NASCAR: Darlington Cup race ends 43-year drought
By Asher Fair
Sunday’s Goodyear 400 NASCAR Cup Series race at Darlington Raceway was the first race originally scheduled for Mother’s Day in more than four decades.
With Darlington Raceway on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule twice this season for the first time since 2004, save for last year when it was given two additional dates due to other cancellations caused by COVID-19-related restrictions, the official throwback race of the 2021 season was not the Southern 500 and instead took place this past Sunday.
Sunday’s Goodyear 400 at the four-turn, 1.366-mile (2.198-kilometer) egg-shaped oval in Darlington, South Carolina was the first originally scheduled race at the track for the month of May since 2013.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. still annoys Martin Truex Jr.. light. Must Read
Two of last year’s three races at the track were contested in May, but both were late additions to the schedule to get the series back in action after the unexpected 10-week hiatus.
The Goodyear 400 was contested on Mother’s Day, something that hadn’t happened for a Cup Series race in nearly a decade and a half.
More from NASCAR Cup Series
- NASCAR Cup Series: New team set to compete in 2024
- NASCAR: Surprising name continuously linked to new seat
- NASCAR driver at risk of missing the Daytona 500?
- NASCAR set for rare appearance last seen 13 years ago
- NASCAR team adds third car, names driver for 2024 Daytona 500
Prior to Sunday, the most recent Cup Series race contested on Mother’s Day, the second Sunday in May, was the 2007 race at Darlington Raceway, the Dodge Avenger 500.
Like the May races at the track in 2005 and 2006, this race was scheduled to take place on the Saturday before Mother’s Day, but this race was postponed from Saturday, May 12 to Sunday, May 13 due to rain. While a 14-year drought is lengthy in its own right, there actually hadn’t been an originally scheduled Mother’s Day race prior to this past Sunday’s race in almost three decades before that 2007 event.
The last time a race was originally scheduled for Mother’s Day was all the way back in 1978. That race, the Winston 500, was contested at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday, May 14.
dark. Next. Top 25 NASCAR drivers of all-time
Sunday’s race became the eighth Cup Series race to be contested on Mother’s Day. Other races held on that special day took place in 1954 at Wilson Speedway, 1955 at the Arizona State Fairgrounds, 1956 at Orange Speedway, 1958 at the Greensboro Fairgrounds and 1971 at South Boston Speedway.