The lore of the Darlington Raceway is well popular among NASCAR fans. The track is often called “the track too tough to tame” and with good reason. The narrow short track has some of the steepest banking in NASCAR and its surface does not help drivers either. The rough asphalt massively facilitates tire wear and strategy becomes crucial for any race at the venue.
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It has also been a facility where NASCAR has had some of its most memorable moments. In 2003, Kurt Busch and Ricky Craven gave fans the closest finish to a race in NASCAR history until Kansas earlier this season.
Track President Josh Harris rode around the track ahead of the Goodyear 400 earlier this season. Although he was going around at only 90 mph, he acknowledged that it was a nerve-wracking experience. The NASCAR Cup Series drivers race around this track twice a year at speeds more than double that. It just proves the effort drivers put in to run on such a challenging surface. Track announcer Dane Lockemy believes that drivers compete against the track when they race here instead of the other racers.
The views are unmatched 😍@CookOut #Southern500 pic.twitter.com/DU8yi4xzkf
— Darlington Raceway (@TooToughToTame) July 1, 2024
“You raced the track and not the competitors,” he told The Post and Courier. “Whoever can manage their car and strategy and be able to manage their tires is going to win that race. That’s very hard to do.” Track President Harris also said that racers have to run at high speeds near the walls which makes it all the more dangerous.
Few drivers have ever mastered the art of racing at the Darlington Raceway. Veterans and multi-time Cup Series champions have struggled to get a result here. While it may not have the glam of a Daytona or a Talladega, Darlington certainly has a special place among people in the NASCAR community.
Who has managed to tame Darlington Raceway?
While it is called the “track too tough to tame”, one racer that came closest to doing so is David Pearson. The legendary race car driver started 47 races at the famed short track and won 10 of them. He also has 30 finishes in the top-10 and in five races from 1972 to 1974, he never finished outside the top two. Such stats are almost impossible to recreate in the modern day and age of the sport.
“I don’t know that I believe in racing magic, but what we had with Pearson in the ’70s—especially at Darlington—was close to magic. I don’t know what it was, but it seemed like everything went the way it was supposed to go,” Pearson’s team owner Eddie Wood told Autoweek.
Today, the track is revered by fans and the drivers. It might be challenging to race on but that’s what they like. More often than not, Darlington Raceway delivers a race that fans don’t forget very easily over the course of a season.
