Darlington Odds & Ends; Showtime Southern 500 This Saturday Night

compiled by Mike Forde

NASCAR Media Services

History

·         Built as a 1.25-mile paved superspeedway in 1949-50, Darlington Raceway hosted the first 500-mile race in NASCAR history and the first on asphalt on Sept. 4, 1950.

·         The track was re-measured to 1.375 miles in 1953.

·         The track was re-configured to 1.366 miles following the spring race in 1970.

·         The track was repaved in 1995.

·         The 2005 race was the first Saturday night race at Darlington.

·         The track was repaved again prior to the 2008 season.

Notebook

·         There have been 106 NASCAR Sprint Cup races at Darlington Raceway since the track opened in 1950.

·         There was one race per year in 1950, 1951, from 1953-1959, and again every year since 2005. Darlington held two races a season in all other years.

·         Curtis Turner won the first pole, in 1950.

·         Johnny Mantz won the first race, in 1950.

·         46 drivers have posted poles at Darlington.

·         David Pearson leads all drivers with 12 poles at Darlington.

·         43 drivers have won races at Darlington; 25 drivers have won more than once there.

·         David Pearson leads all drivers with 10 victories, followed by Dale Earnhardt with nine.

·         Jeff Gordon is third overall and leads all active drivers with seven victories.

·         Hendrick Motorsports has won 12 races at Darlington, more than any other organization. He broke a tie with Junior Johnson when Jeff Gordon won there in 2007.

·         19 races at Darlington have been won from the pole, the most productive starting position.

·         The deepest in the field that a race winner has started was 43rd, in the track’s inaugural race in 1950 by Johnny Mantz. That race had a 75-car field.

·         Darlington is the site of one of the closest race finishes in NASCAR history. Ricky Craven edged Kurt Busch by 0.002 seconds on March 16, 2003 – the smallest margin of victory since NASCAR instituted electronic timing in 1993.

NASCAR in South Carolina

• There have been 216 NASCAR Sprint Cup races in South Carolina.
• 133 NASCAR drivers (all-time) have their home state recorded as South Carolina.
• There have been 11 race winners from South Carolina in NASCAR’s three national series:

Driver		NSCS	NNS	NCWTS
David Pearson		105	1	0
Cale Yarborough		83	0	0
Rex White		28	0	0
Cotton Owens		9	0	0
Tiny Lund		5	0	0
James Hylton		2	0	0
Johnny Allen		1	0	0
Joe Eubanks		1	0	0
Larry Pearson		0	15	0
Jason Keller		0	10	0
Butch Lindley		0	6	0

Darlington Raceway Data

Race #: 11 of 36 (5-8-10)

Track Size: 1.366 miles

·     Banking/Corners: 23-25 degrees

·     Banking/Frontstretch: 6 degrees

·     Banking/Backstretch: 6 degrees

·     Frontstretch: 1,229 feet

·     Backstretch: 1,229 feet

Driver Rating at Darlington
Greg Biffle                    123.1

Jeff Gordon                  114.4

Jimmie Johnson            112.1

Denny Hamlin                102.7

Ryan Newman               100.7

Joey Logano                 98.8

Martin Truex Jr.             96.8

Kyle Busch                   96.2

Dale Earnhardt Jr.         95.1

Carl Edwards                91.9

Mark Martin                   91.9

Note: Driver Rating compiled from 2005-2009 races (5 total) at Darlington.

Qualifying/Race Data

2009 pole winner: Matt Kenseth (179.514 mph, 27.394 seconds)

2009 race winner: Mark Martin (119.687 mph, 5-9-09)

Track qualifying record: Matt Kenseth (179.514 mph, 27.394 seconds, 5-9-09)

Track race record: Kyle Busch (140.350 mph, 5-10-08)

Estimated Pit Window: Every 50-55 laps, based on fuel mileage