Dr. Diandra: Darlington mellowed over decades but still one of NASCAR’s toughest tracks

No driver is likely to call Darlington Raceway ‘mellow’ but numbers show that the track has mellowed a little with age. Even so, it remains one of the most challenging tracks on the Cup circuit with one of the most prized trophies.

A true ‘crown jewel.’

Darlington was not part of the NASCAR’s inaugural 1949 season, but it’s been on the schedule every year since then. Its 1950 inaugural race scored a plethora of firsts — the first 500-mile NASCAR race, the first race on an oval track longer than 1 mile, and the first race on a paved track. Today, it offers speed and a craggy track that’s hard on tires.

In honor of the upcoming throwback weekend, I survey seven-plus decades of racing at Darlington Raceway to show how the nature of racing at ‘The Lady in Black’ has changed.

I chose one Darlington race from the start of each decade as representative. In years with multiple races, I used the spring race. The table below lists the winners, polesitters and the drivers who led the most laps for each race.

The winners are a who’s who of NASCAR drivers — with perhaps one exception.

Johnny Mantz was better known as the first USAC Stock Car national champion and an Indianapolis 500 competitor. Darlington was Mantz’s only NASCAR victory in the 12 Cup Series races he ran.

David Pearson appears twice on this list, which is fitting: Pearson has the most career wins (10), and the most poles (12) across a total of 47 races run at Darlington.

Twelve drivers have won from the pole at Darlington a total of 21 times. Only twice has it happened in this century, however: Kevin Harvick in spring 2014 and Joey Logano in spring 2022. Pearson also holds the record for most wins from the pole with four.

Out of 123 Darlington races, the driver