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.
. 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 are wide and sweeping while Turns 3 and 4 are narrower and more abrupt.
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.
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