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2026 Buckle Up South Carolina 200

The 2026 Buckle Up South Carolina 200 was a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race held on March 20, 2026, at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina. Contested over 157 laps—extended from 147 laps due to a double overtime finish on the egg-shaped oval, it was the fourth race of the 2026 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season, and the seventh running of the event.

After chaos in the late stages, Corey Heim, driving for Tricon Garage, took advantage of fresher tires, restarting from ninth position on the final restart and made a last lap, final corner pass on Ross Chastain to earn his 24th career NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series win, and his first of the season. Chastain finished second, and Christian Eckes finished third. Pole-sitter Kaden Honeycutt and Connor Mosack rounded out the top five, while Christopher Bell, Grant Enfinger, Gio Ruggiero, Daniel Hemric, and William Sawalich rounded out the top ten.

This was the first of three races for the Triple Truck Challenge. Heim won the race and was granted the $50K bonus cash.

Report

Background

Darlington Raceway is a race track built for NASCAR racing located near Darlington, South Carolina. It is nicknamed "The Lady in Black" and "The Track Too Tough to Tame" by many NASCAR fans and drivers and advertised as "A NASCAR Tradition." It is of a unique, somewhat egg-shaped design, an oval with the ends of very different configurations, a condition which supposedly arose from the proximity of one end of the track to a minnow pond the owner refused to relocate. This situation makes it very challenging for the crews to set up their cars' handling in a way that is effective at both ends.

Since 2015, this weekend has served as a retro-themed weekend. From 2015 to 2023, the race has hosted NASCAR's Throwback weekend, which featured cars sporting paint schemes that pay homage to past teams and drivers. In 2024, the theme was changed to Alumni Weekend, where former drivers, crew chiefs, mechanics, and other significant figures are invited as guests. Some teams still use retro schemes, while the main focus has shifted to legends themselves.

Entry list

  • (R) denotes rookie driver.
  • (i) denotes driver who is ineligible for series driver points.

Practice

The first and only practice session was held on Friday, March 20, at 3:30 PM EST, and would last for 50 minutes.

Kaden Honeycutt, driving for Tricon Garage, set the fastest time in the session, with a lap of 29.459 seconds, and a speed of .

Practice results

Qualifying

Qualifying was held on Friday, March 20, at 4:35 PM EST. Since Darlington Raceway is an intermediate racetrack, the qualifying procedure used was a single-car, one-lap system with one round. Drivers were on track by themselves and had one lap to post a qualifying time, and whoever set the fastest time won the pole.

Kaden Honeycutt, driving for Tricon Garage, qualified on pole position with a lap of 28.848 seconds, and a speed of .

No drivers failed to qualify.

Qualifying results

Race

Race results

Stage results

Stage One Laps: 45

Stage Two Laps: 45

Final Stage results

Stage Three Laps: 67

Race statistics

  • Lead changes: 14 among 8 different drivers
  • Cautions/Laps: 9 for 47 laps
  • Red flags: 0
  • Time of race: 2 hours, 12 minutes and 39 seconds
  • Average speed:

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings
Manufacturers' Championship standings
  • <small>Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.</small>

References