Print Page

Lights out for the Southern 500

The crescent moon rises over the grandstand as race fans watch the final running of the Mountain Dew Southern 500 Sunday at Darlington Raceway in Darlington. AP

Sunday night marked the end of the longest running race in NASCAR, the Mountain Dew Southern 500 held at Darlington Raceway.

This traditional race was held for 54 straight years. The changes began when the race was moved from it's longtime Labor Day weekend spot, to this past weekend. But that was only a sign of things to come. It was announced this spring that Darlington would lose one of its two races, and that the remaining race would be moved to the Saturday night before Mother's Day, beginning next season.

Championship car owner Richard Childress, proprietor of the teams of Kevin Harvick, Robby Gordon, and Jeff Burton, said Sunday, "It's a lot of history here, but you know it's like anything else in life, you've got change, and you have to look at change as opportunity. That's all you can do."

His former driver, the late Dale Earnhardt, has the second most wins all-time at Darlington, so the track has a special place in the heart of Childress.

But as far as this being a track where NASCAR began its run, and received overwhelming popularity, at least one driver is not overjoyed with the new change. Interstate Batteries driver Bobby Labonte said, "I just go with the flow, and other people make these decisions." He also said as far as the new championship chase goes, "I don't have an opinion on it one way or another, I'm not in it, so I don't have as good of an opinion on it as other people."

Jeff Gordon's crew chief, Robby Loomis had this to say about Darlington not being a part of the chase in the future: "Darlington is a great race track, it's treacherous, but it's exciting. If they're going to change the chase, I'd like to see a road course added to it, but this is a driver's race track, and it always takes a good driver to win here."

He also had some comments about the new point system format. "I love it, but obviously under the old system we would be in a little better shape," Loomis added. "The sport and NASCAR fans are a lot bigger than Jeff Gordon and Robby Loomis, and anything that is good for the sport is going to be good for us in the long run."

Fans being bigger than the drivers and teams? That's a great statement by Loomis, but the fans at Darlington are not convinced that's the case.

Governor Mark Sanford really put it best when he said, "I guess the one (constant) thing in any of our lives, is that things constantly change. The reality is that some of these big cities, whether it be Las Vegas, or somewhere else are dying to have their own races, and I'll leave it to the experts at the NASCAR level to decide how they split up these races."

Sanford's biggest concern was the economic impact the area will suffer.

"It's certainly going to impact the Pee Dee area, which has major economic input for the state of South Carolina, but this area will be resilient, and we're trying to help any way we can," Sanford said. "Now we have to focus on keeping this race. I think the issue isn't the loss of the other race, that's past history, we've got to keep this race in the state of South Carolina." Is this a case of NASCAR forgetting where it came from, and leaving out small town America, or is it all about change and growth for the most spectator popular sport (fan-base wise), in the country?

You will find people who fall on both sides of that question, but one thing is certain, as the lights came up in Darlington, South Carolina, at approximately 4 p.m. on Sunday, November 14, 2004 the end was signaled for one of the most historic races that NASCAR will ever have.