DARLINGTON, S.C. Throwback paint schemes on racecars and retro logos and signs welcomed Nascar fans when they arrived at Darlington Raceway this weekend for the Bojangles Southern 500 Sprint Cup race. The marketing campaign was designed to make one of the most storied tracks on the circuit look like the early 1970s all over again.
Fans were more than happy to complete the picture, much to Nascars dismay. The Confederate flags they raised on R.V.s across the infield and outside the track dotted the sky above Darlington on Friday morning, as they have for decades here. The Southern 500, after all, was long known for playing Dixie as its anthem and used to feature a character named Johnny Reb a man dressed as a Confederate soldier who stood atop the winning car with a rebel flag.
As those Confederate flags waved once more on Friday, Nascar faced its recurring quandary: How could a sport so closely associated with its Southern roots broaden its appeal nationally without alienating that base?
Id say were always looking to make sure were satisfying our core fans and our long-term fan at the same time as we are growing to a new audience, Jim Cassidy, Nascars senior vice president for racing operations, said Thursday during a telephone interview. Its a balance.
And Darlington Raceway, as much as any track on the circuit, epitomizes the struggle Nascar has faced in trying to find that balance with an event that holds a special place in racing history.
The Southern 500 was first held at Darlington on Labor Day weekend in 1950. For 53 years, it was an iconic stop on the schedule, revered by some as much or more than the Daytona 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 among the most important races of the year. That was until 2004, when Nascar changed the schedule to give the Labor Day weekend date to its sister track in Fontana, Calif., in the coveted Los Angeles market.
The Southern 500 was suddenly gone.
Its one of those things: Be careful what you wish for, said Kyle Petty, the longtime driver who is now an NBC broadcaster. We wished for a bigger sport, we dreamed of a bigger sport. We dreamed of Chicago and Kansas and Dallas, Tex., and L.A., and we dreamed of those markets when we were running North Wilkesboro and Darlington and Rockingham and Martinsville and places like that.
And then all of the sudden you have those markets, but theres a sacrifice to be made to be in those markets. And I think Nascar looked at it and said, lets change some of this stuff around. I give them credit for changing it at the time to try to make something happen. But I give them huge credit for realizing what we had was just as special and coming back to it.
Darlington retained one race each season, the date shifting on the schedule several times. The Southern 500 name was brought back in 2009 as well. But it was not until after the California experiment failed and the Labor Day event was shifted to Atlanta for four years that Nascar finally gave Darlington back its Southern 500 on Labor Day weekend this year. It was hard to gauge enthusiasm going into the weekend; the race was not a sellout at the 58,000-seat track.
I think our great race fans in South Carolina support this racetrack, said the track president, Chip Wile. Certainly, we want to make a big splash in our return to Labor Day weekend, and I think well do that.
But officials are determined not to make a scene at the same time with Confederate flags in clear view during the race broadcast. After all, the Nascar chairman, Brian France, had declared that Confederate flags were no longer welcome at tracks after a mass shooting at a church in Charleston in June. When the series shifted to Daytona in July, track officials came up with an exchange program. They offered American flags to replace the Confederate flags there.
Wile said the same program would be in place at Darlington as well. Thats not exactly what happened on Friday, though, as track workers asked fans to take down their flags. The reason given: They blocked sight lines across the track.
Fans were not buying it.
If theyre saying it gets in the way, people cant see across the track, how come they got flags on all the racecar drivers haulers? said Tyler Harris, 24, of Reidsville, N.C., pointing to the many American flags that still waved.
Harris had displayed five Confederate flags on a 30-foot pole attached to an R.V. in the infield. The flag on top included this line: I Aint Coming Down. But it did come down Friday morning after track workers fanned out across the infield and asked fans to remove them. Harris vowed to put the flags back up.
Brian Myers, 40, of Ridgeville, S.C., came to Darlington in a blue-painted school bus with a sign on front that said, Ridgeville Rednecks. He was asked to take his flag down, too. He wasnt happy about it, though.
Theres a lot of newer, younger people coming to the races now, not the old school, Myers said. Theyve got to keep everybody happy. So theyre in a tough spot. I understand that. But they shouldnt ask us to take our flags down.
Jonathan Moore/Getty Images
updated by @johnny-mallonee: 12/05/16 04:00:58PM
