DARLINGTON 1
Saturday, April 5 — NASCAR Xfinity Series, 3:30 p.m. ET (CW)
Sunday, April 6 — NASCAR Cup Series, 3 p.m. ET (FS1)
Ford comes into this weekend’s Throwback Weekend at Darlington Raceway with 34 all-time NASCAR Cup Series wins on the egg-shaped oval, including a sweep last year with Brad Keselowski and Chase Briscoe. Bill Elliott has the most wins in a Ford with five while David Pearson registered eight of his record 10 career wins in Ford Motor Co. products (6 Mercury and 2 Ford).
FORD GOING FOR THREE STRAIGHT
Ford won both NASCAR Cup Series races at Darlington last year and completed a season sweep for the first time since 1999. A win this weekend would also mark the first time Ford has won three straight at “The Lady in Black” since 1961-62 when it captured four in a row. Brad Keselowski (2018 and 2024) and Joey Logano (2022) are the only current Ford drivers to post a Cup win at Darlington.
KESELOWSKI SCORES FIRST WIN FOR MUSTANG DARK HORSE;
FIRST AS DRIVER/OWNER
In 2024, Brad Keselowski passed Chris Buescher and Tyler Reddick with nine laps to go after those two made contact battling for the lead to capture last year’s Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway. It was the first race win for the then new Ford Mustang Dark Horse. The win represented the first for Keselowski since he became co-owner with Jack Roush and snapped a 110-race winless streak. Keselowski qualified second and was a fixture at the front of the field all afternoon. He finished third in Stage 1, second in Stage 2, and completed the progression as he led five times for 37 laps on the day.
THROWING BACK TO FORD’S FIRST INDY 500 WIN WITH THE WOOD BROTHERS
In celebration of its 75th Anniversary, Wood Brothers Racing and driver Josh Berry will be competing with a paint scheme that Jim Clark won with in the 1965 Indianapolis 500. Ford recruited the Wood Brothers to pit Clark’s Lotus because of how they revolutionized NASCAR pit stops and the move paid off as the team’s quick stops were a factor in winning. The British Green and yellow livery was unveiled two weeks ago at The Henry Ford in Dearborn, MI, and highlights Ford’s first win at Indy and the first for a rear-engine car.
OTHER FORD CUP SERIES THROWBACK SCHEMES
Austin Cindric, No. 2 Dale Earnhardt (1979-80)
Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Dave Blaney (2006 Xfinity)
Joey Logano, No. 22 Cale Yarborough (1976)
Cole Custer, No. 41 Jimmy Spencer (2000)
Cody Ware, No. 51 Ward Burton (Late 1990s)
RYAN BLANEY: “It is a tough place. I think it’s one of the toughest places we go, more mentally than anything for me. I just feel like the mental mush that your brain is in after leaving that race is pretty high because your concentration level is at 110 percent the whole time. I kind of relate it to Homestead in a way, but Homestead is a lot wider. You have more room for error, unless you’re pinned on the fence, but Darlington it just sneaks up on you more. There’s less room to work, so I think that’s what makes that place so difficult and the two ends being vastly different is definitely a challenge. I haven’t finished a race at Darlington in about a year either, so I hope to do that.”
JOSH BERRY: “Darlington is always a tough one. If you have a good car, you look like a hero. If you have a bad car, you don’t. It’s that kind of thing. Last year, I had two really good cars there and ran really well. We didn’t get the finish we wanted in the Southern 500 with an accident there at the end, but I feel good about it. We ran third in the spring. If we can translate some of what I learned last year and apply it to the 21 car, hopefully we can have a good day.”
LOGANO PICKS UP FIRST DARLINGTON WIN
Joey Logano passed William Byron with two laps to go to win the Goodyear 400 in 2022 for his first NASCAR Cup Series victory of the season and first at Darlington Raceway. Logano dominated the Throwback Weekend, capturing the pole on Saturday and then winning the first stage before green flag pit stops and race strategy took over. He went on to lead eight times for 107 laps, most among all drivers, and dueled with Byron for the win over the final 26 laps.
DARLINGTON MASTER
David Pearson holds the record for most NASCAR Cup Series wins at Darlington Raceway with 10. Eight of those wins came in Ford Motor Co. products, winning six times driving the famed No. 21 Wood Brothers Mercury (1972,’74,’76-2,’77). He won the Southern 500 twice in that span (1976-77), and two more times in a Holman-Moody Ford (1968 and ’70). Pearson won three Southern 500 titles, capturing his third in 1979.
CREED AND MAYER RINGING UP TOP FIVE FINISHES
Haas Factory Team teammates Sheldon Creed and Sam Mayer continued their consistent starts when they both registered top five finishes at Martinsville for the second straight week. Creed was able to survive the final lap mayhem to finish second while Mayer ended up fifth, flipping their results from the previous week at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Mayer is second in the point standings and has finished in the top 10 six times in seven races, including five straight, while Creed is fourth overall with back-to-back top five runs. The two have finished in the top five of the same race three times.
MARTIN ALL-TIME DARLINGTON NXS WINNER
Mark Martin is Darlington’s all-time winningest driver in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, having won eight times during his Hall of Fame career. He won 8-of-15 series races from 1993-2000, which included a pair of three-race winning streaks (1993-94, 1999-2000) and consecutive triumphs in 1995-96. Overall, Ford has won 19 times at the “Track Too Tough to Tame”, including a stretch where Martin (3), Jeff Burton (3) and Jeff Green (1) combined to win seven straight.
FORD NASCAR CUP SERIES WINNERS
AT DARLINGTON
1956 – Curtis Turner
1960 – Joe Weatherly (1)
1961 – Fred Lorenzen and Nelson Stacy
1962 – Nelson Stacy and Larry Frank
1963 – Fireball Roberts (2)
1964 – Fred Lorenzen
1965 – Junior Johnson and Ned Jarrett
1968 – David Pearson (1)
1969 – Lee Roy Yarbrough (2)
1970 – David Pearson (1)
1981 – Neil Bonnett (2)
1982 – Dale Earnhardt (1)
1985 – Bill Elliott (Sweep)
1988 – Bill Elliott (2)
1992 – Bill Elliott (1)
1993 – Mark Martin (2)
1994 – Bill Elliott (2)
1997 – Dale Jarrett (1)
1998 – Dale Jarrett (1)
1999 – Jeff Burton (Sweep)
2001 – Dale Jarrett (1)
2005 – Greg Biffle
2006 – Greg Biffle
2018 – Brad Keselowski
2020 – Kevin Harvick (1) and (3)
2022 – Joey Logano (1)
2024 – Brad Keselowski (1) and Chase Briscoe (2)
FORD NASCAR XFINITY SERIES WINNERS
AT DARLINGTON
1993 – Mark Martin (2)
1994 – Mark Martin (Sweep)
1995 – Mark Martin (2)
1996 – Mark Martin (1)
1997 – Jeff Burton (2)
1999 – Mark Martin (2)
2000 – Mark Martin (Sweep)
2001 – Jeff Green (1) and Jeff Burton (2)
2002 – Jeff Burton (Sweep)
2004 – Greg Biffle
2005 – Matt Kenseth
2009 – Matt Kenseth
2018 – Brad Keselowski
2019 – Cole Custer
2020 – Chase Briscoe (1)
