Last Friday we saw the NASCAR Nationwide series drivers send a statement that they will contend for wins.
It was a great showing for the series regulars as they battled all night long for the lead. Heading to Darlington even though Denny Hamlin won the race the series regulars carry some momentum this weekend.
Kenny Wallace arguably had his best run in the last four years. A late pit call forced a 14th place finish instead of the top 10 or even top five he was looking at.
That being said Wallace’s confidence is high as him and his team is heading in the right direction. I said it last week that Wallace would win Richmond.
My pick for this weeks’ race is Wallace. In 2005 Wallace finished second at Darlington and since then his worse finish was a 20th last spring.
Since 2005 his average finish is 14.6 with an average start of 20.8. Wallace is sitting ninth in the standings and is not out of this title hunt by no means.
Another driver who just needs to shake some of his bad luck this season is Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. After leading the standings he dropped three places after his 24th place finish at Richmond.
Last spring at Darlington, Stenhouse started 14th but ended up finishing 37th. Don’t expect the same results this year. Stenhouse has learned from his mistakes he made last season.
His focus is on the title and overcoming the tough weekend like last week. “Our team is staying focused. We know we can do it. We’ve got the speed and if we stay focused and minimize our mistakes we know we can win this championship and win some races. That’s what we’ve been focused on all year.”
Stenhouse is only 17 points off of the series lead and he has six top 10’s in nine races this season. Expect Stenhouse to be running up front this weekend.
Finally, one driver who is surging up the standings this season is Elliott Sadler. Sadler is sitting second heading into Darlington Raceway in his first full season with Kevin Harvick Inc.
KHI has never won at Darlington and Sadler could bring the organization his first win of the season with them and theirs at Darlington.
In seven starts at Darlington Sadler has one top five and two top 10 finishes along with one pole. His average start 10.1 but it is closing out the races that he struggles with an average finish of 21st.
Sadler and his team are starting to click at the right time and like Wallace he is hungry to return to victory lane.
The Royal Purple 200 is Friday night at 7:30 ET on ESPN2.
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