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Darlington 101: TV times, stats, rules package

By
Staff Report NASCAR.com August 28, 2019 at 4:06 PM


It’s NASCAR Throwback Weekend! Get ready for awesome paint schemes honoring NASCAR’s best to do it and intense action as Sunday marks the second-to-last race of the regular season and a whole lot of fun.

The Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway is on Sunday, Sept. 1 at 6 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. Brad Keselowski is the defending race winner, but it’s a Team Penske teammate that made the biggest jump in this week’s Power Rankings. The Joe Gibbs Racing camp still owns the top three spots and is coming in hot as we head to South Carolina.

RELATED: Darlington schedule

Here is the rest of the need-to-know information for Throwback Weekend.

TRACK DETAILS

Darlington Raceway is a 1.366-mile oval with 25-degree banking in Turns 1 and 2 and 23-degree banking in Turns 3 and 4. The track has 6-degree banking on the straights, and the frontstretch and backstretch are each 1,229 feet. The first race at Darlington was on Sept. 4, 1950. Johnny Mantz won the race after starting from the 43rd position.

RULES PACKAGE

The race at Darlington Raceway will feature the 2019 rules package with a tapered-spacer engine generating around 550 horsepower. After a change earlier in the season, the cars will feature aero ducts this weekend.

Each team will be provided with three sets of Goodyear Eagle Speedway Radial tires for practice, one set for qualifying and 14 sets for the race (a season-high number of sets). This means that they will have to go an average of just more than 26 laps per set to finish the race. This is the first time teams will run this combination of left- and right-side tires at Darlington. Like last season, these tires feature the same tread compounds, only with an update to the construction to align what is run at other tracks.

STATS

— The last eight races at Darlington Raceway have been won by eight different drivers, Toyota winning four of the last six.

— Jimmie Johnson has two chances left to make the playoffs. He currently sits minus-26 points to the bubble, but Darlington has been a pretty good track for him with 20 starts and three wins.

— Denny Hamlin is on a hot streak and is the only active driver to win at Darlington Raceway and not win a championship.

Source: Racing Insights

LIVE COVERAGE

This weekend’s race will air live at 6 p.m. ET on Sunday on NBCSN and will be streamed on the NBC Sports App. Radio coverage can be found on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. Also, follow along on NASCAR.com for live Lap-by-Lap coverage, the live leaderboard, Drive (featuring in-car cameras) and RaceView (subscription: in-car audio, stats, more). Be sure to set your lineup in Fantasy Live and make your picks in the Props Challenge.

2018 RACE WINNER

Kyle Larson dominated last season’s Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, leading 284 laps en route to a third-place finish. Brad Keselowski took home the victory, leading 24 laps and started 13th. Joey Logano, Keselowski’s Team Penske teammate, finished second and led 18 laps. Keselowski’s win marked the first of his career at the track.

ACTIVE DARLINGTON WINNERS

Jimmie Johnson, three times; Denny Hamlin, two times; Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr. and Brad Keselowski, one time each.