Darlington Raceway: History, Layout and the Southern 500

Darlington Raceway, in Darlington, South Carolina, is an egg-shaped oval that has staged NASCAR races since 1950. Its uneven layout and abrasive surface make it one of the most demanding tracks on the schedule, and the Southern 500 it hosts is a Crown Jewel event.

The sections below trace the track from its planning in 1949 and 1950 through its ownership changes and safety upgrades, to the races it hosts today.

Where is Darlington Raceway and what shape is it?

The track is 2.198 km (1.366 mi) across the loop, with 25 degrees of banking in its first two turns, 23 degrees in its last two and 6 degrees on the straights. Its turns are not matched, which gives the venue its distinctive egg shape.

The first two turns have a wider radius than the last two, and that asymmetry shapes every race. Teams frequently give up speed in one pair of turns to gain it in the other, because the most effective line runs close to the outside wall.

The surface is highly abrasive, and that adds to the difficulty. Drivers have long described the layout as one of the toughest on NASCAR's calendar, and the narrow racing line adds to the challenge.

Access comes from U.S. Route 52 and South Carolina Highway 34, and the venue's capacity was 47,000 as of 2021.

An egg-shaped oval built on a hometown gamble still hosts one of NASCAR's toughest and most storied races.

Why was the track built in Darlington?

Harold Brasington, a Darlington native, wanted to bring the success of the Indianapolis 500 to the Southeast through stock car racing. He bought a 105-acre (42 ha) plot from his friend J.S. Ramsey, and a 500-mile race was planned for Labor Day in 1950.

Brasington had watched the 1933 Indianapolis 500 in person and had searched across Virginia, Tennessee and Atlanta before settling on his hometown, where land was cheaper. After fifteen years in the trucking business, he had gathered enough money on a handshake deal to begin.

The start date of construction is disputed. A 1950 report gave January 13, 1950, while later Carolina newspapers put the groundbreaking in 1949, on December 12. Many locals called the project Harold's Folly because doubts ran so high.

Ramsey worried that the track would destroy a fishing pond he liked to use, so Brasington tightened the radius of the first two turns. By April 1950 grading was 50% complete, and surfacing started on July 1 against an August 1 completion date.

When it was finished, the track had seating for about 10,000 people and was originally measured at 1.25-mile (2.01 km). Its prestige was compared with that of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway from the start.

How did the first seasons unfold?

The venue's public debut came on August 19, 1950, when qualifying races were run. The first Southern 500 followed on September 4, and Johnny Mantz won it as the event's first winner. Motorcycle races were added in November of that same year, extending the first season's programme.

Bob Colvin replaced Brasington as president in 1951, and Brasington cut all ties with the track four years later. Under Colvin the venue grew steadily through the decade.

The banking on the south turn rose from 3.7 m (12 ft) to 7.9 m (26 ft) in 1953, and in 1954 another 6,000 grandstand seats raised capacity to 16,000. A backstretch grandstand completed in 1956 added 14,500 seats.

Lights for the 1953 race were considered but rejected for lack of practicality and fan support. A 3,300-seat grandstand named after Confederate general Robert E. Lee went up in 1963, and the 1965 work was the track's first complete repave.

Under Colvin the track's marquee races, the Southern 500 and the Rebel 400, were promoted as tributes to the Confederacy, a choice that is remembered as part of the venue's difficult history.

The early years were deadly. Robert Burns died in a motorcycle race in November 1950, Rex Stansell died after a crash in a modified and sportsman race two years after the first death, and Bob Scott died after a 1954 crash in a 200 mi (320 km) race.

Track milestones at a glance

How did ownership and management change over time?

Bob Colvin died in January 1967, and Barney Wallace was elected general manager six days later before becoming president. Colvin's tenure included segregated grandstand seating, and Wendell Scott, an early Black driver, could not race at the track for much of his career.

Colvin had been president since 1951, and he guided the track through its growth in the 1950s.

Bob Colvin died of a heart attack at his home on January 24, 1967. Wallace was slow to upgrade the facility. In 1969 the banking of turns three and four rose from 15 degrees to 25 degrees, and those turns were widened. A concrete wall fully enclosed the circuit in 1975.

