With all discussions, defenders and dissidents, surrounding the format of the Nascar series qualifiers, what better place to make everyone happy than to start the round of 16 on one of the rare legendary tracks in the last 10 races?
It would be demanding the egg -shaped trail of 1.366 Mile de Darlington, the oldest superspeedway of sport, where the Southern 500 cook of Sunday Night in Darlington, SC, will descend.
Only the tiny track of Martinsville, in Virginia, has racing roots which flow as deep in the colorful tradition of battles and stock quarrels because as Darlington, we will therefore simply put the flat arenas in the pocket of our coat and wait for it to take place like the penultimate race of the eliminatory series on October 26.
Until then, everyone in the south of Virginia will probably need a coat, but nothing can cover the fact that this Sunday race is a really difficult opening match which will start the driving process at one of the 16 pilots in the playoffs – 14 with victories, two without – being crowned the 2026 champion.
With his process in playoffs under a more meticulous examination and his most debated among fans on social networks, Nascar was lucky on Saturday evening in Daytona and avoided a toxic situation when Ryan Blaney closed the regular season by hitting the post of Alex Bowman in the field of 16 cars with a slim victory like the lame of Daniel Suarez.
In all, four drivers without victory behind Blaney could have used a Daytona victory to deprive Hendrick Motorsports of Hendrick n ° 48 Chevrolet of the progress – Suarez, Justin Haley, Cole Custer and Erik Jones.
These four pilots combined for only seven victories, Suarez and Jones having five, in 941 departures, which means that the mandate of these pilots in the playoffs would probably have lasted only three races.
Although drivers can become hot unexpectedly like Chris Buescher by RFK Racing in the summer of 2023, winning auditors in three of the five departures, the probability of this among regular non-vain are thin.
As for this week, only five of the title researchers won “The Track Toohing To Tame”: Victor Denny Hamlin, as well as solo winners Kyle Larson, William Byron, Joey Logano and the defense champion of Southern 500 Chase Briscoe.
“It is a runner track, and the story is so special,” said Chevrolet n ° 3 driver, Austin Dillon, who finished in a narrow secondary way behind Kevin Harvick in the Southern 500 2020. “It is a bit of one of the most difficult to win races. … The track becomes a little smooth and wears the tires a little.”
So, with all these speeches last week of a start-up bowman in Daytona, it is perhaps the week when a pilot without victory holds the trophy to claim a jewel race of the crown.
The Double Winner of Southern 500, Jones, is a solid choice, like one of the best RFK pilots, who has had an extremely disappointing season but has already been solid on the South Carolina track. Twice victorious in Southern Carolina, Brad Keselowski won in a Buescher Race teammate in May 2024 seemed to go to victory.
In the opening of the 2022 qualifiers, Jones, Bubba Wallace and Buescher, all without regular season victories, won the auditors in Darlington, Kansas and Bristol, respectively.
A Sunday rehearsal would do everything on the points for the 16 hunters and not the victories, at least for a week.
What is a large part of this debate in eliminatory format, right?
– field level media
