Week 8 Preview: Darlington

Darlington Raceway

Bojangles Southern 500

By Richard Tix

The 2014 season has started 7 for 7. In other words, we have seen 7 different winners in the first 7 races so far. Once again, that stat includes the fact that Jimmie Johnson (2013 Sprint Cup Champion) and Matt Kenseth (2013 runner up) both have yet to win.

So, will NASCAR have its 8th different winner to start the season? Will JJ or Kenseth finally get a win this year? Only time will tell, but one of them show up on this weeks Good, Middle, and Bad list.

Last season Matt Kenseth got his third win of the season at Darlington Raceway even though the Busch Brothers lead most of the race. in fact 334 of 367 (Kyle- 265 and Kurt- 69).  After this race last year (which was a bit later in the season) Matt Kenseth was well on his way to the hot Chase run with 3 wins, but this season he has yet to win once. Will we finally see a repeat winner in 2014 or will we end up with another first time winner? 

The Good, Middle, and Bad

(This is just a review of each drivers recent past performance, generally about 5-10 past races)

The Good:

• Denny Hamlin- First on the list. DH has 7 top 10's, 4 top 5's, and 1 win in his 8 career starts at Darlington. With those stats I think it is safe to say he wishes NASCAR came here twice in a season.
• Jimmie Johnson- In the last 10 races at Darlington JJ has 2 wins, 6 top 5's, and 7 top 10's with an average finish of 8.6. Maybe JJ can get his first win of 2014 on Sunday?
• Jeff Gordon- This weeks Good list has some heavy hitters. Gordon has 1 win, 8 top 5's, and 8 top 10's in his last 10 starts at Darlington. 8 top 5's! You want a pretty safe bet for a front runner this weekend, take Gordon. 
• Extra Credit- Carl Edwards

The Middle:

• Ryan Newman- In the last 10 starts at Darlington Newman does have 7 top 10's, but his last two were a 10th and 23rd place finish. He is a pretty sure bet to have a good day, but he most likely wont win.
• Extra Credit: Matt Kenseth

The Bad

• Kevin Harvick- Only two top tens in his last 10 starts at Darlington. Not a good sign for Harvick as he comes off another bad luck race at Texas. Plus side, one of them was a top five and that top five was last time here.
• Paul Menard- In the last 7 starts at Darlington Menard has zero top 10's. Will his hot run so far in 2014 end this week?
• Clint Bowyer- Bowyer has 8 career starts at Darlington and only one career top 10. He needs a good finish this week but he will have to run better than normal. His career average finish is 21.1 here.

Track Stats

• Race hasn't been won from the Pole since 1997, Dale Jarrett. That's 24 straight races
• Ward Burton won after starting from the 37th spot. Johnny Mantz won after starting from the 43rd spot in the first ever race.
• Chevy or Toyota have won the past 7 races here. 4 Chevy and 3 Toyota.
• Of current drivers Gordon has the most top 10's (22), top 5's (19), and wins (7).
• Denny Hamlin has an average finish of 5.4 in 8 career starts
• Hamlin also has 4 straight top 10's. Longest current streak.
• Last Denny Stat, he has only missed the top 10 once in his 8 career starts at Darlington

More Darlington Articles:

• TV/Race Schedule
• Driver Entry List
• Paint Scheme's
• Week 7 Power Rankings
• Darlington Fantasy- ThisSportz
• Fantasy NASCAR: Sleepers and Busts- ThisSportz

As always, thanks for reading and come back as I have new updates throughout the week. Also big thanks to ThisSportz. Good guys on that blog and some good information, especially when it comes to fantasy so check them out!