Look what happened

[fivehundred2go]

Could it have happened to INDY? There was a race event that lasted for at least a week turned in to a 3 day event. It was the "BIG ONE" and now it will be gone. Could it still happen?

[jetdoc]

What the &#$( are you talking about?

[Truth Detector]

Originally posted by jetdoc
What the &#$( are you talking about?

Somebody had to ask....

[chrisg]

Must be talking about Darlington

NASCAR has moved the Southern 500 from the labor day weekend to a weekend in November. I'm not sure but I think the southern 500 was invented as a stock car version of the Indy 500. The track is pretty old and has needed improvements for years. They don't even repave it. It only seats about 60,000 and then doesn't sell out.

The labor day weekend date has been given to the California Speedway starting next year.. The place is up to date and seats 150,000 (or something like that) and will sell out.

The Southern 500 has been overshadowed by the Daytona 500 for years and is now overshadowed by the Brickyard and the Daytona 500. I don't see any existing OW date or venue that will ever overshadow the Indy 500.

[jandj]

Re: Must be talking about Darlington

Originally posted by chrisg

The Southern 500 has been overshadowed by the Daytona 500 for years and is now overshadowed by the Brickyard and the Daytona 500.

Maybe to those who "came late to the party" , but as a 40+ year resdent of NASCARland , The Southern 500 was every bit as big and just as prestigious as Daytona to fans and drivers alike .
Labor Day and the Southern 500 was as important to the stock car crowd as Indy is to OW .
Moving the date to Sunday was lamented but understood , what hurt "The Old Darlington" was when dragging your right rear fender off the rail through 3 and 4 wasn't the fastest way around anymore , followed by the "improved track configuration".
Daytona may be the biggie today to most fans , but I doubt many feel Darlington is overshadowed by what is usually one of the most boring races of the year , that being the BY400.

[JBaiza]

Re: Re: Must be talking about Darlington

Originally posted by jandj
........but I doubt many feel Darlington is overshadowed by what is usually one of the most boring races of the year , that being the BY400.

Yea, they need to reconfigure that darned Brickyard 400 Motor Speedway ..... You know with the proper hydraulics you could conceivably raise and lower the banking in the turns .........

..... Oh nevermind.



On topic, I guess the premise of this post is that there is a looming change that had to happen to some race, in some series and it just 'happened' to be Darlington that it happened to, this time. Then the question posed is "Could it have happened to INDY?"

I don't agree with the premise.

[indyracefan]

...been to Darlington for the Southern 500 a couple of times, most recently in 1999, and it is as much tradition for those folks & NASCAR on Labor Day week-end as Indy and Memrial Day week-end is for us midwesterner's.

I am dissapointed to see NASCAR move this date to Fontana.

[fivehundred2go]

Originally posted by jetdoc
What the &#$( are you talking about?

I'm sorry my question was missed by some. I do belive there was a move by a group to make the 500 into a 3 day event like the rest of the races they organized. My point was - IF that had happened, would Indy - could Indy have suffered the same fate. Just something to think about when "dumping" traditions. When traditions are burried - sometimes it is not just an "old" tradition.

Sorry I was vague - but I thought most knew the history of the Darlington event. It was patterened after the 500 by the original owner. Darlington even had a parade through the streets - long gone. They even used to make a film of the race and the were shown on Speedvision for a while on Sunday mornings. Yes - TV put an end to that at the "speedway" also in the mid-sixties.

Somethings that were real special are just the mundane today. I sure hope it does not happen to the Speedway - but there was an attempt.

Sorry for the confusion

PS This was originally posted on the IRL board and I was trying to stay out of "SPLITZVILLE" territory - did but landed in NASCAR land instead - thus why I did not mention Darlington in the original post or the "s...t" in open wheel racing.

[Dick Ralstin]

Hey jandj,

The more of your posts I read the more I believe we must be twins, or at least cousins.

The most exciting moments in my memory are watching, and listening, to Cale, or Lee Roy, or Buddy, or David, or Richard get his Darlington Stripe in the first practice session of the weekend.

The funniest moments were watching the rookies on waiting their turn as they turned white.

I siy put the starting line bacl where it belongs, put the armco on the inside of the concrete wall through three and four and turn them loose.

[carl s]

It was sad seeing the passing of the Southern 500
the cultural and historical baton will not be passed-on at CA.

Hey Dick, wasn't it at Darlington where somebodys wheel joined you in the Roundhouse?

carl s
Indio, CA

[Belanger99]

The more I read of some of these posts, the more I realize our public school system is in need of a major overhaul.

"They don't even repave it" sounds like the response of someone who has been following the sport ever since 1996, when Indy car racing began

Darlington, for those uninformed, was repaved a few short seasons ago. Due to (I suspect) the base, and the angle of the sun hitting the corners, bumps developed and were patched this year.

Sand, and the rain washing away the tar in the asphalt tend to make Darlington more abrasive as the years go on.

I guess the same argument could be made about Indianapolis-outdated design, built a number of years ago and not suited for today's racing.

Change it too much, and it's not Indianapolis, is it? Same goes with Darlington. ISC has made some major improvements-switching the start finish line and building a pretty good sized grandstand on the new frontchute.

Not every race track has to be, or should be a 1.5 mile quad oval with 140,000 seats and a sushi bar in the concession stand. Darlington tends to separate the men from the boys, and it seemed there were a lot of boys out there today who couldn't keep the car off the fence. The old lion did, and a great last stop helped put him in position to win.

ISC isn't doing itself a lot of favors by abandoning one of it's traditional events, for second race on Labor Day in California-if they really wanted to make California's second race mean something, they should have made it the last race of the year, and held the banquet in Hollywood.

[Hardscrabble]

It's a darn shame what's happening to Darlington, but like the shirt I saw yesterday says: "When Money's Talkin'...Tradition's Walkin'."

[SamC]

Could this have happened to Indy? - Well, sort of, but not in the sense that the Indy 500 declines relative to other OW races, but that OW and with it Indy declines in the overall US sports universe. This is why there was founded an IRL, which saved both OW and the Indy 500.

Darlington - The long and the short of it is that ISC has plenty of money to do lots of things with the place, but it hasn't because people won't show up. It does not sell out much and hold few, by NASCAR standards. Perhaps it will do better in another time slot, perhaps not. As to SoCal, big mistake. California and such locations should be saved for when its cold elsewhere. On a holdiday weekend, they will have trouble drawing.

[TrackGoddess]

I noticed that the catchfence was almost falling down when Labonte's crew were climbing it. The fence at Indy seems to support all the Penske guys every time they try to climb it.

Perhaps the Darlington track COULD use a bit of upkeep, eh?

[jrandrew00]

Originally posted by TrackGoddess
I noticed that the catchfence was almost falling down when Labonte's crew were climbing it. The fence at Indy seems to support all the Penske guys every time they try to climb it.

Perhaps the Darlington track COULD use a bit of upkeep, eh?

I noticed that the catchfence was almost falling down too.