NASCAR XFINITY Series

Next Race: VFW Sports Clips Help a Hero 200

The Place: Darlington Raceway

The Date: Saturday, Sept. 5

The Time: 3:30 p.m. (ET)

TV: NBC, 3 p.m. (ET)

Radio: MRN, SiriusXM Ch. 90

Distance: 200.8 miles (147 laps)

 

Dash 4 Cash Final Round Culminates At Darlington

Largely considered a success among the competitors, the fourth and last round of the NASCAR XFINITY Series Dash 4 Cash program will be held this Saturday, Sept. 5 at Darlington Raceway in the VFW Sport Clips Help A Hero 200. The four drivers competing for the last $100,000 cash bonus in the Dash 4 Cash finale are Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate and Joe Gibbs Racing driver Daniel Suarez, Richard Childress Racing teammates Brian Scott and Ty Dillon, and JR Motorsports driver and 2014 series champion Chase Elliott.

Elliott is the defending winner of last season’s race at Darlington and is still looking for his first victory this season.

Scott has made six series starts at Darlington posting one top-ten and an average finish of 17.7. His best finish at Darlington in the XFINITY Series was seventh in 2012.

Dillon has made two starts at Darlington posting a best finish of tenth last season.

Suarez’s will make his series track debut at Darlington Raceway.

There’s also a special program attached to this one race: One fan will be randomly paired with the four Dash 4 Cash drivers. Whichever driver wins the bonus, that accompanying fan will also with $100,000 from XFINITY. The four fans who won the sweepstakes to take part are, Désirée Amadeo from Lunenburg, MA; Kurt Karlstad from Alexandria, MN; Catherine Sanders from New Braunfels, TX; Daniel Clifford from Hauppauge, NY.

Teams Take Part In Darlington Throwback Weekend With Paint Schemes

Several of the XFINITY Series teams have opted to go with throwback-themed paint schemes this weekend at Darlington Raceway. One such example is Team Penske’s No. 22 Ford team, who is leading the XFINITY Series car owner standings by 86 points over its nearest competitor.

Team Penske’s No. 22 Ford will have a new paint scheme that will be an ode to the famed Hertz / Shelby GT350H ‘Rent-A-Racer’ program from the 1960s, and will feature a black scheme with gold racing stripes.

Driver Joey Logano will pilot the fashionably decorated Ford this weekend.  Logano has made four starts at Darlington, posting one win in 2012, three top-fives and an average finish of 5.5.

“I’m pretty excited to run this special Hertz paint scheme,” said Logano, a four-time NASCAR XFINITY Series winner this season. “Anytime you can get behind the wheel of a car that has a new look to it, people take notice.”

Defending Winner Elliott Returns To ‘The Lady In Black’ For Another Dance

Leaping to second in the series standings following his ninth top-five of the season last weekend, Chase Elliott heads back to Darlington Raceway, famously known as ‘The Lady In Black’ for a repeat dance for which Elliott intends to result in another victory.

Elliott’s performance last season was career defining. It was his second consecutive win of his 2014 rookie season, and he outpaced some of the best in the business throughout the day ultimately passing veteran Elliott Sadler on the last lap, much to his chagrin. The win confirmed Elliott’s driving prowess and set the course for what resulted in a championship year for the 19-year-old.

This season, Elliott rests 16 points behind series standings leader Chris Buescher, but is still looking for his first victory of 2015. In 23 starts, he has posted nine top-fives and a series leading 19 top-tens. His average finish this season is an 8.9 – third-best among championship contenders.

Expect Elliott to continue to close on Buescher in the points over the next five tracks – Darlington, Richmond, Chicago, Kentucky and Dover – because Elliott (5.3) has better combined average finish at those venues than Buescher (12.0).

Roush Fenway Racing’s Buescher Righting the Ship Late in the Season

For the third consecutive race, Roush Fenway Racing driver Chris Buescher’s XFINITY Series points lead has dwindled. Buescher now holds a 16-point lead over second-place Chase Elliott and 19 points over third-place Ty Dillon. This weekend the 22-year-old series standings leader needs to right the ship for the final stretch of the season.

Buescher’s performance at Darlington last season determined purely by start and finish would be misleading. The pilot of the No. 60 Ford started sixth and ran in the top-ten for the first 60 laps until a multi-car accident relegated him several laps down and causing him to finish 34th.

This weekend, look for Buescher to rebound from his 2014 Darlington performance.  In the first 23 races of last season, Buescher finished outside the top-15 in five races, excluding Darlington, at those same tracks – Bristol, Texas, Road America, Kentucky and Watkins Glen – this season he has posted a positive place differential, bettering his finish in comparison to last year on average by 14.6 positions.

Ten To Go: Dillon is Still in this Championship Quest

Despite dropping to third in the standings following his seventh consecutive top-ten finish, Ty Dillon is still right in the thick of the championship hunt with ten races to go.

Dillon is 19 points behind series standings leader Chris Buescher and just three points behind second-place Chase Elliott.

Dillon heads to Darlington for the third time in his career this weekend. Dillon’s previous two starts saw one top-ten and an average finish of 11.5 at the famed 1.37-mile track.

Dillon’s 19-point deficit is not insurmountable. In 2012, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was 19 points back from the standings leader after the 23rd race of the season and came back to win the title that year.

Sunoco Rookie Update

Wallace Displays Skills at Road America, Closes in on Suarez in the Points

Darrell Wallace Jr. tied his best finish of the season of fifth this past weekend at Road America and closed the gap between himself and Sunoco Rookie of the Year standings leader Daniel Suarez to 20 points.

Wallace has posted two top fives, nine top-tens and an average finish of 12.3 in 2015.

This will be both Wallace and Suarez’s series track debut at Darlington Raceway this weekend.

Big Name Stars To Watch

This weekend at Darlington Raceway there will be several NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stars competing in the VFW Sport Clips Help A Hero 200 – Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, Kyle Larson, Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick and last weekend’s Road America winner Paul Menard.

NASCAR XFINITY Series in South Carolina

The XFINITY Series has run 69 races among three tracks in the state of South Carolina including, Darlington Raceway with 54, Rambi Race Track with 13 and Greenville-Pickens Speedway with 2. The first XFINITY Series race in South Carolina was at Darlington Raceway in 1982 and Geoff Bodine won in a Pontiac at 129.018 mph.

South Carolina Drivers

A total of 133 drivers that have competed in a NASCAR national series race have their home state recorded as South Carolina. Of the 133 South Carolina drivers, 27 have competed in the XFINITY Series. Of the 27 South Carolina drivers that have competed in the XFINITY Series only four have won on the circuit – Larry Pearson (15 wins), Jason Keller (10), Butch Lindley (6) and NASCAR Hall of Famer David Pearson (1). Of the four, only Larry Pearson has won at Darlington (1995) in the NASCAR XFINITY Series.