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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.

How those rules will work at Darlington isn't predictable. If one word describes the racing surface in Kentucky, it is "wide." If one word describes Darlington, it is "narrow." Imagine Kentucky as Interstate 95. Darlington is the frontage road. Kentucky has green walls. I-95 has green signs. I-95 runs past Darlington. The Raceway Grill is outside Turn Two at Darlington, just like it was a frontage road.

I'd keep going, but it could only lead to Kevin Bacon. Or a bacon cheeseburger. More likely, Kevin Harvick.

Sliding around Darlington is a little more treacherous than Kentucky. Looser cars could mean more wrecks. They could also make the drivers more careful. Looser cars made passing easier on July 11. They might make it harder on Sept. 6.

Regardless, whoever wins this Southern 500 is going to earn it.

At this point of the season, I'm sort of looking for surprises. The uncertainty over what will happen at Darlington excites me. My greatest misgiving this year is simple: not enough uncertainty.

Eleven different drivers have won this year. That's a decent number. The problem is the sport is no longer defined strictly by different drivers. Oh, no, they're almost all from multi-car teams, and not just any multi-car teams, the same ones, growing ever more powerful, week after week.

Joe Gibbs Racing (9), Hendrick Motorsports (6), Stewart-Haas Racing (4) and Penske Racing (4) have combined to win 23 of the 24 races. The only exception, and only victory by a single-car team, was Martin Truex Jr.'s June 7 breakthrough at Pocono.

What's next? Oh, naturally, Truex's team, Furniture Row Racing, will undoubtedly add a second car and switch to Toyota, and the next paradise will probably put up a parking lot, too.

It's unlikely, but maybe, just maybe, Darlington, where they said in 1955 it was obsolete because they built it for the speeds of 1950, will provide a surprise. The Big Four will undoubtedly be strong, dominate qualifying, and roll out the usual heavy artillery for Sunday night. But maybe someone who hasn't won yet will shake up the Chase. A Jeff Gordon or a Kasey Kahne. A Jamie McMurray or a Clint Bowyer. Maybe even a David Ragan.

Imagine if Tony Stewart, who has never won at Darlington, took the checkered flag? Stranger things have happened, quite often at the Track Too Tough to Cover. (OK, that's a personal slogan. Maybe a new sports writer will emerge, some kid who can write by the seat of his pants and pick his way through all the debris.)