Driving a Plymouth, Johnny Mantz won the inaugural Southern 500 for his only NASCAR victory in 12 starts. That day in 1950, 75 cars would start the race. Now the fields of Sprint Cup races are filled by a modest total of 43 cars.
The track has hosted 111 Sprint Cup races since 1950, with two being held each year from 1960 to 2004. Of the 13 tracks that were visited in the 1950 season for 19 races, Darlington is one of two NASCAR still visits, with the other being Martinsville Speedway in Virginia. The series still raced on the beaches of Daytona and at a track that predated Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Here’s a snapshot of Darlington and the sport it plays host to.
An aerial shot of Darlington from its early days. (Courtesy of Darlington Historical Commission)
A shot down the front stretch of Darlington Speedway in 1971, with an overhang covering the grandstand. (Photo by ISC Archives via Getty Images)
How the grandstand looks at Darlington in 2015. The overhang is gone and a modern scoring tower tops it, adorned by the track’s “Too Tough to Tame” slogan. In 1971, about 70,000 fans attended the Southern 500. In 2015, the permanent seating capacity is 58,000. Streeter Lecka/NASCAR via Getty Images
Crew members work on the No. 66 of Dick Brooks in the Darlington garage area. (Courtesy of Darlington Historical Commission)
Forty years later, the facilities are nicer and the cars are far less “stock,” but NASCAR teams still work out in the open under the watchful eyes of curious fans. Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images
Richard Petty flies by the scoring table just inside a turn in Darlington’s infield in 1970. Courtesy: Courtesy of Darlington Historical Commission
The No. 98 spins out during one of the 1973 races at Darlington. Notice the exit of the turn. Instead of today’s tall catchfences that line all speedways, the only thing keeping drivers and their speeding cars from leaving the track were short walls of concrete or metal. (Courtesy of Darlington Historical Commission)
Aric Almirola spins during the 2014 Bojangles’ Southern 500 in front of a painted wall with SAFER barrier and a modern catchfence.Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
Bobby Allison finishes a qualifying run for the 1972 Rebel 400. Allison, a five-time winner at Darlington, qualified second. (Courtesy of Darlington Historical Commission)
Kevin Harvick takes the checkered flag to win the 2014 Bojangles’ Southern 500. Now the flag stand is much higher off the track surface and beginning in 2015, the flag person must wear a helmet for protection from flying debris.Sean Gardner/NASCAR via Getty Images
As the first road course of the year, COTA will begin a new approach by NASCAR to stage racing on road circuits. There will no longer be a caution to end stages, but points will be awarded for the finish order. In another change, the “choose” rule will be in effect on road courses.
A look at the weekend schedule:
Circuit of the Americas (Cup, Xfinity and Truck)
Weekend weather
Friday: Thunderstorms in the morning, sun later in the day. High of 86. 80% chance of rain.
NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. — Three Cup drivers got their first chance to experience North Wilkesboro Speedway’s worn racing surface Tuesday and said tires will play a key role in the NASCAR All-Star Race there on May 21.
The verdict was unanimous about how important tire wear will be.
“This place has got a lot of character to it,” Reddick said. “Not a lot of grip and it’s pretty unforgiving. It’s a really fun place.”
Dillon said: “If you use up your tire too early, you’re going to really be in trouble. You really got to try to make those four tires live.”
Buescher said: “The surface here was so worn out already that we expect to be all over the place. The speeds are fairly slow just because of the amount of grip here. It’s hard to get wide open until you’re straight.”
Reddick noted the drop in speed over a short run during Tuesday’s test. That will mean a lot of off-throttle time.
“I think we were seeing a second-and-a-half falloff or so over even 50 laps and that was kind of surprising for me we didn’t have more falloff,” he said. “But, one little miscue, misstep into Turn 1 or Turn 3, you lose a second sliding up out of the groove and losing control of your car.”
“That’s with no traffic. Maybe with more traffic and everything, the falloff will be more, but certainly we’re out of control from I’d say Lap 10 on. You have to really take care of your car. … It’s really hard 30-40 laps into a run to even get wide open.”
Chris Buescher runs laps during a Goodyear tire test at North Wilkesboro Speedway, while Austin Dillon is on pit road. (Photo: Dustin Long)
One thing that stood out to Dillon was how the facility looks.
While the .625-mile racing surface remains the same since Cup last raced there in 1996, most everything else has changed.
In some cases, it is fresh red paint applied to structures but other work has been more extensive, including repaving the infield and pit road, adding lights for night racing, adding SAFER barriers, the construction of new suites in Turn 4 and new stands along the backstretch.
“It’s cool to see how much they’ve done to the track, the suites, the stands that they’re putting in,” Dillon said. “To me, the work that is going in here, we’re not just coming for one race. We’re coming here for a while. I’m excited about that.”
Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, has attracted an entry list that includes talent beyond that of the tour regulars.
Jordan Taylor, who is substituting in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 9 Chevrolet for injured Chase Elliott, brings a resume that includes 31 IMSA class wins, two 24 Hours of Daytona overall wins and two IMSA wins at COTA.
Kimi Raikkonen, entered by Trackhouse Racing as part of its Project 91 program, won the 2007 F1 championship and has eight F1 starts at the Austin track.
They will draw attention at COTA this weekend, along with these other drivers to watch:
Keselowski hasn’t been a star in road course racing, but his 2023 season has started well, and he figures to be in the mix at the front Sunday. He led the white-flag lap at Atlanta last Sunday before Joey Logano passed him for the win.
The Dinger is a road course expert. Last year at COTA, he was involved in tight racing on the final lap with Ross Chastain and Alex Bowman before Chastain emerged with the victory.
Ross Chastain
Points position: 3rd
Best seasonal finish: 3rd (Auto Club)
Past at COTA: Two straight top fours, including a win
Chastain lifted Trackhouse Racing’s profile by scoring his — and the team’s — first Cup victory at COTA last season. He’s not shy about participating in the last-lap bumping and thumping that often mark road course races.
Buescher has never led a lap at COTA and is coming off a 35th-place finish at Atlanta after being swept up in a Lap 190 crash. Although he has shown the power to run near the front this year, he has four consecutive finishes of 13th or worse.
Alex Bowman
Points position: 20th
Best seasonal finish: 3rd (Las Vegas I)
Past at COTA: Two straight top 10s
Bowman’s four-race run of consistent excellence (finishes of fifth, eighth, third and ninth) ended at Atlanta as he came home 14th and failed to lead a lap. At COTA, he is one of only four drivers with top-10 finishes in both races.
Three members of the Reaume Brothers Racing No. 33 Craftsman Truck Series team have been suspended for three races by NASCAR after a piece of tungsten ballast came off their truck during last Saturday’s race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
The suspensions were announced Tuesday.
Crew chief Gregory Rayl and crew members Matthew Crossman and Travis Armstrong were suspended because of the safety violation. Mason Massey is the team’s driver.
In a tweet following the announcement of the penalty, the team said it will not file an appeal. “The ballast became dislodged only after the left side ballast container had significant contact with the racing surface,” according to the statement. “We would like to be clear that there was no negligence on the part of RBR personnel.”
NASCAR also announced Tuesday that Truck Series owner/driver Cory Roper, who had been suspended indefinitely for violating the substance abuse policy, has been reinstated.
The Cup, Xfinity and Truck Series are scheduled to race this weekend at Circuit of the Americas.
