TEAM CHEVY ADVANCE
Darlington Raceway
September 5-6, 2026
Chevrolet Newsroom
Chevrolet’s championship title-defending campaign in the NASCAR Cup and O’Reilly Auto Parts Series begins this Labor Day weekend as the sport heads to the historic venue tapped as “The Track Too Tough To Tame” – Darlington Raceway. Saturday night’s Fleetio 200 will launch the nine-race O’Reilly Series postseason schedule, while Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500 kicks off the Cup Series’ 10-race run towards the coveted Bill France Cup. After a Daytona finale that reshuffled both fields, Chevrolet rolls into Darlington with a heavy contingent of title contenders across both series.
Chevrolet’s Southern 500 Pedigree:
Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500 carries its own distinct history for the Bowtie brand. Since the event’s inception in 1950, Chevrolet has claimed 29 Southern 500 victories, the most of any manufacturer in the crown jewel race’s history. Hendrick Motorsports alone accounts for 12 of those wins, also the most by any team. Career Chevrolet driver, Jeff Gordon, leads all drivers with six Southern 500 victories – a run that included four-in-a-row from 1995-98.
Chevrolet’s most recent Southern 500 winner is the series’ reigning champion, Kyle Larson, whose 2023 victory doubled as Chevrolet’s 44th all-time Cup Series win at Darlington and the milestone 500th all-time NASCAR national series win for the Hendrick Engine Department. In the Next Gen era, Chevrolet has won three of nine races at Darlington, including back-to-back Southern 500 triumphs with Erik Jones (2022) and Larson (2023), sandwiched around William Byron’s win in the track’s 2023 spring race. Two of those three Next Gen winners – Larson and Byron – return to Darlington this weekend as part of a five-car Chevrolet contingent in the Cup Series Chase field.
FIVE TEAM CHEVY DRIVERS SET FOR CHAMPIONSHIP BATTLE
With the 16-driver field officially complete, Chevrolet will send five drivers into battle for the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series championship. Among those includes a pair of past champions, Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott, with the duo leading the manufacturer into the postseason seeded in the seventh and eighth positions, respectively. Spire Motorsports, who is on the brink of their first-ever postseason appearance, will have two drivers in the title hunt with Daniel Suarez (11th) and Carson Hocevar (12th). Rounding out the Team Chevy lineup is the 13th seed, William Byron, who is set to embark on his eighth consecutive trip to the postseason.
Larson, Elliott Among Past Champions:
Larson and Elliott have earned a spot on an elite list of just four past NASCAR Cup Series champions that are left to vie for the Bill France Cup. The pair have been staple names in postseason competition in recent years, with 2026 marking their 10th title-contending campaigns in NASCAR’s premier series. Larson, the reigning series champion, heads back to a racetrack where he’s found victory lane before. His 2023 Southern 500 win remains one of two active Chevrolet triumphs at Darlington, alongside Byron’s 2023 spring race win. Elliott, the 2020 Cup Series champion, is still chasing his first Cup win at Darlington but arrives with two wins in the bank this season for Hendrick Motorsports.
Byron Taps Postseason Experience:
Byron is no stranger to postseason pressure, with the Chevrolet driver coming off his third-consecutive postseason run that ended in a trip to the Championship Four. While still seeking his first trip to victory lane of the season, the No. 24 team knows its way around Darlington better than most of their competitors and will look to turn that track history into a bounce-back performance in the postseason opener. In six of his last eight starts at the track, the North Carolina native has turned in top-eight results, including his 2023 spring race win. In the Next Gen era, his average finish of 10.3 is third-best in the field.
Spire Motorsports’ First Postseason Appearance:
For Spire Motorsports, it’s already been a season for the record books. Not only will this be the organization’s first appearance in the postseason, but they will send two drivers into the title hunt. Suarez punched his ticket on the strength of one of the strongest regular seasons of his Cup career, highlighted by a rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600 win, while Hocevar, in just his third full-time season, is making his first career trip to the Chase.
