The Darlington Raceway 1.366- mile track with 25 degree banking has been testing NASCAR drivers in countless wall-banging ways since 1950. Founder Harold Brasington would be proud to see all the track improvements to the egg-shaped oval plus knowing about safety improvements that have been applied to that legendary wall. But Brasington would surely smile as select teams with NASCAR’s Gen-6 car arrived recently to put pressure on tires.
“The Track Too Tough to Tame" was ready to test fast rubber as well.
Testing is essential for racing teams and component organizations. Tires are a critical element to racing, requiring proper data gathering in real conditions.
Darlington Raceway is certainly real conditions. Asking any rookie getting “Darlington Stripes” would confirm that fast circumstance.
Carl Edwards and Martin Truex Jr. greeted media to share their thought of the new car, tire test and Darlington Raceway. Teams welcome every opportunity to put laps on the new Gen-6 car with all its uncertainties.
Courtesy of Darlington Raceway:
“We were running some really fast times today. I think you’ll see a good possibility of the qualifying record being broken here at Darlington in May,” Carl Edwards, driver of the No. 99 Fastenal Ford Fusion said during the lunch break. “I love this racetrack and being able to test out here today and see how well the new car handled is great for our team and Goodyear.”
The first generation of race cars that were introduced in NASCAR were from 1948-1966, which featured Plymouth, Oldsmobile, Hudson, Ford and Studebaker to name a few.
Many of these early models, like the famed Hudson Hornet which won the Southern 500 at Darlington in 1951 and 1952, competed at various other tracks during the early 1950’s but most are not in use on the current NASCAR schedule today and tracks such as Daytona and Charlotte were raced on the beach and on dirt, respectively. Other Generation 1 cars, like the 1956 Ford Convertible, made its last appearance in NASCAR competition at Darlington in 1962.
Darlington and Martinsville are the only two tracks still around today that hosted the original models of Generation 1.
“It’s amazing that there are only two tracks in NASCAR today that have hosted every generation of race car since 1949,” Darlington President Chris Browning said. “Darlington takes great pride in knowing that we are one of two facilities around today that hosted the first Generation 1 models back then and will now be racing the Gen-6 car in 2013. We’ve seen every make and model and every great NASCAR driver throughout the last 60-plus years of stock car racing!”
For more details contact: www.darlingtonraceway.com
Darlington Raceway has the special task of taking the best care of mothers during their Mother’s Day race on the second Sunday in May every year.
Mothers don’t have to race to be a part of that weekend, but the NASCAR races at Darlington Speedway honor their many sacrifices for family.
Six major NASCAR tracks are within a day's drive of Tampa. Great destinations justify journeys.
Here the NASCAR venue is considered local if tracks are within a 10 hour drive from Tampa—Daytona International Speedway, Homestead-Miami Speedway, Atlanta Motor Speedway, Darlington Raceway, Talladega Superspeedway and Charlotte Motor Speedway.
FYI WIRZ is the select presentation of motorsports topics by Dwight Drum at Racetake.com. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained from personal interviews or official release materials provided by sanctions, teams or track representatives.
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