By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
DARLINGTON, S.C. — Sunday’s Southern 500 from Darlington Raceway kept everybody up past 2 a.m. ET Monday morning. And it was well worth the loss the sleep.
With Erik Jones capturing his first win of the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, the other race of the night tightened even closer… the run to the playoffs.
Standing as the penultimate race of the 2019 regular season, Darlington kept the bubble drivers close throughout 500 miles.
So close, in fact, that two of them exit South Carolina in a tie for the 16th and final playoff spot, that being Daniel Suarez and Ryan Newman.
For Suarez, finishing 11th at Darlington, the fight will hit its peak next weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“That just makes things a little more interesting,” Suarez said. “We’re going to race extremely hard all the way until the end. We’re putting on a good show for you guys. Now being tied going into Indianapolis, that makes things even more interesting. We’re looking forward to the challenge.”
Newman, however, isn’t as excited heading into the Brickyard 400. Following a tough night at Darlington that ended with a 23rd-place finish, the Roush Fenway Racing driver is 17th, currently losing in the tiebreaker with Suarez.
“We got spun and came back,” Newman said. “It’s unfortunate. We lost some points today but we have a lot of fight in us. We’ll go into this last one here in the regular season and go and fight.”
The spin Newman referred to involved himself and Suarez, who made contact with Newman’s No. 6 to cause a spin.
“I’d have to watch a replay. They said [Suarez] hit me but I don’t know,” he said. “He had me jacked up sideways going into the corner. Do I owe him? Probably a little something.”
With Jimmie Johnson 18 points below the cutline, a strong day Sunday in Indy may be necessary for seven-time to contend for the eighth title.
Clint Bowyer is on the other side of the coin, sitting 15th on the grid, eight points to the good. Following a solid sixth-place finish at the Lady in Black, Bowyer gained a little cushion entering Indy.
“We put ourselves back in position,” Bowyer said. “I want to make the playoffs to get past the first round. Single-digit finishes we are capable of rattling off. This was a good shot in the arm, a momentum boost for our race team going into that last race in Indy.”
I am sick of one team dominating NASCAR. This new rules package was set up to help the Chevy camp and it has somewhat, but it looks like it has made the Fords much worse. I think the HP reduction has something to do with that. So just give the manufacture trophy to the wealthiest auto company in the world and team Gibbs can share the drivers championship. PS I am not new to NASCAR, I saw my first live race in 1959 at the Nashville speedway, won by Rex White in a 57 Chevy. Go Ford and Chevy and take one from brand X !!!!!!