
Laps led to date: 233,698
Top-five finishes to date: 4,000
Top-10 finishes to date: 8,247
Total NASCAR Cup wins by corporation, 1949 to date
GM: 1,118
Chevrolet: 784
Pontiac: 155
Oldsmobile: 115
Buick: 65
Ford: 782
Ford: 682
Mercury: 96
Lincoln: 4
Chrysler: 466
Dodge: 217
Plymouth: 190
Chrysler: 59
Toyota: 133
About Chevrolet
Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is one of the world’s largest car brands, doing business in more than 100 countries and selling more than 4.0 million cars and trucks a year. Chevrolet provides customers with fuel-efficient vehicles that feature engaging performance, design that makes the heart beat, passive and active safety features and easy-to-use technology, all at a value. More information on Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com.
