DARLINGTON, S.C. – On Sunday, Darlington Raceway will host the 75^th running of the Cook Out Southern 500 and with Playoff berths and a Regular Season Championship on the line, you can bet the intensity will be at a max at the front of the field.

Tyler Reddick | No. 45 Toyota | 23XI Racing

Reddick is most certainly a driver to watch on Sunday. He enters the prestigious race trying to hold on to the top spot in the standings so that he can be crowned the Regular Season Champion. Reddick currently leads Kyle Larson by 17 points and Chase Elliott by 18 points. Right now, Reddick has finished inside the top-10 in seven of the last races, and five of those finishes were inside the top-five, including a win at Michigan International Speedway.

“I feel like at a place like Darlington it’s hard to because I mean it’s just, you’re kind of racing the track, right,” Reddick said. “There might be an option to mix up the strategy in the stages, but I think we all have a pretty good idea of what the best strategy is going to be. It’s tough here. I feel like you go to some of these other tracks – Michigan is a perfect example – where you’re more worried about fuel than tires. I think it’s easier to do it, but here it’s just a race where you’re running against the track all night like. Certainly, it could go that way, but I feel like if we (Larson) both have solid nights then we’re in a pretty good place unless we just have a disastrous night.”

As for racing at Darlington, Reddic has been really strong. He has earned three top-three finishes in the last five races at the track, Too Tough To Tame. Mostly recently in the spring, he won the pole and led 174 laps before sustaining heavy damage while battling Chris Buescher for the lead in the final laps.

Denny Hamlin | No. 11 Toyota | Joe Gibbs Racing

You can’t have a list of drivers to watch at Darlington and not discuss Denny Hamlin. He can’t win the Regular Season Championship, and he’s already locked in to the Playoffs; however, that just means he had nothing to lose and everything to gain with additional Playoff points. Over the past five races, Hamlin has earned three top-10 finishes with two being runner-up efforts.

Back in the spring at Darlington Raceway, he finished fourth. In 24 starts at the Lady in Black, Hamlin has earned an average finish of 8.3, and he has won four races, with the last coming in the 2021 Southern 500. Another impressive stat is that he has completed every single lap at Darlington since 2020, which includes the last 10 races.

Kyle Larson | No. 5 Chevrolet | Hendrick Motorsports

In pursuit of the Regular Season Championship, Larson looks to dethrone Reddick at the top of the standings.  As of lately, Larson has really experienced up-and-down results. He did win at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but the momentum was shortly lived as he enters Darlington coming off a seventh at Richmond, 34^th at Michigan and 21^st at Daytona. That all being said, entering Darlington, he currently holds the top spot in the Playoff standings.

“As well as both Tyler (Reddick) and I run here, there shouldn’t be too many points exchanged,” Larson said. “It just kind of comes down to making sure you have the cleanest race possible to not hinder yourself in the points position. Yeah, it’s a tough track; one that the strategy is very straightforward, and if you have a good car here, you’ll be upfront. You’ll probably be taking tires almost every chance you can get, if the caution comes out. Nothing to kind of really get off strategy.”

When it comes to Darlington, Larson has performed really well over the years. Most recently though, he crashed out of the spring race, but he’s the defending Cook Out Southern 500 winner. Larson’s average finish at Darlington is 11.3.

Ross Chastain | No. 1 Chevrolet | Trackhouse Racing

Chastain is fighting for his season. Plain and simple. The Trackhouse Racing driver is 27 points behind Chris Buescher who currently holds the final transfer spot in the NASCAR Playoffs, so he has to perform well, if not win because Buescher also performs well at Darlington. Chastain has only obtained three top-10 finishes in the last eight races, but the good news is that he tends to be a top competitor at Darlington.

“I just know the best way that we can ensure it is to win,” Chastain said. “We’ve had opportunities to win the Southern 500. We’ve had opportunities to win a couple of races in the spring and fall here in a different series. That’s my goal. The math says we can do it either way, but my preparation and my mentality – and it’s been this way in Cup since the very first spring race that I came here in 2021. I left here that weekend and thought we can win a Cup race at Darlington one day and that thought hasn’t left my mind since.”

Chastain finished 11^th in the spring, but he finished fifth in last year’s Cook Out Southern 500. Statistically, in 10 races at Darlington, Chastain’s average finish isn’t good, because it’s only at 19.8, but he has two DNFs that have swayed that stat.

Kyle Busch | No. 8 Chevrolet | Richard Childress Racing

Busch is having a season he’d like to forget. He has had five DNFs and only four top-five finishes with no wins. On Sunday at Darlington, Busch has to win. He has now other way to make the Playoffs because he sits 19^th in the standings, 106 back from Buescher.

“I don’t know that you can really get a whole lot done here because of all the fall off and tire wear and things like that,” Busch said. “If you have a three-lap run, do you stay out? I don’t predict you’re gonna be able to hold them off very long so unless it’s a green-white-checker which in that case you’re probably gonna get a few as we tend to do this day and age so I don’t know that you’ll be able to see a whole lot of different strategy play. We’ll just have to have some outright raw speed and go get ‘em.”

So why is he on this list? Well, Busch runs up front at Darlington and with no other option but to win, I say look for Busch to be a serious contender. In the last six Darlington races, Busch has three DNFs, but one of those, he led 155 laps before his engine expired. He won the Southern 500 in 2008, and in 25 starts, Busch has earned six top-five and 14 top-10 finishes. He has an average finish of 13.9.

On Sunday, the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway will broadcast live on USA at 6 p.m. ET on USA.