Not So Sweet 16: Can Hendrick Quench Drought At Darlington?
More than a decade has passed since Hendrick Motorsports slogged through this kind of drought.Back in 2001, Hendrick went the final eight races without a win. Then in 2002, the squad went the first nine winless. That 17-race drought ranks as the team’s sixth-longest in an NSCS history that began in 1984.
The seventh longest? This one. Right here, right now.
Sixteen races have passed since Hendrick’s last win, but one of its top tracks awaits – Darlington Raceway. Hendrick has 13 victories at The Track Too Tough To Tame, most by any owner all-time. On Hendrick’s personal wins list, Darlington ranks tied for third with Dover behind only Martinsville (18) and Charlotte (16).
So, is this the week? As was the case every race since the team’s most recent win last October, the chances certainly seem solid.
Dale Earnhardt Jr., third in points, comes off his sixth straight top-10 finish – matching a career-long stretch.
Jeff Gordon, whose "when it rains, it pours" season continued in Talladega, leads all active drivers in Darlington wins with seven. Jimmie Johnson swept Darlington in 2004, but hasn’t finished in the top 10 since 2008.
Kasey Kahne finished fourth last year at Darlington, but prior to that race stumbled through five consecutive finishes of 20th or worse.
Last Call: Darlington Final Opportunity (Sort Of) To Make All-Star Field
This is it. Kind of.Saturday night’s race at Darlington Speedway marks the final points race before the May 19 NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race. That means it’s the final opportunity for drivers not already locked into the field to do so. In a way.
In actuality, after this weekend’s race, those not already locked into the all-star field can do so by finishing either first or second in the Sprint Showdown or winning the Sprint Fan Vote (click here to vote: http://nas.cr/a32m).
But no driver wants that kind of pressure. The Sprint Showdown is blink-of-an-eye quick (two 20-lap segments), so anything but a fast start likely spells trouble. And with some fan-favorite names on the Sprint Fan Vote ballot (i.e. Dale Earnhardt Jr.), it’s not wise to rely on that. So, Darlington it is.
Those thoughts swirl in the heads of some huge names, namely Earnhardt, Martin Truex Jr., Joey Logano, Jamie McMurray, Juan Pablo Montoya, Jeff Burton and AJ Allmendinger.
All sit in the top 20 of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points standings, and all are currently without an all-star nod.
Who among that group fares the best at Darlington? Burton owns the top average finish, with a 12.1. Coming off his first top-10 finish in six races, he boasts two Darlington victories (both in 1999).
Tops in Driver Rating at Darlington: Earnhardt. With four top 10s in the last seven races, he owns an eighth-best Darlington Driver Rating of 92.5.
Points Leader Biffle Counts Pair Of Darlington Victories
Greg Biffle didn’t just dodge a bullet at Talladega. The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points leader fired the gun.Fifth-place wasn’t a win but it offers further proof that the standings leader since after race No. 3 in Las Vegas won’t relinquish his advantage easily. Not even to Roush Fenway Racing teammate and Daytona 500 winner Matt Kenseth, who jumped from fourth to second in the standings to trail by seven points as the series moves to Darlington.
Biffle and Talladega haven’t always been the best of friends. Biffle needed 13 trips to the 2.66-mile track to gather his first top-10. He crashed out of four of five races in 2006-08.
Things have changed – and how. Beginning with 2007, when he finished seventh and fourth, Biffle has finished seven consecutive races on the lead lap.
Darlington, where Biffle won consecutive Bojangles’ Southern 500s in 2005-06, is an opportunity to solidify the championship lead. Biffle finished eighth a year ago and has but a single DNF – engine failure in 2008 – in 11 Darlington starts. His Driver Rating of 109.7 ranks second.
Still, Biffle takes nothing for granted. "If you make a little mistake or your car gets away from you a little bit, you've got a Darlington Stripe, and hopefully just a Darlington Stripe because you're going so fast, it can damage the car quickly," he said.
Victory Eludes Stewart At Darlington Speedway
For Tony Stewart, it’s one track down and two to go.The three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion entered the 2012 season winless at just three tracks on the current schedule: Darlington Raceway; Kentucky Speedway, which ran its inaugural event in 2011, and Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Scratch Las Vegas; Stewart won there in March leading a race-high 127 laps.
Darlington remains an uphill climb. Stewart owns just three top-five finishes in 19 previous starts. His Driver Rating of 88.1 is 11th best. He finished seventh, however, a year ago.
Stewart remains well ahead of last year’s title pace but his No. 14 Chevrolet team, with Spartanburg, S.C., native Steve Addington handling crew chief duties for the first time, continues to seek consistency. Two victories and a points ranking of seventh make Stewart pretty much a lock for this year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup™.
"If you can say you won a race at Darlington – that’s a feather in your cap," said Stewart. "That’s something to be proud of, knowing that you’re in a group of drivers with names like Pearson and Petty – the pioneers of our sport who you hear stories about the races they ran there and the races they won there."
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