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Darlington Raceway

Darlington Raceway is a race track built for NASCAR racing located near Darlington, South Carolina. It is nicknamed the "Lady in Black" and "The Track Too Tough to Tame" by many NASCAR fans and drivers and advertised as "A NASCAR Tradition". It is of a unique, somewhat egg-shaped design, an oval with the ends of very different configurations, a condition which supposedly arose from the proximity of one end of the track to a minnow pond the owner refused to relocate. This situation makes it very challenging for the crews to set up their cars' handling in a way that will be effective at both ends.

History

Harold Brasington was a retired racer in 1948. He had gotten to know Bill France, Sr. while competing against France at the Daytona Beach Road Course and other dirt tracks in the Southeast and Midwestern United States. He quit racing in the late 1940s to concentrate on farming and his construction business. He began planning a new speedway after he noticed the huge crowds while attending the 1948 Indianapolis 500. He thought "If Tony Hulman can do it here, I can do it back home." He bought 70 acres from farmer Sherman Ramsey, and started making a race track from a cotton and peanut field. He was forced to create an egg-shaped oval with one corner tighter, narrower, and more steeply banked because he promised Ramsey that the new track wouldn't disturb Ramsey's minnow pond at the west side of the property. Brasington was able to make other turn at the east side of the property wide, sweeping, and flat as he wanted. It took almost a year to build the track.

Brasington made a deal in the summer of 1950 with France to run a race in Darlington on Labor Day that year. The first Southern 500 carried a record $25,000 purse, and was co-sanctioned by NASCAR and its rival Central States Racing Association. More than 80 entrants showed up for the race. Brasington used a 2 week qualifying scheme similar to the one used at the Indianapolis 500. Brasington was also inspired by Indianapolis when he had the 75 car field aligned in 25 rows of three cars. These practices have curtailed over the years as NASCAR adopted a more uniform set of guidelines with regard to the number of cars which could qualify for a race. The race was won by Johnny Mantz in a car owned by France.

In recent years the track has been reconfigured; what was the front stretch is now the back stretch, and the turns have been renumbered accordingly. Seating has been increased to approximately 65,000; although it has been limited by the proximity of a railroad track to the facility, a highway behind the back stretch, and the still-present pond.

Darlington has something of a legendary quality among drivers and older fans; this is probably due to its long track length relative to other NASCAR speedways of its era and hence the first venue where many of them became cognizant of the truly high speeds that stock cars could achieve on a long track. The title of how the track earned the moniker The Lady in Black was allegedly because the walls around the track are always painted white prior to a race, but are always largely black by the end of it due to a profusion of tire contacts. Darlington is also known as "The Track Too Tough to Tame", and rookie racers hitting the wall are considered to have received their "Darlington stripe".

Races

For many years Darlington was the site of two annual Sprint Cup Series races; one, the Rebel 400, was held in the spring and the other, the Southern 500 (its name has varied in recent years due to sale of naming rights but this is what fans generally continued to call it), was always held on Labor Day weekend. In 2003, the Labor Day event was given to California Speedway, and the Southern 500 was moved to November 2004 and was run as part of the Chase for the NEXTEL Cup. In 2005, NASCAR eliminated the Southern 500 altogether, which offended many traditionalists. The race was merged with the spring race and moved to Mother's Day Weekend, with a night race sponsored by Dodge taking their place. However, it was announced in August of 2008 that the Southern 500 name would be revived with the May 2009 race.

The track is now owned by International Speedway Corporation, which is controlled by NASCAR's founding France family, so this can be done without incurring legal problems which have sometimes resulted from NASCAR's attempts to move races in the past at tracks which it did not control.

The move is the result of several factors. Recent Darlington races, especially the spring ones, have generally not sold out, which is related to two general factors. One is the track's location in the Textile Belt of South Carolina, where there has been an ongoing general economic decline for many years due to the textile industry moving overseas to countries with lower workforce costs; few new jobs have been coming to the area to replace those lost and the chronically unemployed and underemployed generally cannot afford NASCAR event prices. Another factor in the races' failure to sell out is related to the remoteness of the Darlington area. There is very little of interest to the average fan from outside the Darlington area other than the events at the track itself, with the exception of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina approximately an hour away. Most newer NASCAR venues (Texas, Kansas City, St. Louis, Las Vegas) are near major cities that are in themselves tourist attractions and around which a fan can easily base a vacation of several days or even a week or more with the racing being just part of it, rather than making what would be of necessity a single-purpose trip to see the races and then going home. A further factor in the move is an ongoing desire by NASCAR to spread its events out over more of the country and be even more of a truly national, rather than just a southeastern, sport. Many observers feel that due to these factors that even the remaining Darlington race is threatened in the near future. Purists hope that this is not the case, but have not been encouraged by recent events, although some see the recent large capital outlay to light the track for night racing and resurface the track, along with the relative success of the first race to end there at night in November, 2004, to be positive developments for the track's future. Additionally, the Dodge Charger 500, held on Mother's Day weekend, has sold out each year from 2005-2008.

Future

A recent development has Speedway Motorsports, Inc., ISC's chief rival in NASCAR, offering to take over Darlington. According to the story, Speedway would agree to maintain only one race on the Sprint Cup circuit, but has suggested that Darlington's race be returned to its traditional Southern 500 Labor Day date, with the California track taking the other date instead.

On March 1-2, 2007 the USAC Silver Crown Series held an open test at Darlington Raceway. Shortly after the test, the USAC Silver Crown Series held a race at Darlington on May 10 as part of Darlington's NASCAR weekend. This race marked USAC's return to Darlington after a 51 year absence.

It was announced on April 5th, 2007 that Darlington would receive a $10 million upgrade, the largest investment in the track's history. This announcement, as well as last year's $6 million upgrade, which will include an entire repaving of the oval for the first since 1995. This announcement silenced any concerns over the future of Darlington Raceway in NASCAR. Some construction will be ready for the 2007 Dodge Avenger 500 with the rest of the enhancements, including the repaving of the oval, added after the race. On May 10, 2008 it was announced that Darlington Raceway has sold out its Mother's Day weekend Sprint Cup race for the fourth year in a row further protecting its place on the Sprint Cup Series schedule in future years.