NASCAR drivers face unknowns at Darlington as Cup Series playoffs begin

By Bob Pockrass
FOX Sports NASCAR Writer

Drivers try to prepare for everything when it comes to the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.

But they can prepare only so much. There are always unknown elements.

The first element is a potential race-changing one in the opener Sunday: the repaved section in Turn 2 at Darlington Raceway.

Because of water seeping up the track and causing cracks, track officials had been using patches amid the bumpy areas up by the wall. To fix the issue, they milled 4 inches deep and repaved an area 600 feet long and 32 feet wide against the wall in Turn 2.

"Beforehand, if you had a guy that was slow or ill-handling or whatever and he would run the race track, you could go to the flat, and you could utilize the flat of the race track to make the move or get the pass started," two-time Cup champion Kyle Busch said.

"Now there is no apron. You can’t use that. The grip of that fresh asphalt is going to be so much faster that you’re going to have to be in it. It’s going to be more challenging, more difficult to pass."

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Martin Truex Jr., who dominated the race in May at Darlington, said the repaved section might not make a huge difference, but it does mean everyone should be equal in that turn. 

"Turn 2 was a big challenge before with the bumps and the lack of grip," he said. "It will take that whole turn out of the equation. Everybody will just be flat through there."

Two playoff drivers — Denny Hamlin and Tyler Reddick — had already committed to running the Xfinity Series race Saturday, so they will get the benefit of competing in a race prior to the playoff opener Sunday.

While the cars are different in that the Cup cars have about 100 more horsepower, the downforce levels are fairly similar, and that should give Hamlin and Reddick an idea of how they will handle. 

Because Cup teams won’t go through inspection until Sunday morning, there's a possibility that they could make quick adjustments on the cars based on what the drivers learn Saturday.

"That [Xfinity race] is a good thing. It will race different, probably," Hamlin said. "For me to have the reps on that track with a car with a similar downforce level is going to be good practice."

Reddick is known to push the limits at Darlington — he wrecked a Next Gen car against the Turn 2 wall earlier this year.

"Those bumps and the patches that they had to put in really added an extreme amount of character in the toughest corner in NASCAR," Reddick said. "It’s a shame we couldn’t make it work. It’s going to change up the racing at Darlington a lot.

"A lot of pace fall-off comes from that area of the track." 

The newly repaved surface is expected to be wicked fast. It could even impact how engine tuners formulate their initial settings, as drivers will carry much more speed into Turn 3 as they come off an area with maximum grip and no bumps.

The Darlington surface tends to eat tires; whether this newly paved area allows them to last a little bit longer remains to be seen.

"It’s massive," Ryan Blaney, who has won the past two races, said of the surface change. "We’ve done our best to try and simulate it at the Ford rig, and it’s kind of hard to tell how much grip it is going to have. It was the roughest part of the race track.

"Now it’s gone. And how much speed are you going to be carrying into Turn 3?"

Among other unknowns heading into the playoffs:

Michael McDowell faces the biggest unknown as Front Row Motorsports is in talks with 23XI Racing. 

If FRM owner Bob Jenkins sells both his team's charters, McDowell could be out of a Cup ride next season. FRM likely would continue fielding trucks and possibly could field entries in the Xfinity Series with an eye on returning to Cup.

McDowell has been with FRM since 2017.

"There’s lots of conversations going on around everything," McDowell said. "As far as I’m concerned in my conversation with Bob, I’m going to be here at Front Row next year. I’ll be racing full-time.

"What everything looks like, all the details with that is sort of unknown. That’s not uncommon for us to go into October, November not exactly sure what it was going to look like."

Aric Almirola is the only other driver who doesn’t appear totally set for next year, but he is expected to return to Stewart-Haas Racing as long as sponsor Smithfield renews its deal.

What resin will NASCAR use for its playoff races? 

Tracks where NASCAR has added traction compound to the surface have included Bristol, Charlotte, Texas and Phoenix. The idea is to improve the grip in what would be slower lanes in order to increase the ability to pass.

For recent races at these tracks, NASCAR used PJ1, a form of resin that increases grip when heat-activated.

But at Nashville and Michigan, NASCAR has used a different type of resin. Created by VP Fuels, it is designed to increase grip by increasing the amount of tire rubber ground into the racing groove when there are dozens of cars on the track. At least initially, drivers seem to like that resin better.

NASCAR has a decision to make. For now, it's just one more unknown element.

Bob Pockrass has spent decades covering motorsports, including the past 30 Daytona 500s. He joined FOX Sports in 2019 following stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @bobpockrass. Looking for more NASCAR content? Sign up for the FOX Sports NASCAR Newsletter with Bob Pockrass!