Winning in NASCAR is a team sport. From the top executives all the way down to the pit crews. It's difficult to win if the chain is not strong, link by link.

Just ask Carl Edwards.

"Well, I feel like my pit crew ought to be sitting up here doing interviews," Edwards said. "They won that race for us. It was just amazing to come down third and to go out leading the race."

It's been a while since Roger Penske has been to victory lane as an owner at Darlington. In fact, it's been 40 years now since Bobby Allison swept the races at The Lady in Black while driving for Penske.

Brad Keselowski took a big step towards ending this drought for his legendary car owner. 

With his passion for signature events, fearsome tracks and fearless racers, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. could qualify as NASCAR’s resident historian.

Naturally, the sport’s most popular driver is enthused about this weekend’s retro weekend at Darlington Raceway.

A pal and I were waiting out a rainstorm in a shelter while fishing a while back and started talking racin'.

"Who is the toughest, bravest driver you've seen and known in all your years of covering NASCAR?" he asked.

I replied that there have been plenty of super-tough, daredevil drivers.

I named some examples:

I'm looking forward to the Bojangles Southern 500, not so much because I always look forward to races at Darlington Raceway, though I do, and not so much because my favorite track has been restored to its rightful place on Labor Day weekend, though it has, but because I have some hope that this race might not be more of the same.

I'm tired of the same.

Darlington is the second and final test of NASCAR's "less downforce" rules package. It worked when in place at Kentucky Speedway on July 11. The cars slid around. The drivers had more to do with the outcome. At a track where previous races had been reliably humdrum, the spectacle improved dramatically.

Throwback time: Eleven years later, NASCAR has restored a tradition by scheduling a Labor Day Sunday race back at Darlington Raceway. There are many fans who have held a grudge against the sanctioning body all those year for moving the Southern 500 away from Darlington.

What made it even worse, for the majority of fans, was shifting a traditional race to Southern California in a move to try and expand revenue and the fan base. After a seven-year run at California/Auto Club Speedway, NASCAR made an adjustment and gained a second date in Chicago while track owner International Speedway Corp. gained a casino in Kansas.

From the moment I started to follow, and enjoying, auto racing, I knew it was a dangerous sport. High speeds, tight turns, brazen moves, total teamwork and exceptional talent. While I grew up in a stick and ball world, I was awed by the sport.

Few tracks in NASCAR catch match the tradition of Darlington Raceway.

With its narrow straightaways, abrasive tire-eating surface, hot temperatures and jaw-dropping speeds, the fearsome egg-shaped oval in rural South Carolina has long presented one of the toughest tests in all forms of motorsports.

Basically, a win at Darlington gains a driver a page of hard-earned NASCAR history.

Chicago will once again host the start of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup with one of the biggest NASCAR® themed parties of the season, NASCAR Chase Fest™ sponsored by Toyota. The free outdoor fan fest will feature all 16 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series™ Challengers and culminate with a live concert by Grammy-nominated band, 3 Doors Down. NASCAR Chase Fest will take place on Weed Street between Fremont and Kingsbury streets from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m. CDT on September 17.