Nascar races on all sorts of tracks, from short to long, oval to road course, concrete to asphalt. Here’s a weekly look at all the tracks of Nascar’s National Touring Series.
DARLINGTON RACEWAY
1.366 mile asphalt egg-shaped oval (well, kinda)
Opened 1950
Lights? Yes
Series: Cup, Xfinity, Trucks
Nicknames: The Lady in Black, The Track Too Tough to Tame, A Tradition of Heritage
THREE FUN FACTS:
1. Darlington got its (not-quite) egg shape in an attempt to avoid building over a minnow pond. You’ll probably hear this an average of 3.5 times over a televised race weekend.
2. In 1997 the track’s layout was flipped, with the old frontstretch becoming the new backstretch and vice versa. This might sound odd, but it STILL made more sense than taking away their Labor Day Weekend race date a few years later.
3. In recent years Darlington has instituted a popular “Throwback Weekend”, something beloved by most fans and disliked by the bitterest people on the planet (so, basically, most racing forum denizens).
www.spaderacing.com updated four times weekly
Visit the store https://www.cafepress.com/spaderacing
Buy the book 100 Stock Car Racing What Ifs Unauthorized
A MOXOC Media production