NASCAR Cup Series Heads to Darlington Raceway<\/p>\n
The NASCAR Cup Series travels to historic Darlington Raceway on Sunday for the sixth race of the 2026 regular season. Kaulig Racing drivers AJ Allmendinger and Ty Dillon finished 24th and 33rd in last weekend\u2019s event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Allmendinger now sits 18th in the standings, with Dillon in 25th\u2014an impressive position for an organization competing without technical support or an alliance with another Cup team.<\/p>\n
Grizzly Nicotine Pouches returns as the primary sponsor for both drivers this weekend as part of its 27\u2011race schedule with Kaulig Racing this season. Grizzly Nicotine Pouches are a tobacco\u2011leaf\u2011free product available to adult consumers where permitted. The program also highlights The Fallen Outdoors, a nonprofit providing outdoor adventures for veterans, active\u2011duty service members, and Gold Star families.<\/p>\n
Darlington Raceway opened in 1950 as NASCAR\u2019s first paved superspeedway longer than one mile. Known as \u201cThe Lady in Black\u201d and \u201cThe Track Too Tough to Tame,\u201d the egg\u2011shaped oval has remained a premier stop on the schedule with a reputation for challenging even the best drivers. FS1 will broadcast Sunday\u2019s race at 3 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n
AJ Allmendinger Notes<\/p>\n
Allmendinger will run the familiar Grizzly Nicotine Pouches scheme at Darlington. The brand previously appeared on the No. 16 at Bowman Gray Stadium for The Clash and at EchoPark Speedway in Atlanta. It will serve as primary sponsor for 14 events with Allmendinger this season.<\/p>\n
Last year at Darlington, Allmendinger earned his best finish at the track with a fifth\u2011place result, improving from an 18th\u2011place finish earlier in the season. In 15 Cup Series starts at Darlington, he owns one top\u2011five and one top\u201110 finish. He also has one top\u2011five and two top\u201110s in six NASCAR O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series races at the venue.<\/p>\n
So far this season, Allmendinger has finished 24th at Las Vegas, 19th at Phoenix, ninth at Circuit of the Americas, 12th at EchoPark Speedway, and 19th in the Daytona 500. This year marks his 18th full\u2011time season in the Cup Series and his fifth with Kaulig Racing. Allmendinger is a three\u2011time Cup Series winner with 22 top\u2011five and 88 top\u201110 finishes. He will make his 500th Cup start later this season at Sonoma Raceway.<\/p>\n
Crew chief Trent Owens, a Darlington native with two decades of NASCAR experience, joined Kaulig Racing in 2022 and became Allmendinger\u2019s crew chief in 2025.<\/p>\n
AJ Allmendinger on Darlington Raceway:
\u201cDarlington is always a racetrack where I\u2019m trying to get more and more comfortable. Last year\u2019s Southern 500 was really good for us. So that gives me a little more confidence going back there. But every year is a new year.\u201d<\/p>\n
On what\u2019s different this time:
\u201cThere will be more horsepower, so that changes the way you drive it just a little bit. I\u2019ll keep studying and trying to get better at it. Over the last couple of years though, I\u2019ve definitely gotten more comfortable there and a little more confident.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ty Dillon Notes<\/p>\n
Ty Dillon has shown consistency early in the season, finishing 14th in the Daytona 500, 16th at Atlanta, 16th at Circuit of the Americas\u2014a career\u2011best at the track\u2014and 26th at Phoenix. He sits 21st in points entering Darlington.<\/p>\n
Dillon has competed in 12 Cup Series races at Darlington, earning his best results of 12th in 2022 and 13th in 2023. He has also recorded a top\u2011five and three top\u201110 finishes in O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series competition and finished ninth in his only Truck Series start at the track.<\/p>\n
His career highlights include a third\u2011place Cup finish at Talladega in 2020, three Truck Series wins between 2012 and 2013, and an O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series victory at Indianapolis in 2014.<\/p>\n
Crew chief Andrew Dickeson, a native of Melbourne, Australia, joined Kaulig Racing in 2025 after years in Australian motorsports and engineering roles at Richard Childress Racing.<\/p>\n
Dillon also became one of the biggest stories of the 2025 NASCAR In\u2011Season Challenge, entering as the No. 32 seed and advancing to the championship round after defeating several top drivers. The 2026 tournament field locks in after the June 14 race at Pocono Raceway, with TNT broadcasting the competition.<\/p>\n
Ty Dillon on Darlington:
\u201cMassively important. Darlington is one of my favorite racetracks. To me, it\u2019s the Fenway Park of NASCAR. I love the history of it. It\u2019s just one of those true driver racetracks where you can really make up positions.\u201d<\/p>\n
On balancing racing and family:
\u201cYou just start changing your view, and I believe that is the beauty of life and having a family and having kids.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kaulig Racing PR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NASCAR Cup Series Heads to Darlington Raceway The NASCAR Cup Series travels to historic Darlington Raceway on Sunday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":515251,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[1701,49,48,925,720,12716,634,11525,582,9536,721,722,82],"class_list":["post-546048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-1701","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-daytona","tag-motor","tag-motorsports","tag-nascar","tag-park","tag-racing","tag-richard-childress-racing","tag-series","tag-speedway","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=546048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/515251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}