Regular Season Championship contenders focus on own races at Darlington

Though Tyler Reddick, Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott enter Sunday‘s Cook Out Southern 500 (6 p.m. ET, USA Network, NBC Sports App, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) in a pitched battle for the NASCAR Cup Series Regular Season Championship, the drivers won‘t have much time to think about the standings in a race that requires the utmost concentration throughout.

Nor is there much they can do in terms of radical strategy, given the abrupt fall-off in lap times due to tire wear.

MORE: Cup standings ahead of Darlington | Full Southern 500 preview

Reddick, who leads Larson by 17 points and Elliott by 18 entering the final regular-season race, doesn‘t think spend much time worrying about his rivals.

“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.

“Certainly, it could go that way, but I feel like if we (all) have solid nights then we‘re in a pretty good place unless we just have a disastrous night.”

Larson acknowledges if might be difficult to close the gap at a track where elite drivers tend to dominate.

“As well as both Tyler and I run here, there shouldn‘t be too many points exchanged,” said Larson, the defending Southern 500 winner. “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 up front. 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.”