DARLINGTON, S.C. — NASCAR Cup drivers race in one of the sport’s crown jewels Sunday night and much is on the line in the Southern 500.
Here are three things to watch in tonight’s race (6 p.m. ET on USA Network):
1. Playoff field will be set
Three of the 16 playoff spots remain and they will be set Sunday night.
Martin Truex Jr., Ty Gibbs and Chris Buescher hold those final three spots.
Truex is 58 points above the cutline and would need a series of bizarre circumstances not to make the playoffs. Gibbs is 39 points above the cutline. Buescher is 21 points above the cutline.
Bubba Wallace is the first driver outside a playoff spot, 21 points behind Buescher. Ross Chastain is 27 points behind Buescher.
Wallace won the pole Saturday — his third career Cup pole — putting him in position to score several stage points and challenge for playoff position even if he doesn’t win. Wallace is going for his fifth consecutive top 10 at Darlington.
“All I want is every single person a part of this team, including myself, is to go to bed (Sunday) night saying, ‘We did whatever we could. We did all we could.’ ” Wallace said. “And maybe it was good enough, maybe it wasn’t so that’s the lottery ticket we’ll find out (Sunday) after the race.”
2. Crowning a (regular season) champion
The Southern 500 also will determine who wins the Cup regular season title.
Tyler Reddick enters as the points leader. He’s 17 points ahead of Kyle Larson and 18 points in front of Chase Elliott. Those are the only drivers in position to win the regular season title.
Reddick starts sixth. Larson starts fourth. Elliott starts 20th.
“I’d say it’s pretty much in our control,” Reddick said Saturday of winning the regular season title. “It’s in mine and it’s in his (Larson’s hands) right?”
The regular season title is important because the driver who wins it will collect 15 playoff points. The runner-up will receive 10 playoff points. Third in the standings will receive eight playoff points.
With a road course and a drafting style track in each of the first two rounds, every playoff point could matter.
3. Surviving the night
It will be hot — the temperature is expected to be 89 degrees at the start of the race. And it will be a long night — last year’s race took more than four hours to complete.
Drivers will be taxed by the conditions and the demands of running against the wall so much.
Denny Hamlin, who has four wins at Darlington, did not run the Xfinity race this weekend. This marked only the second time since 2015 that he has not competed in the Xfinity race the day before the Southern 500.
“I just felt like I needed to save myself for 500 miles here,” Hamlin said Saturday. “I just think that this is such a tough racetrack and an event. I need to save all the stamina I’ve got for the one event and focus really on trying to make sure I give my best effort in the Cup Series.”
Five full-time Cup drivers competed in Saturday’s Xfinity race: Chase Elliott, Ross Chastain, Christopher Bell, Joey Logano and Noah Gragson.
“I love Darlington, so I want to race all of the races that I can here,” Chastain said. “I would still run tripleheaders if I thought it was going to be beneficial. I don’t think tripleheaders are the best thing for me in today’s climate of everything. But no, there’s never been a thought about backing out (this weekend). ... I see the benefit.”
