Darlington Shows Off $10m Facelift

Darlington Raceway, a.k.a. the track “Too Tough to Tame,” has undergone a $10 million facelift, the largest one-time investment in the storied 50-year history of the 1.366-mile raceway. Among the enhancements include: a new racing surface; addition of SAFER barrier walls to the interior frontstretch and backstretch concrete walls and extending the length of each pit box by one foot. The addition of a new infield access tunnel in Turn 3 also provided emergency and safety vehicles easy access in and out of the infield area of the race track.

Darlington is the second-oldest track on the NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule (behind only Martinsville Speedway); the track’s first race was in 1950, the second year of NASCAR’s premier series, then called Grand National.

Three veteran NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers — Jeff Gordon, Greg Biffle (No. 16 3M Ford) and Ryan Newman (No. 12 Alltel Dodge) — participated in a pair of Goodyear tire tests in March at Darlington. Gordon is a seven-time winner at Darlington and Biffle has won twice there. All three drivers came away impressed with the new racing surface.

“The basic transitions, the banking and walls haven’t changed,” said Gordon. “The bumps are gone, the grip level is high and it’s awesome; they did a great job.”

Biffle, who won back to back races at Darlington from 2005-06, says “I’m happy with the new surface; there aren’t any bumps or dips that we noticed; I was pretty impressed with how smooth it was.”

Newman, this year’s Daytona 500 winner, says  Darlington “is the most challenging track that we have and that’s why I enjoy it the most. You always are having to adjust there.”