The 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs begins its 10-race postseason stretch in one of the sport's most prestigious events — the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.
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00:00 16 drivers enter today's race at Darlington knowing tonight begins their championship quest.
00:06 One of the toughest tracks we see all year. This is where we kick off the playoffs and this season's
00:13 playoffs field marks one of the most stacked fields in the current postseason format. The
00:18 driver and team with all the momentum, RFK Racing and Chris Buescher have a strong points cushion
00:24 due to his three wins in the last two months. But the driver wants to keep the pedal down and have
00:30 a strong opening round to the playoffs. I love this racetrack. Statistically not my strongest out
00:36 of the three that we're heading into but I do love this place and have been good at times so just
00:43 trying to to study and learn more about this place. Christopher Bell is also back in the playoffs field
00:49 and hoping for a little bit of last season's same magic. He describes the keys at Darlington for
00:55 tonight's race. I've talked about how hard this race is. It's a very mental race and people are
01:00 going to make mistakes and take themselves out of it so you can't be in that group and fortunately
01:04 last year we were able to qualify on the front row and the race went really smooth for us. We
01:09 were able to score stage points in stage one and stage two and had a good finish and then your
01:15 outlook is much more positive going into Kansas and Bristol. Entering today Eric Jones won the
01:22 first race of the playoffs at Darlington last season. Look for the underdogs and the non-playoff
01:27 drivers to try and tame the lady in black. So will it be an automatic ticket punch to the round of
01:33 12 for one of our playoff drivers or will somebody show up and spoil the party? Tune in to the first
01:39 race of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs Darlington Raceway under the lights 6 p.m eastern on USA.