In March 1982 the track reported significant revenue losses, and in June the France family's International Speedway Corporation offered $70 a share for control. The board approved the sale later that month, and Wallace stayed on until his death in May 1983.

A multi-year renovation began in 1990, and within its first year a new garage area was built alongside the demolition of the old backstretch box seats. Work slowed sharply from 1991 because of economic problems, and the project was not completed on its original schedule.

A multi-year renovation began in 1990. The 8,000-seat Tyler Tower opened in 1994, the track was repaved and gained 5,000 seats in 1995, and in 1997 the start-finish line moved, swapping the numbers of the first two turns with the third and fourth.

Leadership and grandstand changes after 1982

After the sale, the presidency changed hands often. Red Tyler was followed by Woody McKay, and NASCAR's administration and marketing chief Jim Hunter was chosen to take over in 1993. Andrew Gurtis succeeded Hunter in March 2001, and Chris Browning arrived from Rockingham Speedway in May 2004.

The frontstretch pit wall was rebuilt in 1985, and the new wall was 712 ft (217 m) longer.

The name of Harold Brasington stayed on the 2006 grandstand, and the Colvin Grandstand and Tyler Tower, named for two former leaders, were among the structures renovated in 2018.

Browning resigned in 2013, and Chip Wile of Motor Racing Network took the post. Wile moved on to lead Daytona International Speedway in 2016, and Kerry Tharp, a NASCAR operations director, replaced him. The 2006 Brasington Grandstand replaced an older structure in turn two and lifted capacity to 62,000.

Seat widening in 2013 pulled capacity below 60,000, and the listed figure stood at 58,000 by 2018. A $7 million renovation of the Tyler, Wallace and Colvin grandstands was completed in August 2018, reducing capacity to 47,000.

What dangers did drivers face at the track?

The 1960 Southern 500 was the deadliest incident in the venue's history. A car crashed and flipped on the backstretch pit road, killing NASCAR official Joe Brown Taylor and two members of a pit crew, Paul McDuffie and Charles Ernest Sweatland.

In the 1957 Southern 500, Bobby Myers crashed into Fonty Flock's stationary car, flipped several times and died of a broken neck. In the 1965 Southern 500 Buren Skeen was killed after another car struck him, and the injuries were to his head and abdomen.

Permanent lights for night racing arrived in 2003, after an earlier attempt in 1999 had failed. SAFER soft wall barriers were added for the 2004 race, and the frontstretch pit road had been extended by seven boxes in 1999.

About 4,600 ft (1,400 m) of additional SAFER barriers were installed in 2015. The barriers went in after Kyle Busch was hurt at Daytona International Speedway, and the 2007 renovation, costing $10 million, repaved the track and added an infield tunnel ready for the 2008 race.

Why is the Southern 500 so important?

For almost five decades the track hosted two Cup races a year, from 1957 until 2004, with the Goodyear 400 as the second event. The Southern 500 kept its place as the headline race in every season of that long period.

The Southern 500 has been run since 1950 and is considered a Crown Jewel event on the NASCAR schedule. Traditionally the race stood alone on the Labor Day calendar, and in 2004 the track lost its fall date to California Speedway after the Ferko lawsuit.

A second Cup race, the Goodyear 400, was added in 1957, and the track hosted two Cup events a year until 2004. In 2005 the Southern 500 took the Goodyear 400's place on the schedule, a change that came as the result of the lawsuit.

The Southern 500 moved to April in 2014 and returned to its Labor Day weekend in 2015. The Goodyear 400 returned to the Cup calendar in 2021, giving the track two events once again.

The O'Reilly Auto Parts Series race began in 1982 as the VFW 200, and a second date called the Darlington 200 was added in 1983. A Truck Series race was introduced in 2001 as well.

Other racing and current ownership

The track held AAA Championship Car races in 1950, 1951 and 1954, and it ran one final race in 1956 after the series came under USAC sanction. An International Race of Champions event ran annually from 1993 to 1995, and a one-off USAC Silver Crown race was held in 2007.

NASCAR took ownership of the venue in 2019 after buying out ISC. Kerry Tharp retired at the end of the 2023 season, and Josh Harris, previously in charge of business operations at the track, succeeded him.