| Taking away the Southern 500 is one of the worst | | | | Whether NASCAR is listening to its fan base or just |
| moves NASCAR officials have made over the last | | | | filling another moveable date, the race is making a |
| decade, according to true-blue fans of the sport. | | | | comeback in '09 - not as the Mountain Dew Southern |
| Moving the race from historic Darlington Raceway - | | | | 500, or any other corporate title. After a four-year |
| the "Track Too Tough to Tame" - to California has | | | | hiatus, the race will strictly be the "Southern 500," |
| been a public relations disaster for those who grew | | | | nothing more, nothing less. |
| up with Richard Petty and David Pearson battling | | | | Darlington has recently added lights and other |
| down the backstretch, and before that, Junior | | | | amenities, including 4,000 extra seats, to its prized |
| Johnson taking on Ned Jarrett for Grand National | | | | layout. The track has been repaved and another $10 |
| supremacy. | | | | million has given the venue needed updates and |
| Texas Motor Speedway shareholder Francis Ferko is | | | | improvements. NASCAR is apparently satisfied, giving |
| partly to blame. Ferko sued the sanctioning body in | | | | hope for the restoration of other traditions still on |
| 2004, charging NASCAR with anti-trust violations for | | | | hold. |
| not allowing a second race at the Fort Worth oval, | | | | The California date is locked into '09, but a return to |
| owned by billionaire O. Bruton Smith. Something had | | | | Labor Day weekend has not been ruled out for 2010, |
| to go, and NASCAR picked wrong. | | | | giving diehards reason to lobby NASCAR to finish the |
| After four long years, the Fontana track on the left | | | | job rather than going half way. |
| coast has failed to capture the nation's attention the | | | | The revived history would give NASCAR a boost by |
| way Darlington did for more than a half century. | | | | itself. Petty, NASCAR's winningest driver, won the |
| Ticket sales have stagnated in La-La land, as with | | | | sport's first 500 only once, in 1967. Pearson won the |
| many new markets since an early bump after a | | | | egg-shaped oval's main event three times, and Dale |
| novelty affect. Meanwhile, Darlington's spring event, | | | | Earnhardt took victory laps there on three occasions. |
| the Dodge Challenger 500, has been one of the | | | | Jeff Gordon won four in-a-row from '95 - '98, and |
| toughest tickets to corral. | | | | again in '02. Dale Earnhardt Jr. had no wins in his first |
| Under pressure to make the slate more solvent, the | | | | five attempts and has never won at Darlington |
| traditional race has been revived, but not on Labor | | | | (Senior won 6 more spring races), adding priority |
| Day weekend. The new date is the Saturday before | | | | status for the sport's most popular driver. Terry |
| Mother's Day in May '09, at night under new lighting. | | | | Labonte won the final Southern 500 on Labor Day |
| The original Southern 500 predated the Daytona 500 | | | | weekend in '03. The November race in '04 was won |
| by nine years, starting in 1950 as NASCAR's first | | | | by Jimmie Johnson. |
| answer to the Indianapolis 500 of open-wheel fame. | | | | |