As a part of the continued MRN at Full SPEED program, seven-time Darlington winner Jeff Gordon will join Roush Fenway Racing’s David Ragan to take part in a fan forum at the Darlington Raceway prior to Saturday night’s Southern 500 presented by GoDaddy.com. Hosted by NASCAR Hall of Fame Executive Director Winston Kelley, fans will have the opportunity to ask two of NASCAR’s stars questions starting at 3:30pm E.T. Saturday, May 9, at the SPEED stage behind the frontstretch grandstands.

"The MRN at Full SPEED fan forums are a great way to add value to our fan's experience at Darlington and kick off the Southern 500 presented by GoDaddy.com," track President Chris Browning explained. "The guests that they have on the panel will certainly have plenty to say about Darlington and how challenging the track is."

As a seven-time winner at the track ‘Too Tough To Tame,’ Jeff Gordon knows a thing or two about getting around Darlington Raceway. This weekend, the four-time Cup Series champion and current points leader has the chance to make history by tying Cale Yarborough on the all-time win list with 83 victories.

“It’s cool to be mentioned in the same sentence as guys like Cale, Bobby [Allison] and Darrell [Waltrip], and it’s something I’ll look back on at the end of my career,” Gordon explained. “But we arrive at the race track each weekend focused on trying to win, not on catching or passing people on a list.

“Our real motivation is winning the championship, and we hope we can win races as we work toward that goal.”

Gordon’s chances are pretty good this weekend, especially considering in the last five events, Gordon has one win, two runner-up finishes and his worse finish is third (twice).

Compared to Gordon’s tremendous success at the unique racing facility, David Ragan is still getting his feet wet. With only two career Cup Series starts at Darlington, Ragan has one top-5 finish.

“Darlington has been a good track to the UPS team in the past,” Ragan pointed out. “It’s a fun 500-mile race that is one of the most difficult places to pass on the circuit. Darlington has two completely different turns. Turns one and two are sweeping and you have more room to race than turns three and four. In three and four you run up by the wall and it’s hard to pass. It’s just a great track with a lot of history and really loyal fans. In order to pull off a win you need to finish the race with the right side of your car intact and all four tires straight. No small task at a track known for everyone receiving a ‘Darlington Stripe.’”

So, if your are heading to the track this weekend, be sure to head over to the SPEED stage to take advantage of the opportunity to get up close and personal with some of NASCAR’s biggest stars.

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