Darlington Race Review and Analysis

 



Mother’s Day!  The Nascar Cup Series visited Darlington Raceway for throwback weekend!  Located in Darlington, South Carolina, this track put on a thriller.  In an aggressive way, Joey Logano takes home the checkered flag on Mother’s Day.  This is Logano’s 28th career win and 1st of the 2022 season.  Logano joins Austin Cindric, Kyle Larson, Alex Bowman, Chase Briscoe, William Byron, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, and Chase Elliott in the playoffs. 


(Joey Logano in Victory Lane)

In the closing laps, Joey Logano inched closer and closer to race leader William Byron.  With 2 laps to go Logano got to the back bumper of William Byron, heading into the corner, Logano sent Byron high into the wall.  Logano then captured the lead as he rode off to the checkered flag.  Joey Logano is a well known aggressive driver, his career has been filled with moments like this today.  Many say this move was dirty and over the top, Byron went on to finish 13th due to contact with the wall.  Joey Logano and William Byron are the ones to look out for heading into Kansas next week due to this dust up. 


(Joey Logano on Track)

Let’s backtrack to stage 1, Joey Logano dominated the opening stage of this race.  Logano’s #22 machine stayed out front and was a tough task for all drivers contesting for the lead.  Logano qualified on the pole during Saturday’s qualifying race, he led 107 laps and took home the victory.  The stage 2 winner was Ross Chastain, the #1 driver who is the hottest driver coming into this weekend ran up front for most of today’s race.  Chastain was another pest that wouldn’t go away until he wrecked coming out of turn 2.  Chastain finished 30th after a promising day diminished with 99 laps to go. 




(Joey Logano Celebrating)


Drivers that left today with positive momentum were Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick, Tyler Reddick, Justin Haley, Michael McDowell, and Christopher Bell.  Logano today’s race winner, looked strong all day.  He faded towards the back half of the final stage but made a late charge at the end.  In dominating fashion, he’s the winner at today’s throwback Mother’s Day race in Darlington.  Kevin Harvick was another driver that had a great result.  Harvick, who hasn’t won since 2020, looked strong this afternoon.  He muscles his way to a 4th place finish.  Tyler Reddick was another standout in today’s event, Reddick held a pretty wheel crossing the line 2nd.  Justin Haley who was a pleasant surprise today, finished 3rd.  Normally, Haley is somewhere in the middle of the pack, today he wasn’t. Haley ran around the top 15 for most of today, with a few cars being cleared out in wrecks, this put him towards the front.  Michael McDowell had an under the radar type of afternoon.  The driver of the #34 car came into today needing a good finish, today he gets that with a 7th place result.  Christopher Bell was another driver that looked solid all afternoon.  Running in the top 10, Bell was lined up a top 10 finish.  He finishes 6th, after a stellar afternoon. 



Drivers that didn’t have the best results were Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski, Kyle Larson, and Alex Bowman.  Kyle Busch who is expecting his second child very soon, started off today extremely well.  Busch kept his #18 car up in the top 10 until trouble struck late.  Brad Keselowski bounced off of the outside wall collecting Kyle Busch.  Both did not finish the race as they head to Kansas.  Busch finished 33rd followed by Keselowski in 34th.  A huge wreck came with 33 laps to go.  Martin Truex Jr. was being shuffled out of the top five as Kevin Harvick took him three wide in the middle of the corner.  This stacked up the field behind them sending Erik Jones, Cole Custer, Bubba Wallace, Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin, and Ryan Blaney all for a ride. A 9 car pile up sent a lot of top 10 worthy cars to the garage.  Truex Jr. finished 24th, followed by Jones in 25th, next in line was Cole Custer in 26th.  A rough stretch for both 23XI Racing cars today, after an up and down season so far, today was another disappointing result.  Wallace finishes 27th with teammate Kurt Busch right behind in 28th. 


In my opinion, today was good.  We saw edgy racing all afternoon which was proven with today’s finish.  Yes, the way Logano took the lead from Byron was very skeptical this afternoon but, Logano’s known for that.  We now have 10 winners on the season heading into Kansas.  Today was a great throwback Mother’s Day weekend in Darlington.  I’d rate today’s action a 9 out of 10. 





Leaving Darlington behind, we head to the sunflower state.  Kansas Speedway is the next race in this 2022 season!  Located in Kansas City, Kansas, this 1.5-mile track puts on a great show.  The Xfinity Series will have the weekend off, leaving the Truck Series and the Cup Series in Kansas.  Practice and qualifying will be Saturday afternoon for the Truck Series.  The Cup Series will have practice and qualifying in the evening on Saturday.  The Truck Series race in Kansas will be later that night.  For the AdventHealth 400, tune in Sunday, May 15th at 3:00pm only on FS1. 


( All images credited to https://www.foxsports.com/nascar/cup-series.)


For next week's race information please view the link down below:




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