Denny Hamlin is coming off a victory and heading to one of his most successful tracks in Darlington Raceway. That does not mean he's coming in overconfident.

In the sport's infancy, NASCAR did not take a single step from the sands of Daytona Beach or the clay of the Carolinas to the biggest and fastest speedways on Earth. Once upon a time, before tracks like Daytona or Talladega could be conceived much less dreamed of,