Throwback Weekend at Darlington! | Full Breakdown

NASCAR Darlington Throwback Weekend 2025: A Look at Ryan Ellis, Josh Bilicki & Classic Vibes

 This week NASCAR heads to Darlington Raceway for Throwback Weekend. This track is known for being too tough to tame, where one Darlington stripe can ruin your day, like can subscribe so you don’t miss any future content. Join NASCAR at Darlington Raceway for the exciting Darlington Throwback Weekend featuring cool designs and fan interactions.

We are here at Darlington Raceway and it is throw back weekend. We got a cool design for Ryan Ellis. We’re be taking a look at that a bit later on. Josh Billicki headed into Darlington. He’s excited. We got an autograph session coming up later with him. This’ll be a fun day, but all the team has to do is get through tech and we’re gonna be good to go here today at Darlington.

🏁 Darlington Raceway Challenges: Josh Bilicki Talks Surviving the Infamous Darlington Stripe

So here Josh Billicki. Josh, this track is known for the Darlington stripe. It’s so easy to tear the wall down. What’s the secret to keeping the car clean? Oh, well, I think if the car’s clean, you probably didn’t try your hardest. So, uh, Darlington stripe is very common. It’s all about not hitting it too hard, and instead of a stripe, you know, tearing the whole right.

Side of your car down. So, um, I won’t be surprised to see a lot of Darlington stripes after practice at Darlington Throwback Weekend. Uh, maybe some have qualifying, hopefully not in our cars, um, come the race. I can’t guarantee they’re not gonna be in our cars and Darlington strips. Okay. Uh, but like I said, if you tear it down too hard, uh, you’re gonna, you’re gonna hurt the right side of your car.

Inside Darlington Raceway: How Drivers Handle the Darlington Stripe and Unique Track Design

Maybe it’s suspension. So yeah, this place is unique. Just the, the right side of your car needs to be super close to the wall, um, in the center of one and two, but also three and four as the tires wear. Uh, the right side of your car is just. Inches. So that’s why, that’s why the darton strap is a thing.

’cause we’re running as close as you can to the wall. Uh, this track is unique ’cause turns one and two are much, uh, the angles much wider and bigger than, uh, three and four. So, um, how you drive one and two is pretty unique too. You, you, you enter kind of normal. You’re at the bottom of the track and you’re throttle up.

You come all the way back up, top track, you’re really close to the wall in the center of one and two, lift off, throttle just a little bit, and then you come back, back down the track. So how you drive one and two is a lot different than most other tracks. And then three and four is a little bit. Tighter, a little bit slower.

Um, and there’s options. You can run the, the bottom, the middle, the top, uh, normally on sticker tires, you, you’ll run the middle or the bottom, uh, but then you’ll, you’ll migrate up top, uh, later in the run. So Darlington is probably one of the most grilling races of the year. How do you mentally and physically prepare for this weekend?

Uh, well this is our first really warm race of the year, so physically just drink a lot of water, hydrate, make sure your body’s fueled up. Uh, we have a one day shoulder tomorrow, practice qualifying race all. All in the same day. Uh, so it’s gonna be important for me after have qualifying to make sure I’m heating, making sure I’m staying up to, uh, up to spec on my hydration.

Um, and then mentally, you know, there’s really nothing you can do to prepare other than just repetitions. I mean, uh, you know, this is our seventh race of the year and, um, eighth Race of the Year, I think. Uh, so, you know, luckily we’ve all raced, uh, this isn’t our first race of the year, so, um, yeah, I mean some of the rookies probably have a tougher time just ’cause this track’s so tough.

Um, but I feel like experience really comes to. And that’s mentally, uh, you know, experience definitely helps. Let’s hear, hear it from YouTube. Today we’re interviewing YouTube here at Dar It Raceway. We want to hear his experience the last three weeks of the NAS of NASCAR. It’s been an interesting three weeks with nascar, but we’re back and that’s all that matters. Darlington baby. Let’s get it.

The team is pushing the car through tech as we speak. Now, when you come to Darlington Raceway, you think legacy. You think the Earnhardt’s, you think the Petties, you think kill y’all, bro. You think every family in motor sports. So to honor the history, we’re gonna head to the iconic Darlington Raceway Museum and take a look at what’s inside and see the history of Darlington Raceway at Darlington Throwback Weekend.

