The hours leading up to Sunday's 400-mile race at Darlington Raceway -- actually, the months leading up to it -- were so strange. The moments immediately following the event, as Kevin Harvick reached a rarely achieved career milestone and did his celebratory donuts in front of an empty grandstand, they too were like nothing NASCAR has ever felt or seen before.
But the 3 hours, 30 minutes and 34 seconds in between? Those felt perfectly normal. The most normal that anyone in the NASCAR community, fan or competitor, has felt in nearly 2½ months.