NASCAR: Five Lessons Learned From Darlington

The Bojangle’s Southern 500 at Darlington was all about fast cars and even faster pit stops. With the race now over, here are five lessons learned from this past Sunday at Darlington.

The race at Darlington continues to be one of NASCAR’s crown jewels and is only enhanced by the throwback schemes seen on most of the cars competing under the lights on Sunday night.

From the famous Darlington stripe to the tempers that always seem to flare at this track, Darlington can always add a ton of pressure to drivers still trying to make the Chase. And while we saw that happen on Sunday night, the type of racing was a little different.

The main focus coming out of Sunday was all about the pit stops and how this race was both won and lost because of two different pit crews.

Clean air also impacted the leader, making it impossible for them to be passed during long stretches of green flag racing.

And other drivers were willing to take risks to try and stay up toward the front to hopefully gain points heading into the Chase. Did it pay off? For now it did, but a couple of post-race inspection failures could end up impacting the Chase standings later on this week.

Martin Truex Jr. won his second race of the season and is looking strong heading into the Chase. His win helps make Furniture Row Racing look even better and also tightens the points race heading into the Chase.

With Sunday’s race now over, here are five lessons learned from Darlington.

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