CHEVROLET HITS DOUBLE-DIGITS IN THE O’REILLY CHASE
A record season for Chevrolet in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series is only just beginning as the manufacturer hit a near takeover of the postseason lineup. Ten of the 12 drivers who qualified for the nine-race Chase are Chevrolet-powered – headlined by JR Motorsports’ Justin Allgaier, who enters as the No. 1 seed and a championship favorite after a career-high six-win regular season. His teammate, Carson Kvapil, enters second after wins at Indianapolis and Iowa. Richard Childress Racing’s Jesse Love and Austin Hill hold down the fourth and fifth seeds, while Haas Factory Team’s Sheldon Creed – now fielding Chevrolet’s after the organization’s manufacturer switch this season – rounds out the top-three.
The Hendrick-backed rookie Corey Day and JR Motorsports’ Sammy Smith also transferred into the Chase prior to the regular season finale, entering their championship campaigns seeded seventh and eighth, respectively. Viking Motorsports’ Parker Retzlaff (ninth) and Haas Factory Team’s Sam Mayer (10th), who entered Daytona holding down provisional transfer spots, both raced their way into the field to give Chevrolet nine of the top-10 seeded positions.
One Chevrolet driver in particular delivers on the promise of last week: Rajah Caruth. Trailing the Chase cutline by 15 points entering Daytona, the young Team Chevy driver went on to score his first career O’Reilly Series pole and positioned himself in winning contention through much of the race. Despite a late-race spin that cost him a shot at a big finish, a strong points effort in the first-two stages was enough to lift the rookie into the 12th and final Chase seed – capping a solid first full-time season split across two different Chevrolet organizations.
BOWTIE BULLETS:
· Active Chevrolet drivers with a NASCAR Cup Series win at Darlington Raceway:
Kyle Larson – one win (2023 Southern 500)
William Byron – one win (May 2023)
· In 130 NASCAR Cup Series races at Darlington Raceway, Chevrolet leads all manufacturers with 44 victories. In nine events in the series’ Next Gen era, Chevrolet has earned three victories – recorded in consecutive events by Erik Jones (Sept. 2022), William Byron (May 2023) and Kyle Larson (Sept. 2023).
· With Grant Enfinger’s win at Lime Rock Park, Chevrolet sits just two wins away from its milestone 300th all-time NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series win.
· With seven-straight victories to start the 2026 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series season, Chevrolet set the record for the longest season-opening streak by a single manufacturer in the division’s history.
· In 169 points-paying races in the NASCAR Cup Series Next Gen era, Chevrolet leads all manufacturers with 73 victories – a winning percentage of 43.2%.
· Chevrolet is coming off its 29th all-time sweep of the NASCAR Cup Series championship titles – capturing its 34th driver championship and 44th, and fifth consecutive, manufacturer championship in 2025.
· With its 44 NASCAR Cup Series manufacturer championships, 34 NASCAR Cup Series driver championships, and 887 all-time NASCAR Cup Series wins, Chevrolet continues to hold the title as the winningest brand in NASCAR Cup Series history.
TUNE-IN:
NASCAR Cup Series
Cook Out Southern 500
Sunday, Sept. 6, at 5:00 p.m. ET
USA Network, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90
NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series
Fleetio 200
Saturday, Sept. 5, at 7:30 p.m. ET
CW, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90
QUOTABLE QUOTES:
Ross Chastain, No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
Where does Darlington rank on your list of tracks?
“Darlington is my favorite track. I’m very honest about that. I just love it so much. It’s a very challenging track and you have to hit your marks every single time. I want to win there so, so bad. I got the win in the Truck Series in 2024 and that was very special, but man, I really want a Cup win.”
How do you like having the longer practice sessions?
“I think it’s great. I know as a driver, I love making laps. I still am a fan, but when I was a strictly a fan and not a driver in the series, I loved watching cars on track. So 12-year-old Ross would be pumped to see cars on the track more for practice. As a driver, I think it’s great for us and it’s really great for the younger guys who don’t have much experience in Cup. With testing so limited, these extra few minutes everyone is getting is huge for race preparation.”
