1.366 miles of race track paved with black asphalt, the Darlington Raceway can be mistaken for no other venue in the country. Constructed in 1950, the venue has become synonymous with NASCAR over the decades and is set to host the 75th edition of the Southern 500 event this weekend. In celebration of the same, here’s the story of how the track came to be known as The Lady in Black.
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Thousands of publications have called the venue by this name throughout history. But the sportswriter Benny Phillips in 1965 was the first one to do so. He compared the track to the German spy Mata Hari in a column and wrote, “As treacherous as Mata Hari. As desirable as Hollywood’s most beautiful actress — as unpredictable as any woman — these are the virtues of ‘The Lady In Black.”
Mata Hari was an infamous World War I spy whose cover was to perform as an exotic dancer. Though the name stuck and began getting picked up by other writers, Phillips mentioned it only once later in 1974. He spent 48 years working for High Point Enterprises in North Carolina and passed away in 2012. He also spent time writing for TBS and the Stock Car Racing Magazine.
There are a few others who attribute the nickname to the track’s asphalt surface and not Phillips. Track president Kerry Tharp told the track media earlier this year, “Whichever theory you want to accept. Let’s just put it this way, The Lady in Black is a nickname that has stuck for years and years and will continue to describe this mysterious racetrack.”
The affinity that Benny Phillips had for Darlington
Phillips was a part of the small group of journalists who covered the early years of the sport and he had an extreme liking for the Darlington Raceway. He didn’t treat or write about the track as a non-living entity. To him, it had feelings and flesh like humans do.
He wrote in 1974, “I am sure there are skeptics who say the place doesn’t live and breathe like a human being and hasn’t a soul and isn’t vindictive and good and kind and all the other things real humans are. But I know better.”
The writer is sorely missed today in the world of sports journalism. But his name continues to live on in the NASCAR Hall of Fame and so does the nickname he gave his beloved lady.
