DARLINGTON, SC – The first half of the NASCAR regular season ended with a satisfying and devastating victory for former champion Brad Keselowski at Darlington Raceway.
Keselowski, in his third full season as owner-driver for Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing, made the playoffs and emerged as a title contender in the fall.
There are several other usual suspects to watch, including 2021 Cup Series winner Kyle Larson, his Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron, and Joe Gibbs Racing leader Denny Hamlin, who is tied with Byron for the lead. series with three wins this season.
Not so fast, said former driver and current NASCAR TV analyst Jeff Burton. Just look at the last two Penske driver champions, Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney.
“Raise your hand if they’ve won championships this time of year the last two years,” Burton said. “It’s very difficult to know what’s going to happen.”
But it’s not hard to make some logical predictions as the circuit heads into its All-Star Weekend in North Wilkesboro.
JGR’s Hamlin has been chasing the championship since missing last season and had one of the strongest cars each week. Along with his three wins, Hamlin has led laps in every race this season and finished fourth in the Goodyear 400 last Sunday. Christopher Bell, who won in Phoenix, gives JGR two playoff entrants so far.
Byron and Larson are leading the Hendrick charge, combining for five wins this season, including Byron’s success in the Daytona 500 to start Hendrick’s 40th anniversary season. Chase Elliott’s win at Texas gives Rick Hendrick three playoff spots with Alex Bowman, who was eighth at Darlington last week, the team’s only driver without a win. Bowman is ninth in the standings.
Byron said at Darlington that he needed to be more consistent next summer to prepare for the playoffs.
“We have the rhythm,” Byron said. “I feel like that’s what you’re really pushing yourself for, to have the pace to win races. We have that, we’re just not combining the weekends consistently, in terms of balance and execution.”
Keselowski’s victory at Darlington was the first for a Ford this season, but it probably won’t be his last. Keselowski’s RFK Racing driver Chris Buescher, who has won four times since Keselowski became co-owner in 2022, has come very close to winning again in the last two races.
Buescher missed a photo finish to Larson at Kansas two weeks ago by 0.001 second, the closest finish in NASCAR history. At Darlington, Buescher was knocked into the wall by Tyler Reddick while leading with nine laps to go.
Neither Buescher nor Reddick, 1-2 at the time, were fighting after the tangle and Buescher angrily confronted Reddick after both got out of their cars.
It was difficult for Buescher to deal with, but it’s likely he won’t disappear in the second half of the season. In fact, there were four Ford drivers in the top seven at Darlington.
Neither of the last two series champions, Logano and Blaney, have won a race to secure the postseason, although Blaney is in a better position, eighth in the standings, while Logano is 17th, first among the 16 drivers.
Neither had a strong showing at Darlington. Blaney came under pressure when Byron hit Martin Truex Jr., who then pushed Blaney into the wall and out of the race.
Logano was penalized for speeding when entering the pits at the end of the race and was sent to the back of the grid. He finished 21st.
Josh Berry, who replaced NASCAR champion Kevin Harvick in fourth at Stewart-Haas Racing, had his best finish this season in third.
Other drivers without wins in the top 16 in points include Truex in second, Ty Gibbs in seventh and Kyle Busch in 13th.
Everything will be resolved when the series returns to Darlington for the final race of the regular season, the Southern 500, on September 1.
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