| | DARLINGTON, S.C. -- Darlington. One word, 10 letters, and you could easily wear out the pages of a thesaurus thumbing through the many words that describe one of the meanest and most difficult tracks to master on the Winston Cup schedule.
Darlington Raceway's nicknames include "The Track to Tough to Tame" and "The Lady in Black". The track is unique, shaped like an egg, due to the original owner not wanting to bulldoze over a fishing pond. The pond is gone, but the track's egg-shaped layout still exists today.
|  | | Jeff Burton has two wins at Darlington. |
Recently, the straightaways were flip-flopped, the original backstretch is now the frontstrech, and vice versa. Did you follow that? Good, because due to five decades of habit, it still confuses drivers and crew chiefs to this day.
NASCAR's oldest superspeedway began its stock car history in 1950, hosting the most traditional and historical event on the schedule, the Southern 500. Darlington is NASCAR racing's equivalent to Wrigley Field, Fenway Park, or old Tiger Stadium -- take your pick.
Besides the nicknames, Darlington Raceway is also infamous for the "Darlington Stripe." Basically, a driver has to run close to the wall to be fast, which usually results in a scraping the right rear quarter-panel off in Turn 2 (which use to be Turn 4). A top-10 or top-five finish can seem like a win for most drivers. A win is something altogether special.
So how do drivers conquer one of NASCAR's toughest tracks? Five simple, or not so simple, keys. The first is finesse, followed by tire conservation. Then comes the combination of smarts and luck, which leads to pit strategy. Then there are the built-in adjustments in each winning car.
Sounds easy doesn't it? Just like building a house, one key plays off the next. But if you miss one, that good run could quickly disappear.
Oh, here is one more. Call it the mater key to Darlington's Victory Lane: You need to have a first name of "Jeff." Seven of the past nine Darlington races have been won by either Jeff Burton or Jeff Gordon.
It's difficult to pick five guys to watch, especially in today's state of Winston Cup racing, when a surprise could pop up on any given Sunday. With that said, however, Jeff Burton, Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin, Dale Earnhardt and Dale Jarrett have each mastered Matty's keys -- and then some -- at Darlington.
Finesse
The above "Fab Five" are finesse drivers, who know how to take care of their equipment and tires. They will only drive the car as hard as needed, and if the car isn't handling to their liking, these guys will wait until a pit stop to fix it.
Simply put, they won't abuse the car.
Tire Conservation
Darlington's gritty track surface tends to chew up tires, much like cheese slicing through a cheese grater. A driver must take care of his tires early in a run; the first 10 to 15 laps are vital.
Think of saving tires like eating an Oreo cookie. You know that if you eat the center first, you've eaten the best part of the cookie. Drivers know if they run too hard on a new set of tires during the first 10 to 15 laps of a run, they've used up the best part of the tire. And once the grip goes away, he who can master slipping and sliding around the track on worn out tires will be up front.
Earnhardt and Bobby Labonte did just that at Rockingham. Labonte finished first, while Earnhardt took second.
Pit strategy
While laying back and saving your tires is important, you cannot get too far behind the leader. That's where pit strategy comes into play.
One factor that has already changed in this key to success is the pit road itself at Darlington. Instead of two -- one on the front and one on the back -- there is now just one continuous pit road from Turns 3 to 1. That takes pressure off drivers and lessons the drama in qualifying. Drivers and teams won't worry about being better than 28th in qualifying to get one of the front stretch stalls and the advantages that go with it.
It does, however, change the old strategy of short pitting, a practice teams would use when they had dropped off the pace due to worn out tires. Teams could pit for fresh tires and gain back the lost time while the leaders were running on used and worn out rubber.
But now drivers will will lose so much time under green on pit road, luck comes into play as soon as teams go to a short-pit strategy.
Luck & Smarts
If teams decide to still try and short pit, it's a bigger gamble. If they get caught on pit road and a caution flies, they are sitting ducks. They could lose as many has two laps.
But if a team dodges the caution and gets four fresh tires, it could be sitting pretty. Fuel mileage usually doesn't play a factor at Darlington, so drivers will be begging for fresh tires before the fuel pressure gauge starts bouncing.
Adjustments
Finally, teams usually build plenty of adjustments into the car's set-up. A crew chief will put spring rubbers into the springs for easy chassis adjustments during pit stops, and other quick fixes to change the attitude of an ill-handling car.
What makes guys like Jarrett, Martin, Gordon, Burton and Earnhardt so tough to beat is their ability to tweak and adjust a car throughout a race. Some guys will hit upon the right set-up, but when the track changes, so do their chances for victory. You have to make the right
changes at the right time.
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