If Sunday’s Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina was any indication of the state of the sport right now, it’s that the action is better than ever, the NextGen car is decent and 550 horsepower was the wrong direction to go from 2019-2021. This event saw the best car lead the most laps, the best driver won the race and a post-race controversy between fierce competitors with hurt feelings, after seeing a trophy slip away from their fingers. This was a classic Darlington race that consisted of tire wear affecting long run speed, drivers losing control of their cars as track conditions changed and pit strategy shuffling the lead around. Here are the key takeaways from the event.
Brad Keselowski turned Roush Fenway Racing around for the Better
Prior to Keselowski purchasing a portion of Roush Fenway Racing, the team had only made the NASCAR Playoffs one time over the course of four seasons, were winless since 2017 and were struggling to find speed on Sunday’s. Since he’s become part-owner in 2022, rebranding the team as Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing and leaving behind his old championship-winning team, Team Penske, both of his entries made the Playoffs last season, with his teammate, Chris Buescher, winning three races, advancing to the Round of 8 (the third round out of four of the Playoffs) and the team has amassed five wins in a three-year span. Sunday’s race was the second weekend in a row that Buescher was close to snatching his first win of the season, more of an indication that the team has potential to contend for it’s third Cup championship, the last one coming in 2004 with Kurt Busch. If Buescher finds his grove and picks up his first win of the year, it’s possible that this team could expand back to four entries one day, upon Brad Keselowski’s retirement into a full-time ownership role.
Rick Ware Racing is fast. Very fast
In 2017, Rick Ware Racing attempted majority of the races in the Cup Series as an open entry, which meant they were not locked into any races and would only collect a small portion of prize money, compared to chartered entries. They missed the Daytona 500 that season, did not finish a lot of races and would often get in the way of lead cars, while they were being lapped down. This did not change when they bought their first charter in 2018, and in 2020, they had four cars on track being weekly road blocks, to the annoyance of both drivers and fans alike, including one of NASCAR’s best drivers, Kyle Busch, who publicly bashed their drivers after a race at Las Vegas.
When you fast forward to 2023, RWR has an alliance with Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing, yesterday’s winning team. Justin Haley, RWR’s flagship driver, finished 9th and hung around the top-20 all day. Their other driver, Kaz Grala, finished 18th. Rick Ware Racing went from the “laughing stock” of the Cup Series garage, to showing more growth than any back marker team in recent memory. They had a great run at Bristol Motor Speedway in March as well, with both entries running in the top-10, prior to Haley finishing 17th and Grala finishing 19th. Rick Ware Racing is here to stay and this team is absolutely making those who laughed at them eat their words. Expect this team to be Playoff, and maybe even Championship caliber one day.
The on-track product
For about 15 years, the Southern 500 was Darlington Raceway’s only event, due to a decline in ticket sales during the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. This changed in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic brought the spring race back, after a massive amount of viewership. Unlike the historic Southern 500, taking place on Labor Day Weekend annually, the Goodyear 400 is a day race that has lower grip levels and tire fall off is more prominent.
Sunday’s race saw Kyle Larson and Tyler Reddick have enough speed to run up front, thanks to their dirt track backgrounds. Larson wound up crashing out, finishing 34th, while Reddick respectively finished 32nd after getting into Chris Buescher while battling for the lead. After the race, Reddick was confronted by Buescher and admitted to Buescher that he “messed up”.
The race also saw defending champion, Ryan Blaney’s race end early, due to William Byron taking his line away going into turn 2, shoving Martin Truex Jr. into Blaney. This left Blaney frustrated, with Blaney indicating he’d “pay Byron back later”. The apparent issue at hand was the slower corner speeds that the NextGen car encourages.
Sunday’s All Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway in North Carolina takes place Sunday at 8PM EST, with the heat races starting Saturday at 5:20PM EST and the All Star Open at 5:30PM EST on Sunday. The heat races determine starting positions for the All Star Race, while the Open consists of those who are not locked into Sunday’s main event, allowing the top-two finishers to advance into the All Star Race, as well as a fan vote winner. This is a must-see event and fans are going to want to tune in this weekend for all the action on FS1 and FS2.
Every Man on Every Crew 