Without fans in the grandstands, NASCAR accomplished an otherwise seamless re-opening of its 2020 Cup Series season on Sunday with the running of The Real Heroes 400 at Darlington Raceway. Kevin Harvick won the race in dominating fashion, taking control in Stage 2 and leading 159 of the 293 laps to establish himself as the favorite to go back-to-back on Wednesday at the Track Too Tough to Tame.
The 500k (311.2-mile) 238-lap race won’t be a cakewalk for the 2014 series champion. To establish the starting positions for the midweek Darlington race, NASCAR has inverted the top 20 finishers from Sunday, placing Harvick 20th on the grid and 20th-place finisher Ryan Preece on the pole.
Furthermore, Wednesday’s race starts at 7:30 p.m. and will finish under the lights. With temperatures forecast to be roughly 20 degrees cooler than they were on Sunday when the race was run in the afternoon, track conditions will be vastly different for the Toyota 500. Thunderstorms are also a threat to delay, shorten or perhaps even postpone the race until the following day.