NASCAR 75: One in a series of 75 stories that helped define the first three quarters of a century of NASCAR, as Autoweek races to the 2023 Daytona 500.
- It began sometime in the 1930s when local entrepreneur/farmer Harold Brasington attended an Indy 500.
- He marveled at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, its throng of spectators, the spectacle of the 500, and the economic windfall to the area.
- That visit planted a seed that became Darlington Raceway and the Southern 500.
During its first short season of 1949 and most of 1950, every NASCAR race seemed identical.
Understandably so, since almost every track measured less than a mile and was covered with dirt. That’s what drivers faced for the first 20 Cup Series races. The 21st race, though, was unlike anything a NASCAR credential-holder had ever seen.
The inaugural 1950 Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway in northeastern South Carolina changed everything about stock car racing.
Harold Brasington is NASCAR’s founder of the 500-mile race.
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It began sometime in the 1930s when local entrepreneur/farmer Harold Brasington attended an Indy 500. He marveled at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, its throng of spectators, the spectacle of the 500, and the economic windfall to the area. That visit planted a seed that became Darlington Raceway and the Southern 500.
Why can’t I do that? Brasington thought. Why can’t my little farming hometown have something like that? Why not build a long, paved speedway on my land and promote a 500-mile stock car race on holiday weekends?
So, he did … although financial constraints and World War II forced him to delay the work. Brasington used his own money to build a 1.25-mile, banked, paved speedway west of Darlington. He wanted a uniformly shaped oval, its east and west ends banked and shaped identically. Later, he reconfigured the western end to preserve the fish pond owned by friend/neighbor/poker pal Sherman Ramsey. That’s why Turns 1 and 2 (the current east end) are wide and sweeping while Turns 3 and 4 are narrower and more abrupt.
The track—now measuring 1.366 miles—is most often called “egg-shaped.”
The inaugural Labor Day Monday race attracted tens of thousands of fans and more than 80 entrants. After two weeks of practice and qualifying, 75 drivers started the 400-lap, 500-miler three-wide stretching 25 rows. Johnny Mantz, in a 1950 Plymouth owned by Bill France, Alvin Hawkins, and Hubert Westmoreland, took the lead at lap 50 and led the rest of the way, beating Fireball Roberts by nine laps.
Everyone considered the 500 an unqualified success. All of upper South Carolina’s motels and restaurants were jammed with curious fans and free-spending racers. Only half the field was running at the finish, spurring mechanics and owners to build better cars if they expected more paved superspeedway races.
Which, of course, is exactly what they were about to get.
An aerial view of Darlington Raceway, circa 1950.
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Keyword: How the 1950 NASCAR Southern 500 at Darlington Changed Everything