Asterisk Mark Report – Darlington #2 2023

Denny Hamlin – Last fall at Darlington, I would argue Denny Hamlin was the best, but he finished an asterisk mark 25th. In the race, Hamlin won Stage #1, won Stage #2, led a race high 177 laps but in the last Stage while leading (Leader before the pit cycle) around lap 273, Hamlin had a loose wheel and made an unexpected pit stop which dropped him off the lead lap back to 30th. Hamlin was later involved in a minor accident after that, but his evening was already doomed at that point.

Martin Truex Jr. – Last fall at Darlington, Martin Truex Jr. finished 18th but I wouldn’t read into his evening at all. During practice/qualifying, Truex got into the wall and damaged the #19 but his team opted to not make repairs since they thought his car was fine, but it wasn’t. I’ll note, Truex’s race also wasn’t incident free. On lap 155, Truex who was around 15th prior to the green flag pit cycle pitted twice because of a loose wheel.

Alex Bowman – Alex Bowman was a top ten contender last fall at Darlington but he finished an asterisk mark 33rd. On lap 318 with 50 to go he was running in 7th, but then the next lap he crashed after doing some aggressive blocking on Daniel Suarez.

Joey Logano – Joey Logano finished 12th last fall but I would chalk that up to be a misleading result. On lap 89 while running in 6th, Logano scrubbed the wall pretty good and the #22 just wasn’t as competitive after that.