The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season is down to just two races before the 2018 MENCS Playoffs begin. The final two regular-season races are at two different, but just as historic, speedways. This weekend, it’s the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. With nicknames like “The Lady in Black” and being the track known to be “Too Tough to Tame,” the 500-miler, which usually takes around five hours to complete, is truly a race testing the limits of both drivers and machines. Given the unpredictability of the venue, picking a winner is probably just about as unpredictable as driving in the event.
Darlington Raceway, a true “race of survival” is completely the opposite of what will be seen in the regular-season finale next week at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The iconic rectangle speedway in Indiana is a smooth, four-turn, flat 200 m.p.h. circuit, like Darlington can, and usually does, test even the most experienced drivers.
The challenge of the final two races filled with pageantry, leading into the playoff opener at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on September 16, will make NASCAR “must see” sports viewing to wet appetites for the 10 race playoffs.
Prior to IMS, come back to this site for “NASCAR: Regular-Season in the Rear View.”
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