DARLINGTON, S.C. - Darlington Raceway's long-term prospects just got brighter.
Track officials said they have the go-ahead to install a lighting system that would be ready for testing by early fall 2004.
"This just adds to the long list of exciting announcements made by Darlington this summer," track president Andrew Gurtis said Wednesday.
Two months ago, the "Track Too Tough to Tame" found out it was losing its Labor Day weekend date for the Southern 500 in realignment to California Speedway. But the 53-year-old facility retained two NASCAR race weekends on next year's schedule.
Gurtis would not say if the 2004 race, set for Nov.14, would be the track's first night event.
The idea for night racing at Darlington was discussed publicly by NASCAR's chief spokesman - and then the raceway's president - Jim Hunter in 1999.
Hunter put a $2.9-million plan before track owner International Speedway Corp. to light up NASCAR's oldest speedway.
Hunter is thrilled his idea will finally see the light. He said he told former NASCAR star David Pearson that one of his favorite tracks - Pearson is Darlington's all-time winner with 10 victories - was getting lights.
"Boy," Pearson told Hunter, "that's going to be something."
Darlington's 1.366-mile oval is one of the trickiest and nastiest on the circuit. Its misshapen corner coming out of Turn 2 has long separated the best racers from the rest of the pack.
"As tough as it is in the daytime, it's going to be even tougher at night," Hunter said. "The whole atmosphere will change. It will really make a difference and make the races more exciting."
Darlington was called out by NASCAR chairman Bill France Jr. as a track whose two-race-a-year future was in question because of its troubled history of selling seats. Despite NASCAR's two stops there in 2004, there was no guarantee for anything beyond.
Could lights keep the track going two years from now?
"I don't think (International Speedway Corp.) would invest in the lights if they didn't think there was a future at Darlington," Hunter said. "I just hope the fans come out and support it."
TABLE TALK: NASCAR driver Johnny Benson could not bear to part with his favorite superspeedway car. Chassis No. 4518 was the Pontiac Benson was driving when he led 38 laps and almost won the Daytona 500 in 2000, and it was a car that ran well at most superspeedway races after that.
But it also was the No.10 Benson wrecked during the 2002 summer race at Daytona, breaking three ribs on his right side. That kept him out of the next two races.
The MB2 Motorsports team retired the car, but Benson did not want to let go of it. He decided to have the Pontiac hauled to a salvage yard in Statesville, N.C., where it was crushed into a cube. Now, Benson is turning that heavy, metal cube into a coffee table.
"Hey, it was a great car," he said. "I didn't want to get rid of it, so we put it to some good use. It's going to be the No.10 Valvoline coffee table now, instead of a Pontiac. It will look good when I get done. Hopefully, we will get some trophies we can put on the table. I don't plan on making another table out of a race car ever again."
