For a track that tends to chew drivers up and spit them out, Darlington (S.C.) Raceway is strangely a favorite of Travis Kvapil’s. So despite the demands of the track they call “Too Tough to Tame,” the driver of the No. 38 Long John Silver’s Ford always looks forward to racing at the historic 1.366-mile oval. The team has the opportunity to qualify for Saturday night’s Showtime Southern 500 on speed, but will have to attack the tough track with the right set-up for the unique, egg-shaped turns.
Kvapil has four career Cup starts at Darlington, with a top finish of eighth (2008).
“Darlington is one of my favorite racetracks we go to. It’s different from any other racetrack we visit. It’s really unique and also very narrow. They repaved it a few years ago, so the track’s got a lot of grip. In the past, Darlington would really wear out tires and you’d really have a lot of different tire strategies going on throughout the race. But now it’s more normal where you just come in and get four tires as needed.
“It’s a really cool racetrack. You’ve really got to be up on the wheel every lap because you get to be really close friends with that wall. You go into Turn 1, and you actually kind of drive uphill and ride right up by the wall, and then point it down and get a big run down the backstretch. And then Turn 3 is kind of a normal, long, sweeping corner but you run right up by the wall again through 3 and 4.
“So, there’s plenty of opportunities to earn your ‘Darlington Stripe,’ that’s for sure. And everybody does it at some point. Sometimes it’s just a scrape and no big deal. But if you get in the wall pretty good, it can affect the handling of your car.
“It’s pretty hard to pass because it’s so narrow, so track position is important. So, that means qualifying is important, too, because you want to start as far up in the field as you can. And we’ll be qualifying for the race on speed again, so we’ll be putting a lot of work into our qualifying set-up as we have been the last several weeks.
“Darlington is the kind of place that really leaves an impression on you as a driver. It might be that you loved it or it might be that you got man-handled a bit. It’s definitely no cookie-cutter. I love it. It’s one of my favorites. Ever since the first time I went there to test, I really liked how the track drove and how you really had to get after it every lap.”
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