Darlington Preview | May 2022 | NASCAR

By Pam Smith - 1:08 PM


This weekend the NASCAR schedule features all three series at the famous Darlington Raceway.   The series moves to the egg shaped race track after last week's trip to the high banked concrete oval of Dover.   
The last time the Truck series ran at Darlington Raceway was a playoff race last September in which saw Sheldon Creed as the winner of the 200 mile race to make it a sweep for the year.  

The first series to take to the track this weekend will be the Truck Series with a thirty minute practice session from 3-3:30 PM today, Friday May 6th.  It appears that the entry list contains 36 trucks for the 36 starting spots, so no one will be sent home at the end of qualifying which will be held immediately following practice.   


All trucks will have a single lap for qualifying and it will be one truck at a time.   This will air on Fox Sports 1 beginning at 3 PM Eastern.  Following qualifying all trucks will be impounded until the Dead on Tools 200 tonight at 7:30 PM Eastern.   This will be a 200 mile race or 147 laps with three scheduled stages.  


This afternoon will also see the first laps for the NASCAR Xfinity Series at Darlington Raceway.   The last time the series was at the famed track was also a playoff race in September of 2021 where Noah Gragson snagged his first win of the season.   The Xfinity series will take the track for a practice session at 5 PM Eastern tonight following the Truck Series qualifying session immediately followed by qualifying.   


All Xfnity cars will also have a single lap for qualifying and it will be a one car at a time session.  This will be aired on Fox Sports 1.   There are 40 cars entered for the race, and the Xfinity field contains 38 starting spots so two cars will not make the race after qualifying.  Following qualifying all cars will be impounded until the Mahindra ROXOR 200 Saturday, May 7th, at 1:30 PM Eastern.   This race is also a 200 mile race with 147 laps and three scheduled stages.  


We have to wait until Saturday morning to see the Cup series take the track at Darlington.  The last time the series was at Darlington was September 2021 for the Southern 500 which Denny Hamlin took home the victory for his first victory of the season.  The Cup series will take the track for practice at 10:30 AM Eastern time on Saturday May 7th with qualifying immediately following.  


There are 36 cars entered for the Cup series at Darlington for a 40 car field, so no cars will be sent home at the end of qualifying.   It appears that practice and qualifying will follow the Group A/B qualifying format where the top 5 cars from each group will move into the final round of qualifying.   The final round will consist of single car runs consisting of one lap each.   Following qualifying all cars will be impounded until the race on Sunday, May 8th at 3:30 PM Eastern.   

The Goodyear 400 is a 400 mile race with 293 laps.  According to research, last year's Goodyear 400 had three stages that were ultimately won by the eventual race winner, Martin Truex Jr.   The Goodyear 400 will air on Fox Sports 1 starting at 3:30 PM Eastern with NASCAR RaceDay prior to the start of the race.   


(All photos used in this article are not the property of Loose Lugs Racing/Pam, all photos are linked to the sources/articles/websites)

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