So as we’re taking a look inside the Darlington Raceway Museum, as you can see there is old classic race cars throughout NASCAR history. Dayton all the way back to the late forties to current day

Buy Me is Ka Boroughs 1988, number 29 Hardee’s Machine. Now, kale was. Dominant at this racetrack. This was one of his best tracks in his home track at that. He was a hometown hero at this track, and he means a lot to all the natives of Darlington. Also, there’s the man in black, Dale Earnhardt car number three.

So every year the NLPA. New drivers into their hall of fame. Behind me, you can see all the inductees and there’s buttons that hit where you can go and learn about your favorite driver. Here’s Tim Richmond, who was inducted in 2004. Watch this. Tim Richmond is remembered. Isn’t that cool? ING’s most colorful figures and was regarded by many who saw him compete.

Take a look at. This is Kill Yarborough’s old fire suit and helmet from back in the day. I, I believe it was one of the first inductee here in the Darlington Hall of Fame. So it’s super cool to see all the history here at this racetrack.

You know, I had to get a little souvenir coming out of the Darlington Museum at Darlington Throwback Weekend. We got the racetrack behind me. Take a look at this. It has a 1950s race car on it. Darlington too tough to Tam logo going in the magnet collection. Well, what we got left for today is we gotta get the cars through tech. We’re gonna go back and check on them guys.

And then we got an autograph. Session coming up immediately afterwards with Josh Billicki. So stay tuned. Still got some fun entertainment for the day here at Darlington. Day number one, baby. Let’s get it.

Brian, tell me about the throwback paint scheme for this weekend. Where are you throwing back to? Tell me what it means to you and your family. It feels conceited to say, but throwing back just to like one of the first cars and like most meaningful schemes that I ever got, the race growing up, um, pretty much ran on like every helmet, um, every quarter midget, every license car.

Um, and we also could, you know, design schemes on stuff. Um, really, really cool and a cool idea from Southern Elevator and the team that it feels conceited to say, I’m talking back to myself. It’s really cool.

It’s massive. One cool thing about Darlington this week is the throwback Goodyear tires. Man, they look good and they look classic.

Darlington is hot this weekend at Darlington Throwback Weekend. I had to get me a slushy from. Sonic. Fortunately with DriveSmart.Auto, I was able to save a little bit of money at Sonic, which is always nice. Haven’t checked out DriveSmart.Auto. It’s only eight $25 a month and you can save way more money than what you’re going to spend is great.

For traveling. You can also save on more than just restaurants and fast food. You also save on travel and entertainment and you get 24 7 roadside assistance. If you haven’t checked it out, go check it out down below. It’s been helping me obviously on these hot days on the road, man. Hello. Are you? How you doing?

Good. Josh. James. James. They all good for you, man. F You guys coming out? How doing

We started? Yeah. They’re ready. We got the monograph cards. We got some stickers. How you doing? How are you? Good.

I got a question. What’s your question, buddy? He the one that Oh, call that you? Yes.

We’re well beyond that, but yes, that was me. Sucks. He, um, he made a mistake a couple times. Unfortunately, his mistake cost, um, cost us, uh, some, some finishing results. Some points too. Pretty, what was that? Thank you. You’re welcome. I’ll, I was mad. I was mad. I tried and then he, he uh, he ran away. Went a little boy.

That’s exactly what he did. After luck. Thank you. After the third time it happened. Thank you both. I like to see him after the. And he got out of the car and I walked away really quickly. Oh, I couldn’t even see him

get some. I don’t know that I talk with him and said, dude, three races in a row. Parked three races. Sit down. You want me to, what would you prefer? Is that better?

Welcome to day number two. Throwback Weekend Darlington Raceway. It is so cool down here. It is such a throwback vibe. Everyone has these old cruise shirts on. It is amazing. Darlington is one of my favorite tracks for that very reason. It’s such a event every time you come here and. As you can see behind me, cars are getting ready to hit the track for practice.

So let’s gear up for it. Jamie, tell me about the crew shirts and what is going on here. What year is this from and what team? Well, this is cold. He’s wearing, uh, my shirt from 1991 and it was, we didn’t have a whole lot of money to race, so they had to take a small shirt and add some material for, for a big guy.

And, um, that’s 1991. Chad Little’s team. Um, this is my nephew. You Corey, and he’s wearing uh, my she shirt from 1992. Hell Yard Borough Motor Sports Days. Uh, we had multiple drivers back in that time period. We started out with Chad Little and then we went to Bobby Hillen and Jimmy Hensley and uh, Jimmy actually won the Rookie of the Year that year driving the Tri Ford.

