NASCAR happened yesterday. As part of an altered schedule, the Cup Series held the first of what will be two races in four days at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina.
What to Know About Yesterday’s Race
Kevin Harvick won.
It was the first victory of the year for Harvick, and it makes him one of four drivers (alongside Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin, and Alex Bowman) to have effectively qualified for the playoffs (my impression is that if more than 16 individual drivers win races, it changes, but my impression is that’s unlikely).
There was social distancing.
Spotters were spread out. The stands were empty. Drivers wore masks during interviews. Honestly, NASCAR appears fairly well-suited for social distancing as far as execution of the actual competition goes. Not so sure about the financial side, of course.
Jimmie Johnson’s day ended badly.
It’s the last season of Jimmie Johnson’s career, and it’s hard to find any criticisms of him looking back on that career, but it seems he never really caught on as the driver in NASCAR, and now that he’s stopped winning championship after championship (he’s won seven in total), he’s no longer top-of-mind for the sport. To some, he’s become something of a sympathetic figure, so it was exciting to see him leading towards the end of the first stage of racing (there are three stages, and no, they’re not all that important for a casual viewer to understand). Then, he wrecked.
What to Know About Wednesday Night’s Race
The same drivers should perform well.
It’s the same track, a few days later. There are differences—night vs. day, possibly some swapped-out cars due to damage (I really don’t know, didn’t dig that far in for this), presumably different approaches from many, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see Harvick in contention again, alongside Bowman, who finished second, and possibly rookies Tyler Reddick and John Hunter Nemechek, who finished seventh and ninth, respectively, in what was a moderate surprise from each.
Oops—One Last Thing
There was a small fire.