Austin Dillon, No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
What is the most challenging part of Darlington Raceway?
“Probably just taking care of your stuff, taking care of tires, not stepping over the edge, and then you have to be on the edge to be fast, so it’s like a knife edge. You got guys that are going to run right against the fence, you got guys who are on the bottom, but there’s pace on both of those at different times of the race. You got to be comfortable switching lanes.”
What is the physical toll of racing at Darlington, and how demanding is it on you as a driver?
“The precision that it takes, you’ll find yourself at times right up against the wall. Other times you’re underneath people in turn 4, which gets really tight. The bumps off of (turn) 4, you really have to stay on your game because one slip can knock you out of the race and put you in a bad position. You’re dancing the whole time on the edge of the intensity levels of what it takes to be good at Darlington.”
Talk about racing at Darlington Raceway and how much emphasis you place on that race?
“Darlington is a place that you’re constantly fighting the track. The track changes with temperature, and the Southern 500 is a race where you’ve just got to work at every lap. You try and work your way to the top, and at times you can come off of it and work different lanes. It gets really tight off of turn 4. But it’s a really cool race because it’s so long, and its grueling and everyone wants to win the Southern 500.”
You’ve won two Crown Jewel races. What would it mean to you to win this one?
“It would be really cool to win the Southern 500 with the No. 3 Boot Barn Chevrolet. We’ve won a couple of big races – the Coke 600 and Daytona 500 – and the Southern 500 is kind of the three that you would really like to get. I would love to bring home that trophy and it would be an epic game changer for us this year.”
How different is Darlington Raceway now compared to a couple of years ago when you finished second in the Southern 500?
“It’s not much different. I think the car is the biggest thing. We’ve come a long way with the Next Gen car and it takes a little something different. So hopefully we hit on that with the No. 3 Boot Barn Chevrolet and go have some fun.”
Daniel Suarez, No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet
How are you feeling heading into Darlington?
“I’m really proud of my team and the work we’ve put in to get to this point. To start The Chase at Darlington, we have some good notes from the spring and a solid notebook to build from. The night race is always a lot of fun and I’m really looking forward to seeing how the track changes as the sun goes down. It’s supposed to be pretty hot, so I think the track is going to be tough on tires, which will make tire management a priority. Hopefully, we can take what we learned in the spring, make the right adjustments throughout the night, and put ourselves in a good position to start The Chase strong.”
Ty Dillon, No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet
What are your thoughts on Darlington?
“Darlington is one of those tracks that is so much fun to drive, but the race is also one of the longest inside the car. I just love racing against the racetrack there—the Lady in Black. It’s so tough, it’s such a challenge, and you always feel like as a driver you can make an extra difference at that racetrack. And it’s been one of the tracks that [I’ve] had some good results at too.”
What is racing at Darlington like?
“Darlington is one of the top two tracks on my list with Bristol. I love going to Darlington and how you feel like you’ve gone back in time with the old school track and old school vibe. It’s nice to go back to a track for the second time. It’s one of our longest races, and conditioning, especially in this late summer heat, is going to be a lot. I’m looking forward to it and have a lot of high hopes and confidence going into this weekend.”
AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet
They call Darlington Raceway “The Lady in Black” and “The Track Too Tough to Tame” for a reason. What do you think about going back there with your crew chief Trent Owens?
“We’re going back to my crew chief’s (Trent Owens) home track for the second time this season. I’m very lucky to have Trent as my crew chief for many reasons and I feel like we’ve become really good friends over the last year and a half. When Chris Rice and I were talking at the start of the Cup program, when Justin (Haley) was full-time, about who we should get, he said I had the chance to get Trent. I’d worked with Trent at the 47 (formerly JTG Daugherty Racing), especially when he was with (Chris) Buescher, and I got to work with him for the last 10 races when I was there. I just thought he was so good. We had a great run at Darlington last August and finished fifth, but we had a difficult time earlier this year. We’ll do our best this weekend to get out of there with a respectable finish.”
Austin Hill, No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
What are your thoughts entering your first Southern 500?
