Darlington Tradition Should Be Rekindled

 (note: photo courtesy of ESPN)

As with any sport, growth can coincide with a slight abandonment of tradition.

It doesn’t mean that the sport is forgetting its roots or alienating its traditional fans. Sometimes, a sport can outgrow older traditions, and continued growth could mean changing some or abandoning some altogether.

It was that thought process that caused the Labor Day race at Darlington to be moved to the Auto Club Speedway. Not far outside of Hollywood, the star power and marketability was a tempting lure, and one NASCAR bit hard on (without much blame on my end).

The Darlington races had been struggling to sell out for a few years, and a change was needed.

And change was what we got. Darlington would still hold a 500 mile race, but it wouldn’t be on Labor Day (and its March date was removed). Southern California would play host to a new tradition.

However, it is obvious that the original plan has failed miserably, given the announce schedule change, putting the fall Atlanta race on Labor day, whole Auto Club Speedway (or ACS as I’ll refer to from here on in) will not hold a race in The Chase.

We will find out if the Atlanta Labor Day race will work in the coming years.

However, one thing I don’t think will work is ACS holding a Chase race.

As far as ticket sales, it couldn’t sell out NASCAR’s penultimate race before The Chase. Given that NASCAR’s playoffs haven’t heard true drama since 2004 (each of the three seasons has seen the leader going into Homestead with at 50+ point lead), I would rather have a race directly before The Chase, which could ultimately decide who’s in and out.

It’s become pretty clear to me that Southern California doesn’t have the interest in NASCAR to hold a pair of races, neither of which has sold out a in a few races.

Plus, the races held there have become quite bland, even before NASCAR’s “clean air loving” COT.

Perhaps the entire ASC “two dates per year” should be once a again reduced to one.

But, which track would potentially replace it?

NASCAR could, in theory, assuming the Atlanta experiment meets the same results the ACS one, simply decrease it number of races by one, which I’m sure would be met with some gratitude by crew members (who are affected the most the grueling 36 race trek).

Or, how’s about we put the old “Lady in Black” in The Chase?

She’s had a makeover in recent years, has had plenty of butts in her seats, and is near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, a primo vacation spot on the East Coast.

Or, we could completely lose our minds and (gasp) put Darlington back on Labor Day weekend. What a novel idea Watson!

Labor Day always represents the last weekend of summer. Why not hold a race that weekend near the aforementioned vacation spot for so many.

But, keeping running it at night.

Perhaps a reason why crowds had been dwindling at Darlington, especially in August/September, was that it was held during the day.

Having traveled through the south during the summer months, I can tell from first hand experience it gets pretty freakin’ hot down there. And I don’t blame anyone for wanting to stay on summer day.

Running the race there at night solves that problem. Plus, I got to admit, the old girl looks even meaner under the night sky.

I know that a sport’s growth often means abandoning old traditions, especially if they may be holding it back, to grow the sport in the future.

It appeared that a Darling race on Labor Day weekend had become just that, and a change was made.

However, said change has failed miserably. The ACS hasn’t been able to sell races and the its shows have been quite boring. It is apparent the big market location isn’t correlating with interest in the sport.

In the meantime, the old Darlington track has been thriving since 2005. Its shows have been very entertaining (as is usually the case

Perhaps NASCAR should reincarnate that tradition.

Put Darlington back on Labor Day weekend. It would surely appeal to the traditional fans who lived and breathed NASCAR for longer than I’ve been alive.