“The white zone is for immediate loading and unloading…” and I need to unload my final pick for the best race of 2015.
Welcome back to this special edition of The White Zone. Today, I conclude my countdown of the top-10 best races of the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season.
As a reminder, this was not a collaborative effort among the Speedway Media staff. It’s entirely my opinion. This list is also more likely to spur debate than my countdown of the top-five most disappointing races of the season because we all have different standards for each and every race.
Monday, I listed the GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway in 10th-place and the myAFibRisk.com 400 at Chicagoland Speedway in ninth-place. Tuesday, I listed the STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway in eighth-place and the Windows 10 400 at Pocono Raceway in seventh-place. Wednesday, I listed the 57th running of the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway in sixth-place and the Food City 500 In Support of Steve Byrnes and Stand Up 2 Cancer at Bristol Motor Speedway in fifth-place. Yesterday, I listed the Goody’s Headache Relief Shot 500 at Martinsville Speedway in fourth-place, the Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway in third-place and the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway at runner-up.
Without further ado, let’s wave the white flag on the countdown.
Honorable mentions
Before I reveal my pick for the best race of 2015, I need to show some love to races that just didn’t make the cut.
- Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway
- I thought it was a good race overall, but I just didn’t see enough that made it warrant a place on the countdown.
- Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway
- It was also a good race overall, but I thought it was average for a road course race.
- Irwin Tools Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway
- I thought it was average for a race at Bristol. It was good, but not one of the great races everyone will remember when they think of Thunder Valley.
- AAA 400 at Dover International Speedway
- The racing itself wasn’t all that great, but the Chase drama involving who would and wouldn’t advance out of the Challenger Round made it entertaining.
#1 Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway
Topping the podium is the Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.
From 1950 to 2003, the Southern 500 occupied the Labor Day weekend spot on the NASCAR calendar. Many things changed in those 54 years, but that tradition remained the same.
In 2004, someone at NASCAR thought it would be a brilliant idea to swap out the famous South Carolina egg-shaped oval on Labor Day for Auto Club Speedway. Not only was this a slap in the face to one of the greatest traditions in all of NASCAR, they swapped The Lady in Black for a track that put on lousy racing at the time. Even if it were done today when Auto Club puts on some of the best racing on the NASCAR schedule, it still would have been a giant middle finger to tradition.
In 2009, the Labor Day spot was changed again. It went from Auto Club to Atlanta Motor Speedway. It was a little better in Hampton, Ga., but it still felt like it wasn’t proper.
Meanwhile, Darlington fell into place on Mother’s Day weekend. In some ways, it seemed a good fit for The Lady in Black to fall on a holiday weekend. But it still felt like blasphemy of the highest order to hold the Southern 500 on a weekend other than Labor Day weekend.
In August of 2014, NASCAR finally righted this great wrong by announcing that the Southern 500 would return to Labor Day Sunday in 2015. While it should never have left, I commend NASCAR for finally admitting it was wrong for ever moving Darlington from its rightful place.
I know I said that there was a lot of buildup to this year’s Coke Zero 400, but the buildup to the Southern 500 might have outdone Daytona. The ticket promo for the race encapsulated this with the tagline, “The tradition returns Labor Day weekend.” Everybody in the NASCAR media corp jumped on board and built up the return to Labor Day weekend at Darlington. The track got almost every team out there to agree to drive a throwback paint scheme for the Southern 500. NBC brought back some legendary names to work the broadcast booth like Ken Squire and Ned Jarrett. MRN brought back famous announcers like Jack Arute and Barney Hall for this race.
The last key ingredient was the low-downforce package making its second test after its successful debut at Kentucky Speedway. Goodyear also followed suit with a proper tire that provided more grip and had more falloff.
The end result was a grand slam success. The low-downforce made the cars a handful to drive, tag the wall – as they always do at Darlington where there’s so little room to race – and cars were spinning out. The tire falloff was so great that even if your car went one lap on a set under green when the caution came out, you were on pit road to get four new Goodyears’.
The race had 24 lead changes among 11 different drivers. While not statistically the most competitive of the season in terms of racing for the lead, it didn’t detract from the overall race itself. There were also a season-high of 18 cautions – a new track record – for 89 laps.
The only negative thing I can say about this race was that it never seemed to end and it dragged on. The total time of the race was four hours, 28 minutes and 35 seconds. That went on longer than the 600-mile Coca-Cola 600. That’s not the fault of Darlington Raceway. It’s just a byproduct of a 500-mile race. I’m also not going to count it against this race because it’s a minor nitpick.
At the end of the day, this race provided us with the best racing of any race all season long. The success of the low-downforce package at Darlington and Kentucky meant we’ll get to use this package again for the entire 2016 season. It was fun to mistake drivers on the track for the drivers who used those throwback schemes back in the day like how Bobby Allison – I mean Brad Keselowski – led 196 of the 367 laps. Most of all, everything in the NASCAR world was finally right again with Darlington back on Labor Day weekend.
Given all that happened in the Palmetto State, I’m proud to hand the checkered flag to the Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.
That’s all for this countdown. Do you agree with my list? Leave your thoughts below.