“I have run a Cup race at Darlington before, but the package we are racing this weekend is completely different so I’m not sure there is much to transfer over. We have more horsepower and a smaller diffuser. It’s the package we’ve been running at tracks like Richmond, Iowa, and Nashville, so we have a base knowledge of what to expect. I think this package is going to play into my hands better though. You can still get tight in dirty air or get loose but it’s not as aggressive. It cuts it probably in half of how bad the dirty air is. If our Morgan & Morgan Chevrolet is good enough, we should be able to drive up through the field, especially with the tire fall-off. Even though the package is different, Darlington is still Darlington to me. How you approach the racetrack is going to be the same as the O’Reilly (Auto Parts Series) car, so that should be a positive. I’m pretty excited about it.”
Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 Hyak Motorsports Chevrolet
“We’re coming off a strong fifth-place finish at Daytona, so we want to carry that momentum into Darlington. It’s always a tough place, but we’re looking forward to the challenge and having Ram Self Storage back on the No. 47 Chevrolet. Hopefully we can put together another solid run.”
Cody Ware, No. 51 Rick Ware Racing Chevrolet
Darlington is known as the track “Too Tough To Tame.” What makes it so tough?
“You’ve got a very old racetrack, high banking, high commitment, just running up super close to the wall in both corners of the track. So to be able to qualify well there, you basically hold your breath for a lap and a half. During the race, when you’re side-by-side with low grip and high commitment, things just happen super quick, especially coming off of turn two. And then the tire degradation – even 10, 15 laps into a run, you feel like you’ve been out there for 100 laps. To stay committed and have the focus you need to hit your marks lap after lap at Darlington is hard. And especially with an extra 100 miles compared to the spring race, it makes for a very tough race.”
Michael McDowell, No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet
How do you maximize the momentum from Daytona heading into The Chase as a driver who is not eligible for the title?
“Daytona was a much-needed result for us. The last few weeks have been tough and we aren’t exactly where we want to be this season. Regardless, having two of our Spire Motorsports Chevrolets locked into The Chase is huge for us as an organization. Our No. 71 team wants to win, and that is still our goal while we keep building our notebook and focus on quality results that we can use as building blocks for next season. Darlington, especially the Southern 500, is such a fun race. Managing tires, running the wall, and watching the track transition from day to night makes for a great weekend all the way around. Hopefully, we can carry the momentum from last weekend into the final stretch of the season and finish 2026 strong.”
Carson Hocevar, No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet
With The Chase officially under way, does your mindset shift, at all, heading to Darlington and the final 10 races of the season?
“I don’t think anything changes for us. We just get to enjoy it. It is Spire Motorsports’ first time as a part of The Chase, and we’ve got two of us in it. Us and the over 200 employees at Spire get to enjoy, have fun on the journey, and get to go racing for a championship. We are approaching it as we would any other race. Luke (Lambert, crew chief) has a lot of experience in The Chase, and so does Matt McCall (Cup Series Competition Director). No one expected Ryan Newman to make it all the way to Homestead and have a chance in 2014, but they were there, they were competitive, and they did it all with consistency. In that time, the format didn’t reward consistency, and now it does. That’s how we are going to look at it, and we will see how the chips fall while playing the hands we are dealt each week.”
Does the Southern 500 have an atmosphere comparable to the other crown jewel events?
“For me it does. I enjoy it. First off, I love to rip the fence at Darlington. Then as the run goes on, you really struggle as the tires wear out and you are just trying to hang on. A lot of my friends go to that one just because of the eye candy of the track. You have the old school feel, but you add in the sunset throughout the opening portion of the race, then pure under-the-lights racing for the second half. I think the track suits the nighttime racing more than the daytime, and the place always gets packed out for this one.”
Connor Zilisch, No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
How big of a thrill ride is racing at Darlington?
