The Southern 500 is NASCAR’s Best Crown Jewel

Christopher Bell crossed the stripe in third while Kyle Larson, after dominating another Southern 500, wound up fourth after a number of late-race shakeups. Ross Chastain finished fifth after backing into a must-win situation during the race.

What Really Happened?

Sure, the Daytona 500 has the biggest trophy and the biggest purse. The Coca-Cola 600 caps off the greatest day in racing. But time and time again, the Southern 500 puts on the best display of driver versus driver and driver versus track, with a test of skill and endurance that sets NASCAR apart from every other motorsport.

When we talk about the crown jewels of NASCAR, the races at Daytona International Speedway and Charlotte Motor Speedway immediately come to mind. After all, the Daytona 500 is comparatively known as NASCAR’s Super Bowl, and the World 600 has the unique distance, the patriotic flare and serves as a home race for nearly all of the teams. 

However, the Daytona 500 currently feels slightly overshadowed by the actual Super Bowl, which now takes place the week before. Speedweeks has been shortened to a half a speed week, and the Clash is its own separate entity. Plus, superspeedway races are extremely entertaining, but the randomness and carnage take away from the talent of the teams and drivers.

The 600 miles at Charlotte no longer holds the endurance aspect that it used to. Splitting the race into four 100-lap segments keeps the field from getting too spread out, but it also hinders any strategy variation in the final stage. On top of that, the Indianapolis 500 is arguably the biggest race on Memorial Day as well.

NASCAR at Darlington stands alone on Labor Day weekend as a pivotal moment in the season. In recent years, it kicked off the NASCAR playoffs, and this year it provided an entertaining cutoff race.

The endurance aspect still holds true. Before things went haywire following Carson Hocevar’s spin, the green flag racing still had some interesting strategies playing…