Long ago, as stock car racing first organized under the NASCAR banner and began laying its foundation in the Southeast, Harold Brasington dreamed of having a race just as grand and as much of a draw as the Indianapolis 500 right in his native South Carolina. And from a cotton and peanut field, Brasington's vision was realized on Labor Day Weekend 1950, with the very first running of the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway -- the very first 500-mile race for stock cars on the largest and fastest track that could possibly be conceived for the still-fledgling discipline.
Ever since, the Southern 500 has served as NASCAR's ultimate link to the past and the greatest celebration of its Southeastern heritage. To win this race is to take a place among the very greatest drivers throughout the entire history of NASCAR -- from Herb Thomas and Buck Baker in the 1950s to names like Petty, Yarborough, Earnhardt, Gordon and Johnson. And for 16 drivers, joining that group of winners is also a pivotal step toward another means of racing immortality.
In addition to being one of NASCAR's crown jewel events, the Southern 500 is now also the opening race of the NASCAR Playoffs. That makes it the first opportunity for drivers in the 2022 playoffs to earn a victory and automatically advance from the Round of 16, helping to distinguish who will vie for the Cup Series championship.
How to Watch the Cook Out Southern 500
Date: Sunday, September 4
Location: Darlington Raceway -- Darlington, S.C.
Time: 6 p.m. ET
TV: USA Network
Stream: fuboTV (try for free)
What to Watch
William Byron
When the Cup Series last raced at Darlington in May, William Byron was right on the precipice of establishing himself as the driver to beat in 2022. He had two wins through the first 11 races of the year, four top five finishes to go with it, and he was just laps away from earning a third victory to take a decisive lead among all drivers in that category.
Then, Byron was on the receiving end of the bump-and-run from Joey Logano with two laps to go. And since seething in post-race about the way Logano shoved him out of the way for the win, Byron has never been the same.
Since that race, Byron has only scored one single finish inside the top 10 -- a ninth-place run at Sonoma in June -- and he has limped into the playoffs despite entering the race for the championship as the No. 5 seed. In three playoff appearances so far, Byron has yet to advance past the Round of 12, and he was eliminated at the end of the Round of 16 in 2020.
For Byron, this return trip to Darlington could mark a pivotal point for him to get back to his early springtime form and establish himself as a title contender. But if it goes the other way, it could also further the narrative that getting knocked out of the way in May's Goodyear 400 was the defining moment of his 2022 season.
Playoff Opening Wins
With the first race of the playoffs meaning an opportunity to either propel yourself toward the Championship 4 or put yourself in a hole, winning the playoff opener has become an essential means of gauging which drivers are ready to contend for the championship. Since the very first Chase for the Cup in 2004, the winner of the first race of the playoffs has gone on to win the championship four times -- Kurt Busch (2004), Tony Stewart (2011), Brad Keselowski (2012) and Martin Truex Jr. (2017).
But since the adoption of the current playoff format in 2014 -- a format much more volatile and perilous -- winning the playoff opener has not correlated to a driver being bound for the Championship 4. In fact, a driver has only gone on to advance to the Championship 4 after winning the playoff opener three times: Truex did it twice in 2017 and 2019, and Denny Hamlin did so after winning last year's Southern 500.
Interestingly, a non-playoff driver has never played spoiler and won the opening race of the playoffs. The closest any driver has ever come was Tony Stewart, who finished second to Kevin Harvick at New Hampshire after missing the playoffs in 2006.
Austin Dillon
Last week at Daytona, Austin Dillon responded to facing a must-win scenario by scoring a walk-off victory, putting him in the NASCAR Playoffs field at the 11th hour. And that victory tied into the overall pattern of Dillon's career, which makes him a driver to watch in the Southern 500.
Dillon has become a big-game hunter, with all four of his Cup Series wins coming in major races: The Coca-Cola 600 in 2017, the Daytona 500 in 2018, a 500-mile race at Texas in 2020, and last week's regular-season finale at Daytona. Not only that, but he was third in the 2021 Daytona 500 and was perhaps a lap away from winning this year's Coke 600, meaning that Dillon has shown up time and again in crown jewel races.
Dillon has yet to add the Southern 500 to his mantlepiece, but the very recent past suggests that he can. In 2020, Dillon finished a narrow second to Kevin Harvick, running him down in the final corner only to run out of time and get beat by a couple carlengths. Keep a close eye on Dillon's No. 3, as he seeks to become the first Richard Childress Racing driver to win the Southern 500 since he himself was only an infant: Dillon was a little over four months old when Dale Earnhardt won his third and final Southern 500 in 1990.
Pick to Win
(Odds via Caesars Sportsbook)
Ross Chastain (+1000): Ever since coming to grief while racing with Denny Hamlin for the lead at Pocono, Ross Chastain has been in a slump. He's finished no better than 18th in the past six races, with that 18th-place run marking his lone finish inside the top 20. However, the start of the playoffs means an opportunity to reset, and Darlington is just the place for Chastain to do so.
In 2018, the turning point in Chastain's career came when he dominated an Xfinity Series race at Darlington in his first opportunity to drive winning equipment for Chip Ganassi Racing. He's been successful at Darlington since then, contending for the win and finishing third in last year's Southern 500 and then leading 26 laps this past spring before crashing out mid-race. This weekend is a prime opportunity for Chastain to get his third win of the season and prove that he hasn't fallen off from when he looked like a bona fide championship contender from February to mid-July.
