The Lady in Black.

Darlington Raceway
Darlington, S.C.
Capacity: 63,000 seats
Length: 1.333 miles

The Lady in Black. The track “Too Tough to Tame.”

Darlington Raceway in Darlington, S.C. is a track so revered on the NASCAR circuit that one nickname simply wouldn’t cut it. The former home of the well-loved Labor Day Southern 500, Darlington Raceway holds a special place in the hearts of NASCAR fans. Even the drivers appreciate the gritty track, literally and figuratively. The late Dale Earnhardt perhaps captured it best when he said:

"You never forget your first love, whether it's a high school sweetheart, a faithful old hunting dog, or a fickle race track in South Carolina with a contrary disposition. And, if you happen to be a race car driver there's no victory so sweet, so memorable, as whipping Darlington Raceway."

The Darlington saga began long before the first ground-breaking ever took place. After returning home from the 1933 Indianapolis 500, Darlington businessman Harold Brasington thought that his beloved small town could host a large, paved racetrack and hold events. He was roundly dismissed and laughed at, but Brasington persevered.

Sixteen years later Brasington secured the rights to build on land which had formerly been cotton and peanut fields.  Construction ran from 1949 to summer of 1950, with Brasington often behind the controls of earthmovers. Brasington wanted to build a proper oval, but he had a nemesis: a minnow pond. The land’s owner, a Mr. Ramsey, didn’t want his pond disturbed. Thus, turns three and four were narrowed to accommodate the minnows, giving the track its distinctive egg shape.

The turns were relatively small to begin with and highly banked. Turns one and two feature 25 degree banking, while turns three and four flatten a bit to 23 degrees. Further increasing the difficulty of the track was the difference in the turns’ radiuses. Certainly the track couldn’t fit in sprawling turns, but turns one and two have a 600’ radius. Turns three and four decreased in radius by 75 feet, narrowing the space to 525’.

On Labor Day, 1950, Harold Brasington hosted the first Southern 500. Brasington had expected only 10,000 spectators and received over 25,000 visitors. The 75-car field found its winner from the car that started last. Johnny Mantz of California became the first winner at Darlington Raceway’s Southern 500, a race that took over six hours to complete. The race was NASCAR’s first 500 mile race, and would remain the only 500 mile race until the 1959 Daytona 500.

Darlington had long hosted two events. The spring event in early May had different names, but come September, the Southern 500 was an institution. Labor Day meant hard racing at a tough track that challenged even the most talented of drivers. The track celebrated the golden anniversary of the Southern 500 in 2000. The Southern 500 was also notable as the track where Bill Elliott and Jeff Gordon won the Winston Million in 1985 and 1997, respectively. The Southern 500 was known as one of the four Crown Jewels of the NASCAR circuit.

Then, in 2004, money reared its ugly head. NASCAR had made the unpopular decision to run the fall Darlington race in November for 2005. The Southern 500 had its last hurrah on Labor Day 2004. A stockholder from Texas Motor Speedway sued NASCAR, and the ensuing juggling of dates to settle the lawsuit (in which the stockholder demanded a second NASCAR date at TMS) resulted in Darlington only having one date in 2005 forward.

This change rubbed many NASCAR fans the wrong way, including those who were fans of the “old” NASCAR, and felt they were cheated when the historic race was dropped in favor of moving it to Fontana, California. While it was true that Darlington was somewhat constricted in terms of space, the date sold out year after year and was considered a big party by many. The drab, cookie-cutter Fontana, under the direction of Gillian Zucker, has yet to sell out or put on a show worthy of its predecessor.

Today, this move still remains a point of contention between NASCAR and its fans. Even those in the NASCAR media feel this was the wrong move, and pointedly mention this every year. Notably, ESPN’s (and formerly of NASCAR.com) Marty Smith wrote a moving treatise on the surprisingly passionate subject.

For now, though, it appears the change is permanent. Darlington has to make do with only one date a year, the May Saturday night race, which has recently been sponsored by Dodge.

On November 28, 2007, milling began at Darlington and is expected to take two weeks to complete in preparation for a new racing surface. Darlington is known as a place to tear up tires, and Goodyear tire tests there in early 2007 were not promising. The surface will be in place for the May 10, 2008 Dodge Challenger 500.

Darlington will stay in the hearts of NASCAR fans and will be long-revered as an original in a field of mile-and-a-half tracks.