The Track Too Tough to Tame.

The Lady in Black.

Pick your poison. Both of Darlington Raceway’s nicknames hint at difficulty, if not outright danger.

The doorways are narrow at Darlington, suggesting single-file is the only way through the turns. But it’s called racing, not following, so racing they’ve done and racing they’ll do, as NASCAR’s original “big track” classic — the Southern 500 — serves as a wrap for the 2024 regular season and will finalize the 16-team roster for next week’s start of the Cup Series playoffs.

Let’s learn a few things about this museum piece that’s almost as old as NASCAR itself.

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NASCAR at Darlington | How a pond shaped racing history

∎ First, the basics. Harold Brasington was a local builder and farmer, a former racer and still a race fan when he decided, in 1948, he wanted to build the biggest stock-car track anyone had seen. He bought 70 acres from local farmer Sherman Ramsey and within a year had the track built. About another year later, he had a NASCAR race date.

∎ Instead of a traditional oval, Brasington had to build an egg-shaped track, with one set of turns tighter than the other, because Ramsey didn’t want his minnow pond disturbed on the west side of the track. Ramsey’s pond is still there. Brasington would also build Rockingham Speedway, just an hour north of Darlington, in the mid-'60s.

∎ Darlington Raceway basically measures a mile and a third — 1.366 to be exact. When built, it was easily the longest and also the first paved track on the NASCAR schedule. The track was repaved in 1965 and Benny Phillips, among the most respected chroniclers in the history of stock-car media, first dubbed it “The Lady in Black.”

∎ The racing lanes are tight at Darlington, but prior to 1969, before widening, it was practically a one-lane groove.

∎ David Pearson’s 10 career wins at Darlington is the most of any racer. Most came with the Wood Brothers, but his ninth Darlington win, in 1979, came as a substitute driver in the No. 2 Chevy owned by Rod Osterlund, whose regular driver — a Cup Series rookie named Dale Earnhardt — was sidelined with a broken collarbone and concussion after crashing hard at Pocono. Pearson finished second, fourth and seventh before winning Darlington in his four-week run as Earnhardt’s sub.

NASCAR at Darlington | Small town, big event

∎ Darlington, alongside Florence, S.C., is the county seat of Darlington County. The population is roughly 6,000, and the small-town vibe is always evident during the weekend of the Southern 500. Before entering the track, team haulers are staged in an area near downtown, where fans gather for a small festival before the haulers parade through downtown, past the town square, on their way to the speedway.

∎ The popular Raceway Grill sits outside Turn 2. The ham steak ($16.49) is a time-tested favorite, but for $12.75, you can get liver and onions with a salad and your choice of fries or baked tater.

∎ The Rebel 400 was added to the schedule in 1960 and run in the spring at Darlington. The track would annually host two Cup races through 2004, when a laundry list of issues stripped away the Southern 500 and left Darlington with just a spring race. The 500 returned to its Labor Day weekend date in 2015 and is again joined by a spring race at Darlington.

∎ The “Rebel” name for the spring race went away in 1983 and several sponsors had naming rights over the years. Nowadays, it’s the Goodyear 400.

∎ In 1997, the front and backstretches were flip-flopped. Seven years later, lights were installed.

∎ One thing that has never changed at Darlington is the threat of a Darlington Stripe, which is something of a badge of honor. There’s only one way to earn it, however: Drift too close to that outside wall, which is easy to do, and eventually lose some passenger-side paint on it.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: NASCAR at Darlington, untamed Lady in Black. Want a Darlington Stripe?