Early Week Driver Rankings for Darlington

The NASCAR Cup Series regular season is complete. The field of 16 is set and now it is time to see who will win the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Championship. The drivers competing for the trophy in Phoenix includes William Byron, Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson, Chris Buescher, Christopher Bell, Ross Chastain, Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, Tyler Reddick, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Michael McDowell, Brad Keselowski, Kevin Harvick and Bubba Wallace. “The Track Too Tough to Tame” is a good place to start the run for the championship. The Crown Royal Presents Darlington Labor Day Weekend (It will always be the Southern 500 to me) can be seen Sunday night at 6 pm ET on USA Network.

The Cup Series competed at Darlington Raceway in May. Martin Truex Jr. dominated the race by leading 145 laps and Ross Chastain led 93 laps. In the end, it was William Byron who beat Kevin Harvick to the finish line to capture the checkered flag. Darlington is a track that wears out tires quickly and the track conditions will be different Sunday night. I still think it is a good idea to use the data from the May race at Darlington to help handicap the Southern 500 this week.

I will also use the data from the high tire wear tracks (Auto Club, Homestead and Darlington) and the high-banked track at Dover. The drivers who have the best stats in these races, should be fast Sunday night.

Here are my early week driver rankings for the Southern 500 at Darlington…

Be sure to check back Sundays morning for the updated Driver Rankings.

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