Primetime: NASCAR set for first Wednesday start since 1984

Whenever Joey Logano doesn't cross the finish line first at a NASCAR Cup Series race, he says he tends to have the same thought: Golly, I wish I could do that again.

The 2018 NASCAR champion and rest of the field will get to do it again: They will run the Toyota 500 (that's kilometers, not miles) on Wednesday night at Darlington Raceway just three days after the sport got back to racing after 10 weeks away due to the coronavirus pandemic.

NASCAR teams are creatures of habit with a well-worn routine of mechanical sessions, strategy meetings and track breakdowns and tendencies for wherever they're headed.

While each season typically sees a Monday race due to bad weather, the pandemic has forced NASCAR to add a couple of weeknights into its schedule as it tries to make up the eight races it missed.

This will be NASCAR's first Cup Series race on a Wednesday night in 36 years and that one was pretty historic as Richard Petty won his 200th career Cup race at Daytona International Speedway's Firecracker 400 on July 4, 1984.

Cup regulars will race at least five times over the next two weeks, including Sunday's return to racing at Darlington. Kevin Harvick led the most laps on the way to his 50th career victory. Like that one, Wednesday's race will be without fans and with only essential personnel inside.

I barely saw anyone all day after getting into the car, Logano said.

Logano's teammate, Brad Keselowski, said the nighttime start and varying weather conditions will make the track
He remembers in the late 1960s racing in Maryland on Wednesday, Georgia on Friday and North Carolina on Saturday, the last a 400-lap event on a rugged dirt track. Allison was so worn down by the schedule, he said, I couldn't sit up."