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Southern Roots And Traditions Hurt Darlington

Charlotte, NC (May 8, 2009) – There were plenty of reasons given as to why NASCAR pulled the plug in 2005 on its most storied event – the Southern 500 at Darlington (SC) Raceway. Not enough seats, flagging ticket sales, and the ability to move the race date to the major media market of Los Angeles were just some of them.

One that is rarely mentioned is that there was just too much ‘Southern’ in Darlington and the Southern 500.

In the PC (Politically Correct) world we live in today, the Southern 500 was a relic of the past. Along with the track’s other annual companion event formerly known as the ‘Rebel 500,’ Darlington, its fans, and the Southern 500 epitomized the old South. It was an image the sanctioning body had trouble living with in today’s brave new politically correct world and one way to deal with it was simply to abandon it.

Located in the heart of South Carolina – the state that fired the first shot in the American Civil War – Darlington, Florence, Hartsville, Dillon and the other cities in the general vicinity of the speedway are about as Southern as you can get. Cotton fields and peach orchards dot the surrounding landscape. Grits, black-eyed peas, biscuits and gravy are the staples at just about every eatery within hollerin’ distance of the track. When local heavy equipment contractor Harold Brassington convinced Sherman Ramsey to trade 70 acres of his farm for stock in a new ‘superspeedway’ in 1949, nobody stepped up and said the track shouldn’t be built because it was located where some people still harbored hard feelings and unpopular moral convictions from a war that ended 85 years earlier. Everyone was excited about the creation of the 1.25-mile paved oval – including NASCAR founder Bill France, Sr. – who co-sanctioned the inaugural 1950 Southern 500 with the Central States Racing Association (CSRA).

In fact, Darlington Raceway’s location or Southern heritage was never an issue in its early years. Instead, they were celebrated to the point that in 1957 the first NASCAR Convertible Division race run at the track was named the ‘Rebel 300.’ While the Convertible Division faded from the scene by 1959, the Rebel race title didn’t, serving the track through 1982 when Dale Earnhardt captured the CRC Chemicals Rebel 500. Ironically, that final Rebel-themed race came in the same year that International Speedway Corporation (ISC), the parent company of NASCAR, purchased Darlington Raceway.

Prior to the demise of the Rebel-themed events, the track used the image of a Confederate Army Rebel soldier in countless promotional fliers, posters and commercials touting the annual spring event at the track. In 1961, the speedway even created the character of ‘Johnny Reb,’ a grey uniformed Confederate soldier. The character was initially played by Jimmy Patterson, a radio personality for WBT radio in Charlotte, NC. Later, an exchange student from Holland named Bob van Witzenburg served as the Johnny Reb character for several years. Johnny Reb’s job was a simple one – he was the first person to meet the winner of the Rebel 300, 400 and 500 – plopping himself and a Confederate army battle flag on the hood for the ride to Victory Lane. It made good theater and great photo opportunities for the track. If anyone was offended by the images back then, they sure weren’t saying so.

Eventually, Johnny Reb and the Rebel race title faded into memory. Darlington’s Southern heritage, however, did not and, frankly, never will. Meanwhile, NASCAR grew into a national sensation by the 1990’s, known and admired for the creative marketing schemes that drove it to an unprecedented popularity that not even Big Bill France could have imagined.

Still, Darlington Raceway – regardless of numerous upgrades and renovations to keep pace with the times – was and somewhat still is regarded as a relic of the past and a reminder for NASCAR of Southern traditions and morals. Along with the reasons initially stated above, NASCAR pulled the plug on its oldest and most storied event, the Southern 500, in 2005.

Johnny Reb was long gone by that year- unknown to a several new generations of race fans. So were most of the Confederate battle flags that fans had flown at the track, a banner which until July 1, 2000 still flew over the South Carolina state capitol building. The vast majority of modern day race fans aren’t racist. Frankly, they care little about left over residue from a war that is now nearly 150 years in their rear view mirror. They also know little about NASCAR’s past and probably even less about that of Darlington Raceway. All they care about is that after more than 50 years, the ‘Lady In Black’ and the ‘Track Too Tough To Tame’ still provides some the best racing on the planet. Compared to the multiple cookie-cutter 1.5-mile tracks on the circuit – and the droll California two-mile oval that took over Darlington’s hallowed Labor Day race date – Darlington was and still is a breath of fresh air for race fans who crave exciting, side-by-side stock car racing.

NASCAR – given all of its demographic studies – should have known these facts better than anyone. Instead, it was willing to destroy one of its grandest traditions – the Southern 500 – not because of the greener media market pastures of California, but because Darlington didn’t fit the template of the new PC NASCAR anymore. In denying Darlington’s historic Southern roots and traditions, NASCAR ignored its own.
ISC still owns Darlington Raceway. Despite subtle efforts to push the track into the past – much like Rockingham and North Wilkesboro, two other regional Southern raceways that fell to NASCAR’s national ambitions – Darlington has managed to survive. Thanks to the fans who religiously support the facility by purchasing tickets every year and the competitors who sing the track’s praises as one of racing’s most demanding tests of driver and machine, we still have a NASCAR race each year at Darlington Raceway – the Wrigley Field, Fenway Park and Lambeau Field of stock car racing.

Darlington Raceway would be a jewel regardless of its past or where it is located. Hopefully, NASCAR also realizes this and will do everything in its power to keep the track and its historic racing traditions alive for years to come. It would be a shame to lose it completely because the track is not in a major media market or because of convictions and beliefs all but a handful of Southerners – and NASCAR fans – tossed aside decades ago.

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