Darlington Raceway

• Egg layout
• Darlington stripe
• Throwback weekend

Booth notes

Darlington opened the paved-superspeedway era with the first Southern 500 in 1950, and the egg still does not drive like anything else on the board. Turns 1 and 2 pinch tighter and steeper than 3 and 4, so a car that is planted on one end can be a handful on the other. The wall writes the story — the Darlington stripe is a paint job you earn, not a souvenir you buy. Labor Day used to own this race; now the Southern 500 opens the 10-race Chase, still 367 laps under the lights. From Mountain Time that is a Sunday afternoon green. Too Tough to Tame is not marketing copy. It is the lap-time tax for missing your mark by a foot.

Two Cup dates most years (spring Goodyear 400 + Southern 500). Christopher Bell won the 2026 Southern 500 — Chase race 1 of 10.

1. 012026

   Christopher Bell · #20

   Cook Out Southern 500

2. 022026

   Tyler Reddick · #45

   Goodyear 400

3. 032025

   Chase Briscoe · #19

   Cook Out Southern 500

4. 042025

   Denny Hamlin · #11

   Goodyear 400

5. 052024

   Chase Briscoe · #14

   Cook Out Southern 500

6. 062024

   Brad Keselowski · #6

   Goodyear 400

7. 072023

   Kyle Larson · #5

   Cook Out Southern 500

8. 082023

   William Byron · #24

   Goodyear 400

9. 092022

   Erik Jones · #43

   Cook Out Southern 500

10. 102022

    Joey Logano · #22

    Goodyear 400

11. 112021

    Denny Hamlin · #11

    Cook Out Southern 500

Fun facts

• Asymmetric egg: Turns 1–2 are tighter and steeper than 3–4. One setup has to live in two different corners.

• The Darlington stripe is the pink scrape you leave on the outside wall when you use every inch — and then one more.

• First Cup race: 1950 Southern 500. This is the original 500-mile paved stock-car classic.

• Throwback weekend paints the field in old schemes. The track does the same job it did in 1950.

• Lore

  Lady in Black / Too Tough to Tame are booth nicknames that stuck because the wall keeps proving them.

• Chase Briscoe went back-to-back in the Southern 500 (2024–25) — #14 Stewart-Haas, then #19 Gibbs.