| | | | | | | | | | Darlington Raceway | Too Tough To Tame |
| | Darlington, SC Considered the original superspeedway, the Darlington Raceway is rich in history and tradition and a foundation of the NASCAR establishment. Nicknamed "Too Tough to Tame" and "The Lady in Black,” the challenging 1.366-mile is still loved by the drivers.
Darlington Raceway was the vision of local businessman Harold Brasington, who believed in 1949 that NASCAR might catch on. When he came home from the 1933 Indianapolis 500 with the idea of Darlington having a paved superspeedway, his friends laughed at him.
But Brasington was ready to prove them wrong. He and his crew spent the next year on construction, with Brasington himself putting in some time at the bulldozer. The original design of the track called for a true oval shape, but that had to be changed to accommodate the landowner’s minnow pond. The west end of the track was narrowed, thus creating Darlington’s distinctive egg-shaped design.
Brasington expected no more than 10,000 fans for the first race, scheduled for Labor Day 1950. But a crowd of more than 25,000 showed up to watch Johnny Mantz win the first Southern 500. The track commemorated its golden anniversary with the 50th running of the Moutain Dew Southern 500.
These days it’s Jim Hunter’s job to make sure Darlington keeps up with the pace of NASCAR. Hunter, a South Carolina native and now president of Darlington Raceway, served as the track’s PR director in the 1960s. Since his 1993 return to Darlington, some major improvements have taken place, including construction of two state-of-the-art grandstands. Complete with modernized restrooms, food courts and souvenir stands, the Tyler and Pearson Towers doubled the track’s seating capacity.
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