The first Cup race in two months is on tap this weekend at Darlington Raceway, a track we don’t typically see until late-August or early-September but instead we’ll get twice in a week and then again later this year. Darlington is a 1.366-mile track that has 25 degrees of banking in turns 1 and 2 but 23 degrees in turns 3 and 4 as well as having a narrower radius at that end of the track which makes it a challenge to set up the cars correctly for.

This race will be a 400-mile event which equals out to 293 laps around the track nicknamed “Too Tough To Tame” and to make things trickier there hasn’t been any practice or time on the track before the race so we’ve got to rely on who’s been good at this track previously and hope that early-season mojo continues despite the two-month break in the season. We expect drivers to take it easy through the first 30 laps of the race, when there’s a competition caution to make adjustments to the cars, but after that, the aggressiveness should ratchet up as the race draws to a close. There is also a different strategy factor to pay attention to later in the race, that we really can’t predict, but that is the fact that the race order sets the race order to start Wednesday’s race except with an inversion of the top-20 starting spots meaning the driver that wins the race Sunday starts 20th and finishing 20th starts you on the pole. That could make some guys drive a bit harder later in the race to move up or could lead to drivers dropping back to get a better starting spot for the next race.

If you want a thorough breakdown of race stats, rankings, projections, and strategy, also make sure to check out the Track Breakdown, DFS Rankings, Podcast, and the FA Sports Talk stream on our YouTube Channel with me and Jon Impemba.

Average Points By Starting Spot

This tool shows the average points scored by starting spot in the last five races at this track regardless of driver that started in that spot. New this week is the Range column which shows you the difference between the highest and lowest point totals that generated that average to help show consistency.

StartingAvg.  Avg.  
PositionDK Pts.RankRangeFD Pts.RankRange
162.452110.0074.20351.1
277.751100.7578.06232.7
349.50464.0070.36531
445.357108.0059.161554
531.301327.0065.48816.5
632.901155.7562.721129.8
745.60626.2570.18617.3
832.6512105.5059.061666.7
927.8020118.0054.562367.3
1030.851466.5062.381248.8
StartingAvg.  Avg.  
PositionDK Pts.RankRangeFD Pts.RankRange
1144.60819.5072.40410.5
1220.102835.0054.982129.6
1354.50346.2578.10126.4
1425.852247.2559.181433.3
1537.451079.2565.72747.2
1628.201898.7549.462994.9
1723.402556.5053.642449.3
1819.803061.0052.222754.3
1916.403465.5042.843769.2
2026.802152.5055.142055.9
StartingAvg.  Avg.  
PositionDK Pts.RankRangeFD Pts.RankRange
2116.203750.0047.883146.7
2230.001681.0056.041968.5
2316.303650.0047.123246.8
2424.102339.0054.802231.6
2530.701527.0060.381319.8
2627.901949.0056.781838.1
2719.902939.5049.862832.1
2829.101720.0057.281715.5
2921.302627.0052.442623.5
3017.103349.5044.283453.1
StartingAvg.  Avg.  
PositionDK Pts.RankRangeFD Pts.RankRange
3137.55939.5064.641029.1
3218.503137.0043.863553.2
3346.505101.0064.82950
3421.302632.0048.303040.8
3523.602417.0052.502513.5
367.804011.0029.344022.9
3716.003830.0039.383855.2
3816.353522.2543.623628.6
3910.903918.0031.623937.3
4018.383214.5046.183313.4

Stacks

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