“Darlington is definitely high on the fun meter. It took me a little bit to figure it out last year in the O’Reilly series. It was one of the few tracks where I qualified outside the top-10. I remember last year in Stage 1 I was running 20th and I was like man, this is difficult, like just trying to put your car in the right spot as the tires wear and making sure that you’re maximizing what you have. We made one adjustment and the next thing I know we were one of the fastest cars on the racetrack and I was driving through the field. It’s certainly one of the toughest tracks that we go to, probably the toughest, as a driver, just being able to manage your tires. After 30 to 40 laps on a tire run, it’s a handful.”
Does the history at Darlington resonate with you?
“Darlington has obviously got a lot of history and it’s cool for a guy like me who’s really young to go there and take that all in. You walk across the asphalt and you can tell it’s been around for a while. I definitely enjoy the old school feeling that Darlington has.”
Shane van Gisbergen, No. 97 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
If somebody had said to you at the start of the year you’d have a shot at making The Chase, what would your reaction have been?
“I would have been pretty stoked (laughs). But obviously, you want the whole team to have the opportunity because that means the team is doing well. The reality is that we have struggled a bit, but I’m happy on the No. 97 side, personally, to have matched Ross (Chastain). We know how good he is on the ovals, and I think I’ve made a big jump this year to be able to match him most weeks. And obviously Connor (Zilisch), as well, is a huge talent, so to be comparable to those guys has been really cool for me this year. There’s a lot of hard work going on, but we definitely need to improve if we want to have that opportunity at making it (The Chase) next season.”
Despite coming up short of making The Chase, how do you assess the season?
“The season is not over yet, but I’m proud that I’m closer to my teammates on ovals. I’ve managed to have a pretty good year. Obviously, I want us to do better as a team, and as team we aren’t quite there yet. But we’ve made good improvement on the ovals, which is important.”
What do the next 10 weeks look like for you and the No. 97 team?
“I guess we can try things now, take a bit more risk and just have some fun, low stress. But also work to do the best we can and learn more about what we need out of the car at certain tracks and prepare for next season.”
Chevrolet NASCAR Cup Series Statistics
Manufacturer Championships:
Total (1949-2025): 44
First title for Chevrolet: 1958
Highest number of consecutive titles: 13 (2003-15)
Most recent: 2025
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, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
Driver Championships:
Total (1949-2025): 34
First Chevrolet champion: Buck Baker (1957)
Highest number of consecutive titles: 7 (2005-11)
Most recent: Kyle Larson (2025)
Driver and Manufacturer Championship Sweeps: 29
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, 2020, 2021, 2025
Event Victories:
Record for total race wins in single season: 26 (2007)
2026 STATISTICS:
Wins: 6
Poles: 6
Laps Led: 1,859
Top-Fives: 43
Top-10s: 89
Stage Wins: 18
CHEVROLET IN NASCAR CUMULATIVE STATISTICS:
Total Chevrolet race wins: 887 (1949 to date)
Poles won to date: 772
Laps led to date: 258,593
Top-fives to date: 4,479
Top-10s to date: 9,240
Total NASCAR Cup Wins by Corporation, 1949 to Date:
General Motors: 1,221
Chevrolet: 887
Pontiac: 154
Oldsmobile: 115
Buick: 65
Ford: 854
Ford: 754
Mercury: 96
Lincoln: 4
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles: 467
Dodge: 217
Plymouth: 191
Chrysler: 59
Toyota: 217
About General Motors
General Motors (NYSE:GM) is driving the future of transportation, leveraging advanced technology to build safer, smarter, and lower emission cars, trucks, and SUVs. GM’s Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC brands offer a broad portfolio of innovative gasoline-powered vehicles and the industry’s widest range of EVs, as we move to an all-electric future.
GM Motorsports, including the Cadillac Formula 1® Team develops and proves advanced technologies in the most demanding environments, accelerating innovation in performance, safety, efficiency, and electrification for its production vehicles. Cadillac Racing is one of the leading manufacturers in the IMSA and FIA World Endurance Championships (WEC). Chevrolet competes in single seaters in the US IndyCar series, and in NASCAR with multiple team partners and drivers. Corvette customer teams compete in GT series across the globe including IMSA and WEC. Learn more at GM.com.
