DARLINGTON 2
Saturday, August 31 — NASCAR Xfinity Series, 3:30 p.m. ET (USA)
Sunday, September 1 — NASCAR Cup Series, 6 p.m. ET (USA)
The final race of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series regular season headlines this weekend’s action as Darlington Raceway hosts its annual Labor Day event. Brad Keselowski will be going for a season sweep on the Cup side as he looks to follow up his win in the spring with another on Sunday night. Ford currently has five drivers locked into Cup Series playoff spots after Harrison Burton’s dramatic win last week at Daytona International Speedway.
WOOD BROTHERS WIN #100
Wood Brothers Racing celebrated its 100th NASCAR Cup Series win on Saturday night when Harrison Burton won the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway, becoming the eighth organization in NASCAR history to reach that milestone. Current Ford owners Roger Penske and (143) Jack Roush (142) are also part of that elite group.
BURTON JOINS EXCLUSIVE CLUB
Harrison Burton’s win on Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway put him and his dad, Jeff, into an exclusive club as one of only eight father-son duos to each win a NASCAR Cup Series race. Jeff won 21 career Cup events, including 17 when he was driving for Jack Roush. Here is the list of father-son winners: Bobby and Davey Allison; Buck and Buddy Baker; Jeff and Harrison Burton; Dale and Dale Earnhardt Jr.; Bill and Chase Elliott; Ned and Dale Jarrett; Lee and Richard Petty; Richard and Kyle Petty.
KESELOWSKI GOING FOR DARLINGTON SWEEP
Brad Keselowski won the Southern 500 in 2018 and if he can do it again this weekend he’ll sweep the 2024 season at Darlington Raceway. That’s because the 2012 Cup Series champion captured his first win since becoming co-owner with Jack Roush in 2022 and snapped a 110-race winless streak in the spring race last May. Keselowski passed Chris Buescher and Tyler Reddick with nine laps to go after those two made contact while battling for the lead and went on to win the first race for the new Ford Mustang Dark Horse.
FORD PLAYOFF SCENARIO
There are five Ford drivers locked into the Cup Series playoffs as Brad Keselowski (Darlington), Austin Cindric (WWTR), Joey Logano (Nashville), Ryan Blaney (Iowa and Pocono) and Harrison Burton (Daytona 2) all claimed their spots with wins earlier this season. Chris Buescher currently holds one of the final spots going into Sunday’s race at Darlington Raceway, 21 points above the cut line.
JOEY LOGANO: “The good thing for us is we’re in the playoffs, so it takes that piece of it away, and it’s kind of the last race we get to go all-or-nothing before the playoffs start, and then you have a lot more on the line. For us, getting in the top 10 in points isn’t likely, so it’s kind of about going to win and that’s kind of nice to have that. To me, that’s a little bit of fun and it’s the Southern 500. That’s the biggest part, which it’s fun to win that one.”
RYAN BLANEY: “It’s obviously a different look. That race has been the kickoff to the playoffs for a little bit and I really liked it being the first race in the playoffs. It was a huge race for multiple reasons, so now it’s a little bit different, but at the end of the day it’s still important to go try to win and go try to have a good run to keep some good momentum going before you get going for 10 weeks. We had a great run there in the spring and just got cut short, but it would be nice to add another crown jewel. Hopefully, we can do it.”
CHRIS BUESCHER: “Darlington, you’re always racing the track. I love that racetrack. I love how difficult it is and what it makes you think of as a driver. For us, you will pay attention. If that’s the scenario we’re in, we’ll pay attention to where others are at, but you’ve got to race that racetrack first, run our own race, and make sure we don’t make mistakes. You’re right at the edge at any given point there and while the cars have proven to be quite robust when you are right there up against the fence, they’re certainly not indestructible. We have to have our mindset right going in.”
KESELOWSKI SWEEPS 2018 SOUTHERN 500 WEEKEND
Brad Keselowski rode a fast pit stop by his crew to register a win in the 2018 Southern 500. Keselowski found himself in a three-way battle with Kyle Larson and teammate Joey Logano in the latter stages. When the caution came out for a spin by Jeffrey Earnhardt with 23 laps to go, Keselowski and his crew were able to win the race off pit road and assume the lead for what proved to be the final restart of the race. Keselowski was able to get out front on the restart with 19 laps to go and eventually win by 1.224 seconds. Logano finished second to make it a 1-2 Ford/Team Penske finish and cap a weekend that also saw him take the NASCAR Xfinity Series race a day earlier.
WOOD BROTHERS LEAD THE WAY
It comes as no surprise that the Wood Brothers are Ford’s all-time winningest team at Darlington Raceway, posting eight career victories. All but one of those triumphs came in a Mercury, which the team ran in the 1960’s and 70’s. David Pearson, who holds the record with 10 career Darlington Cup victories, led the way with six while Cale Yarborough captured the team’s first in 1968. The last Darlington win for Wood Brothers Racing came in 1981 when Neil Bonnett took the Southern 500 in 1981 behind the wheel of a Ford.
DARLINGTON MASTER
David Pearson holds the record for most NASCAR Cup Series wins at Darlington Raceway with 10 and eight of those came in Ford Motor Co. products. He won six times driving the famed No. 21 Wood Brothers Mercury (1972,’74,’76-2,’77), winning 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 overall, including 1979.
SIEG EYEING PLAYOFF BERTH
Ryan Sieg’s fifth-place finish last weekend at Daytona International Speedway helped him strengthen his position for making the playoffs. Sieg, who is 10th in the regular season point standings, currently holds the 12th and final playoff position going into this weekend’s race at Darlington Raceway. He’s 15 points above the cut line and 29 points behind Parker Kligerman, who is one spot above him. Sieg has made 15 series starts in his career posting three top-10 finishes and one top-5 effort with that being a third-place run in 2020.
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)
FORD NASCAR XFINITY SERIES WINNERS
AT DARLINGTON
1993 – Mark Martin (2)
1994 – Mark Martin (Sweep)
1995 – Mark Martin (2)
1996 – Mark Martin (1) and Terry Labonte (2)
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)
