Darlington race to start earlier

Darlington Raceway has the only change in start time in the 2012 Sprint Cup Series schedule as its race will start at 7 p.m. Eastern instead of 7:30 p.m. as it did in 2011. The 7 p.m. start time is a departure from NASCAR’s attempt at consistent start times but one Darlington asked for so its race – the second-longest on the schedule at 501.322 miles – will end earlier. The race took 3 hours, 53 minutes to complete last year and 3 hours, 57 minutes in 2010.

“We were able to move it 30 minutes, which is good," Darlington Raceway President Chris Browning said. “We’re pleased about that. I think it will help our fans to get out of here a little bit quicker. That’s really good for us. We were shooting for sometime around 11 o’clock finish. That is something the fans had asked for in our post-event surveys the last couple of years."