By Jared Turner After a much-needed off-weekend, the Sprint Cup Series begins a marathon stretch of 12 consecutive races to conclude the 2015 season. Up first: Darlington Raceway, the rugged 1.366-mile South Carolina track that first hosted NASCAR’s top series in 1950 and today remains one of the sport’s most beloved and challenging venues. Long known as the track “Too Tough To Tame,” Darlington returns to its old Labor Day weekend slot for the first time in 12 years. The nod to tradition has been embraced by just about everyone in the sport, including the drivers, many of whom will carry throwback…

By Jared Turner 5 Lessons Learned Heading Into September Joe Gibbs Racing Is The Team To Beat After coming out of the box slow in 2015, Joe Gibbs Racing has been hands-down the top Sprint Cup Series organization for most of the season. Now with all four of its drivers locked in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, JGR has to be considered the odds-on favorite to claim the 2015 title. Will it happen? Well, it’s certainly too early to tell. This much is certain, however: JGR’s Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch have been the sport’s two most dominant drivers over the…

  By Jared Turner Going Retro Is Good How appropriate is it to see so many old-school paint schemes for Sunday’s Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, where the Sprint Cup Series will compete on Labor Day weekend for the first time since 2003? More than half of the teams in the 43-car field have unveiled throwback colors for the big race. If you’ve ever wanted to go back in time, this weekend offers a splendid chance to do it. "It will be fun to see all the throwback schemes racing at Darlington and on Labor Day Weekend,” said team owner Richard…