That was back from the Winston Cup days when the, uh, shirts were hot and thick and we had pants that match. Standing when we were all pretty walking around with a little rag hanging out her pocket and little gloves. So living legend. Well that was, that was good. Good times. The engines are fired and this track is about to be active because practice is officially beginning.

We’re gonna find out what the 91 car has of Josh Billicki, what Ryan Ellis has in the 71, and what we gotta do. To win today’s race at Darlington,

what do.

Let’s update the cars who’ve been out. Josh Billicki just jumped up to second of 30 72 for the driver from Wisconsin.

You know, Ryan Ellis made the move in the off season to a new team. He was driving for Alpha Prime last year, Mario Goslin this year, and he went to the 71 because this was his childhood number. Race legends cars, and that’s what he’s throwing back to his legends car from when he was a kid. He also played hockey where he wore Jersey number 71 and ninth.

Right now for Ryan Ellis, not bad in qualifying, here’s his. Throwback scheme and and what it relates to. So 2001, I didn’t think it was gonna be from that far back, but cool to see him. The legend cars still look just like that. My kid is into those. Did a little bit of legend car racing, but that’s pretty cool.

Throwing it back to yourself, why not come here? Briley Skull, big influencer on TikTok and Instagram. Tell me how’s your experience been here at Darlington and what are you doing here at the racetrack? Oh my gosh, this has been amazing. Being this close up to the cars is so unbelievable, unlike anything I’ve ever seen.

I’m here with Goodyear and I’m ready to make some exciting content. So this is the DGM Race Hauler. We actually, we got all the teams bags in there, and here we have all the radios and fun stuff like that for all the scanners. A lot of cool stuff in there. The team is basically crept up for the race right now, and we are about to get going here momentarily.

Now, here is the team’s favorite drawer. This is where all the snaps. Oh, feel free to grab whatever you want in there. That is the snacks. Roar, too. Nice to meet you Riley. So she’s been, uh, this is her first experience at Darlington. Is there anything you should let her know? Man, I don’t know where to start.

It’s a weird track. We like run right on the wall. Um, that’s where a lot of the speed is, but it’s a cool place and schemes are like throwback, but mm-hmm. It’s hot. It’s, it’s about it. Yeah, it is hot. First. NASCAR race. First. NASCAR race. Here’s our second driver. That’s Josh Billicki. Hi. Nice to meet. So she, she’s a, uh, TikTok influencer that, uh, Jesse brought here.

But yeah, I was just telling her about the NASCAR experience and, and everything here ’cause it’s her first race. So ask Ryan, like, what should, what should she know about going to a NASCAR race the first time? Have you been to a race before? No, never. Never any car in F1? Any car in F1? Yes. Alright. Well I grew up thinking I’m gonna go to Formula One and then when reality hit when I was like 10, then I thought I was gonna be IndyCar driver.

My background is road course racing, so Okay. Like me going to my. First NASCAR race ever was when I was a driver. So I’d never been to NASCAR race other than Road America, which doesn’t count. Well, that’s totally cool. So that you get to say that like, I think what you’re gonna be surprised about is how close you can get to the action all day.

That’s why like being on pit road, being on, I’m sure you’ll be on our pit box, but like being on the pit box, like right behind the mechanics and the crew chief, like that’s pretty cool. And then being literally you’re five, six feet away from pit stops. So, uh, yeah, it, it’s a cool experience. Like we’ve turned non-fans into fans.

Brian, does this feel any different than 20 years ago? Um, more outta shape. I don’t know if I’ve changed shape in general because this suit’s pretty tight. Um, I feel like we have some more power in the hood and see more fans in the stands, but.

Harrison Burton, who’s gonna come off and turn four. See the green and white checkered flack? He wins Stage one at Darlington.

Final lap, stage two. Justin Algar had the fastest. Car stage one, but it was some strategy that took away the win as Harrison Burton got tires, drove through and won that first stent of the race. But there’s a no doubter who’s best in this second stage. In fact, overall on the day fast race car driver seven, rainy champ, last year’s winner, Justin an all Guyer gets it in our second stage.

A top five since Charlotte last year was able to deliver that in Phoenix. A couple of top tens with the model of consistency in the last month. Back to Joe Gipps Racing and back to Victory Lane for Brandon Jones. He gets his second career victory in Darlington and just like that, Brian s officially brought the car home in 22nd in Josh Billicki in.

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