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HEMBREE: Darlington Still A Hard Climb
Numerous ‘name’ drivers still looking for victory No. 1 at Darlington Raceway…
Mike Hembree  |  Posted May 11, 2012   Darlington, SC
SPEED.com NASCAR Editor Mike Hembree is a veteran, award-winning motorsports journalist. (File Photo)
The difficulties associated with emerging victorious in Sprint Cup races at Darlington Raceway perhaps are best illustrated by the career of Richard Petty.

Petty started far more (1,185) Cup races than any other driver. He also scored far more (200) wins. His career stretched across 34 years.

He won at Darlington only three times – once in 1966 and twice in 1967. Over the final 25 years of his driving career, he was winless at the track.

Of course, there are notable contemporaries of Petty who scored more Darlington wins – David Pearson with 10, Dale Earnhardt Sr. with 9 and Bobby Allison, Bill Elliott, Darrell Waltrip and Cale Yarborough with 5 each.

But very few drivers – even the best of the best – walked into the Darlington garage confident and sassy. Maybe Pearson. Maybe Earnhardt.

Darlington loves experience and talent.

The list of surprise winners at the tough old track is short indeed – Regan Smith last year, Lake Speed, Ricky Craven. Instead, the long Darlington victory list is populated by NASCAR’s familiar names – Allisons, Bakers, Johnsons, Burtons, Labontes.

The lineup of current “name” drivers without a Darlington Cup victory is long – Dale Earnhardt Jr., Carl Edwards, Kasey Kahne, Tony Stewart, Ryan Newman, Matt Kenseth, Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr., Clint Bowyer.

Stewart is perhaps the biggest – and most surprising – name in that group. Darlington remains the only “long-time” Cup track that has blocked him from victory lane – the only other is the recently added Kentucky Speedway, and the track seems particularly suited to Stewart’s gritty, grind-it-out style.

Of the top drivers still looking at Darlington, Stewart and Keselowski are perhaps the most likely to score Saturday night in the Southern 500.

A Keselowski win would be notable for another reason. His car owner, Roger Penske, hasn’t won a Cup race at the track since Bobby Allison scored in 1975.

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 30 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED
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