The NASCAR Cup Series will travel to Darlington Raceway this weekend to try and tame the “Track Too Tough to Tame.” A trip to Darlington is always fun for the drivers and for the fans. The spring race brings out the iconic paint schemes of the past and the Southern 500 in September is a “Crown Jewel Race” that may be needed on a driver’s Hall of Fame resume. It should be fun to see these drivers ride the wall and try to be the first to the checkered-flag at Darlington. The Goodyear 400 can be seen Sunday at 3 p.m. ET on FS1.
The Fantasy Live picks got off to a slow start, but I asked you to stick with me because the picks would get better. The Fantasy Live lineup posted a perfect score last week. The picks are now outscoring 95.9% of the entries on the nascar.com website. It should not be long before the picks are outscoring the entries for the 14 consecutive season.
Here are my results from the Martinsville…
PRACTICE SPEEDS FOR DARLINGTON
NASCAR had their normal schedule this weekend. The teams were broken up into two groups. Each group had 25-minutes to dial in their cars for the race. Most of the teams were able to make some long runs in practice. The speeds from practice did not translate into race speed last year at Darlington. Kyle Larson posted the 10th fastest speed, with the 19th fastest long-run speed last year. He then went out and led 263 laps. Chase Briscoe posted the 32nd fast speed in practice and he went to Victory Lane last year. Larson started 4th and Briscoe started 3rd. Track position means a lot more than practice speed at Darlington.
Here are the speeds from Saturday’s practice session at Darlington Raceway…
STRATEGY FOR DARLINGTON
Predicting the winner at Darlington Raceway is easier said than done. There have been nine different winners in the last nine races. These nine winners have come from six different organizations. There are a handful of drivers who consistently run well at Darlington. Most of these drivers are the dirt-track aces (Kyle Larson, Tyler Reddick, Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe) or the old veterans (Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski). There will likely be some surprise drivers who finish up front (Erik Jones or Ty Gibbs), but sticking to the drivers who have had success at Darlington and are running well right now is the best strategy this weekend.
Here are the picks for the Goodyear 400…
WILLIAM BYRON (6): Byron is not the first driver that comes to mind when people think about running the wall at Darlington, but he is pretty good. Byron won the spring race at Darlington in 2023 and he has the best average finishing position in the Gen-7 car at this track. Track position is everything at Darlington and Byron has it. He starts on the pole and he has the No. 1 pit stall. He also has the No. 2 ranked pit crew. That is a good combination for a win Sunday.
DENNY HAMLIN (9): Hamlin will have some momentum after his win last week at Martinsville. Hamlin is not one of those dirt track racers who will ride the wall to Victory Lane Sunday. Hamlin is a master at saving his tires over a long run so he can be up front when the checkered-flag is waived. Hamlin finished 4th and 7th at Darlington last year. He will have a good chance to finish in the top-10 again this week.
CHASE BRISCOE (10): Briscoe won the Southern 500 at Darlington last year. He also finished 5th in the spring, throwback race. His No. 19 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing should be faster than the No. 14 Ford he had for Stewart-Haas Racing last year. Briscoe got off to a slow start, but he is starting to heat up. He finished 4th two weeks ago at Homestead. Briscoe should have a good chance to finish in the top-five again Sunday.
BUBBA WALLACE (8): You simply cannot fade Wallace right know. You could even make an argument that he is one of the best drivers in the Cup Series over the last two races. Wallace finished 3rd at Homestead two weeks ago and 3rd last week at Martinsville. Wallace has an average finishing position of 8th in the Gen-7 car at Darlington. I plan to play Wallace until he cools off. This hot streak cannot last forever, right?
TYLER REDDICK (6): Reddick is nearly as good as Kyle Larson at Darlington and he has about the same “boom or bust” value. Reddick won the pole, led 174 laps, scored 17 Stage Points and finished 32nd in this race last year. His upside is just too good to ignore. I am quickly running low with my allocations with Reddick, but this is one of his better tracks. I will find other races to save allocations with Reddick.
(GARAGE PICK) CHRISTOPHER BELL (8): The Garage driver was a tough decision this week. I thought about using Kyle Larson because we all know how good he is but I am running low with my allocations with Larson and he starts deep in the field. Chris Buescher was awesome in this race last year and I thought about using the No. 17 car too. I decided to use Bell since I have plenty of allocations left with Bell and I trust him more than I trust Buescher. (*I also do not trust Kyle Busch or Ty Gibbs). Ryan Blaney was fast in practice, but Darlington is not a good track for him.
Good luck and be sure to follow me on X (Twitter) @MrFantasyNASCAR. I will send out a Tweet during the race to let you know if I plan to swap out one of my drivers for my Garage pick.