From David Pearson and Darrell Waltrip to Carl Edwards and Dale Earnhardt Jr.: Darlington is still Darlington.

There’s a reason why Darlington is known as the track “too tough to tame” and the “Lady in Black”, because Darlington is one of the toughest tracks on the NASCAR schedule for both the Nationwide Series and the Cup Series.

Going into this past weekend’s only Cup Series Darlington race on the schedule this year, there was so much happen, both on and off the track, first from seeing the 8-time Darlington winner David Pearson in his #21 Wood Brother’s Mercury leading Edwards in his #99 Roush-Fenway Ford on a couple of pace laps around Darlington on the new surface, that is a perfect sight considering I had never gotten the chance to see David Pearson race during his historic career (keep in mind I am only 28 years old), to second seeing Darrell Waltrip’s #11 Mountain Dew Chevy sitting side-by-side with Dale Earnhardt Jr’s new #88 Mountain Dew Chevrolet Impala SS and you know DW is right in away, with the exception the frontend’s and no rear wind, DW’s #11 Chevy is very similar to Dale Jr’s new car today and in some cases, they most likely drive the same too.

What got to me even more in some aspect was the speculation that with the new pavement on the track, the racing and the legend of the racetrack was going to change, Darlington wouldn’t live up to its name and there wouldn’t be good racing, not to mention that the Nationwide Series race the previous night turned out to be a wreckers just to get to the checkers…

However while the Nationwide Series was what it was, the same couldn’t be said for the Cup Series race and even despite the fact that the Toyota’s, Dodge’s and Ford’s were all looking like they were driving sideways down the straightaway’s considering they were (trick in the rear end I guess), the combination of the new surface, the yet again sold out crowd and the new COT produced in my opinion one hell of a good race and I can safety say that Darlington at least in my eye’s is safe on the schedule.

Passing was and will always be at premium at this track and nothing changed there, but the higher speeds and the tougher car made it really interesting to watch, during the race, time and time again, the Darlington strip count which was very generous was climbing even on the lap 1 and throughout the night, I saw several drivers including Dale Jr., Jeff Gordon, Carl Edwards, Tony Stewart, oh damn the list is shorter of who didn’t hit the wall with their right side a ton, bounce off and keep going… and yes the biggest surprise to me was just how hard (NASCAR’s version of wreck anyone to win) Kyle Busch bounced off the wall and kept going, I thought he was done a couple of times, but amazingly enough, his JGR Toyota kept going and going on to victory.

But in my eyes, there were three things to keep in mind when you ponder this race, first Dale Earnhardt Jr. continues his top 5, top 10 finish runs with another fourth place finish and he’s 3rd in points, staying with that, Jeff Gordon finished 3rd, a good finish for him. Second, I felt bad for Greg Biffle, he had a good car last Saturday night and as a matter of fact, for the last couple of seasons and he should have more victories, but he has no luck, at Darlington, he suffered a transmission issue, that’s just the tip of it. Third, Carl Edwards, he’s coming for the championship and for that matter, so is Dale Jr., watch these two.

To me, I know that NASCAR is in the business of making money, yeah I get that, but to me it’s history too, keeping your history and just like Martinsville, Bristol, and Richmond, Darlington is part of NASCAR’s history and that’s huge to fans including me, we need to keep these racetracks on the NASCAR Cup Series Schedule and not let them fall like Rockingham “The Rock” and North Wilkesboro, two great tracks, with that said, while it’s nice under the lights on Mother’s Day weekend at Darlington, I will ask this question, Is it time for the Southern 500 on Labor Day weekend at Darlington to return?

One word YES, that’s all I am going to say and while I know that that would be tough to do, I would still love to see that happen.

By the way: I didn’t get the chance to say thank you to Andy Hillenburg for not only buying Rockingham Speedway “The Rock”, but bring back racing to the Rock, starting with the ARCA Series for the Inaugural Carolina 500 and even though the race turned out to be dominated and won by Joey Logano (who if Tony Stewart leaves JGR for a Chevrolet team, will be the new driver of the #20 in 2010), it was still great to see a race start just after noon time and with 50 cars, Good Job and NASCAR should look too.



David Pearson drives the famous No. 21 Wood Brothers Mercury ahead of Carl Edwards in his No. 99 Office Depot Ford during Darlington Raceway's media day in advance of the Dodge Challenger 500 (Photo Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images via NASCARmedia.com)

- Racedriven