Darlington Raceway is a race track built for NASCAR racing located near Darlington, South Carolina. It is nicknamed "The Lady in Black" and "The Track Too Tough to Tame" by many NASCAR fans and drivers and advertised as "A NASCAR Tradition." It is of a unique, somewhat egg-shaped design, an oval with the ends of very different configurations, a condition which supposedly arose from the proximity of one end of the track to a minnow pond the owner refused to relocate. This situation makes it very challenging for the crews to set up their cars' handling in a way that is effective at both ends.
Events leading up to the race
When the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series schedule was announced on September 30, 2020, a second race at Darlington was added for May 9, 2021, marking the first time since 2004 that the track had two races on the schedule (the 2020 season, changed by the pandemic, had three races).[8]
On December 11, 2020, Darlington Raceway announced its highly popular NASCAR Throwback weekend would move to the new May 7–9 weekend, effectively making a lineal swap of the two race meetings at the track.[9] On April 14, 2021, longtime NASCAR tire provider Goodyear announced a race sponsorship deal to call the race the Goodyear 400.[10]
Entry list
(R) denotes rookie driver.
(i) denotes driver who are ineligible for series driver points.
Valvoline – Alan Kulwicki's Zerex Antifreeze paint scheme from 1989. Spire Motorsports has alliance with Hendrick Motorsports, which is currently sponsored by Valvoline. The Valvoline division of Ashland, Inc. acquired Zerex from BASF in 1994, and the entire Valvoline division was spun off in 2017 to its own separate company.
Menards/Dutch Boy Paint (Alternate sponsor Motorcraft was not scheduled to be the primary sponsor on the car for this weekend; announced on May 28 the team will run the throwback scheme from the 2001 season where Elliott Sadler won the Food City 500 at Bristol during the September race.)
Brad Keselowski was awarded the pole for the second straight race. Aric Almirola slammed the wall after a flat tire while Kyle Busch spun while leading with a flat tire. Martin Truex Jr. dominated by leading the most laps and winning both stages. Cole Custer slammed the wall after contact with Anthony Alfredo while Kurt Busch got into the wall and caught fire after making contact with Bubba Wallace. Drivers split the final stage by pitting for green flag pit stops three different times. Kyle Larson was the only driver to challenge Truex for the lead as lapped traffic caused issues. Truex was able to pull away from Larson and win for his third win of the season.
Average speed: 123.562 miles per hour (198.854 km/h)
Media
Television
The race was carried by FS1 in the United States. Mike Joy, five-time Darlington winner Jeff Gordon and Clint Bowyer called the race from the broadcast booth. Jamie Little and Regan Smith handled pit road for the television side. Larry McReynolds provided insight from the Fox Sports studio in Charlotte.
