Down in the Pits: Darlington still tough to tame
A few years ago a bunch of us were sitting around at one of the old watering holes in Daytona. Of course we were all talking racing, and one of the drivers said, “When you talk about tough tracks to drive, Darlington has to be the one. Any track that’s got three nicknames is one tough son of a gun.”
(That’s not exactly the language that he used.)
He went on to say, “Anything that’s called the lady in black, the widow maker, and that track too tough to tame ought to send the message out to everybody.”
The Darlington track is the scene of this week’s Nascar race and it is literally the grand-daddy of them all. It was built over 50 years ago and was the first track that the Nascar boys ever raced on that was longer than a mile. In fact, it’s about a mile and a third.
When the track first opened, Nascar let everybody that showed up that wanted to race — and got within the general qualifications — run. The main reason was that the track was considered so big, what difference did 50 or so cars make? As usual it was like a wreck-o-rama, but it set the tone for the super speedway racing that we’ve come to expect weekly on the Winston Cup scene.
Times have changed a lot, but there’s one thing that hasn’t. That’s Darlington. One of the guys said it best, “You don’t win Darlington. You survive it.”
That may be the best way to predict this week’s winner. During the first four races of this season we’ve had four different winners and a surprise or two along the way.
One thing is for sure. Just because you’re one of the veterans sure doesn’t seem to give you much of an advantage. One of the car owners, when asked what he thought about the drivers, said, “Pick somebody 30 or under or 40 or older.” The newcomers to Winston Cup racing bring with them the attitude of the old drivers that founded this sport.
That’s best shown by comment that Kurt Busch made during the Atlanta race, when he and another car got together. His crew chief radioed to him and said, “Is the car all right?” And all he said was, “Aw, yeah. Rubbing is racing.” That attitude may be why the young drivers are doing so well. They don’t know that the older drivers are supposed to be winning.
Darlington is an old and mean track that’s very narrow and has tight turns. In over 50 years that hasn’t changed. The drivers that know this track know that you race the track, not the other drivers. That’s why veterans tend to win. Last year Dale Jarrett won this race and in the fall Ward Burton got the checkered flag. Both have been around for a long time.
Jarrett hasn’t been so hot this year. As a matter of fact, neither Robert Yates car has done well. The No. 28 driven by Ricky Rudd, last year’s second-place finisher in the points standings, has done miserably, and that’s a compliment.
How to get around Darlington means a lot more than what you’re driving. This week when you pick a winner, pick somebody with a little gray in their hair and not some kid who’s wearing their hat on backwards.
The good news is that in spite of last week’s ninth-place finish by Sterling Marlin, he is still leading the Winston Cup point race. The bad thing is it’s getting harder and harder to figure out a good combination to enter in to the Southern Standard’s winner-take-all Nascar contest. The prize is up to $200.
This week look for Dale Jarrett and Terry Labonte to compete for the win. My pick would have to be Jeff Gordon. He hasn’t done anything all year and it’s time for him to show his stuff. If the Chevrolets are going to do anything this year, I say look for Gordon to be a tough one to beat today.