Spear: Track’s tough rhetoric is right on the money

DARLINGTON

YOU KNOW THE hype, the tub-thumping chant about Darlington Raceway. Too Tough To Tame. Too Tough To Tame. Too Tough To Tame.

Don’t think so?

Think again.

Climb in the spiffy Dodge Challenger and let’s take a spin. You’ll see.

The concrete wall that frames Turn 1 gets up close and personal in a hurry, especially at pedal-to-the-metal speeds demanded to navigate the front stretch with a rainbow of colors in pursuit.

Coming off the venerable track’s second turn demands pressing the accelerator to the floor and the adrenaline rush defies description. Wow!

If the driver is bold enough to peek, the support posts on the restraining wire flash by like a picket fence. That’s not recommended; a lapse of concentration for the blink of an eye can mean an unwelcome meeting with the raceway’s walls.

“Faster, faster, faster” becomes the mantra on the backstretch, the quickest section of the track. The other guys — Biffle, Earnhardt, Stewart, the Busch Brothers, Gordon, Johnson, all of ‘em — are coming, coming, coming.

So is the third turn, maybe the nastiest piece of real estate on the stock-car circuit. Time to turn the wheel ... but the wheel fights back, refusing to cooperate willingly.

Into Turn 4 and it’s dive, dive, dive down onto the homestretch, shower down on the throttle and hug the wall. The start-finish line flashes past and back we go for the second of 367 laps that make up the Dodge Challenger 500.

It’s quick, quick, quick — and oh so demanding.

No easy part at Darlington. A great debate: What is the toughest part of this 1.366-mile torture chamber? The answers in a 1997 survey illustrate the challenge drivers faced Saturday night in the race.

A sampling:

• “Leaving the pits,” Ernie Irvan decided.

• “Turn 4 (now Turn 2 on the reconfigured alignment) is the toughest corner on the circuit,” Dale Jarrett claimed.

• “Turn 1 (now Turn 3) is the hardest turn on any race track I ever ran,” said David Pearson, whose 105 career victories include a record 10 at Darlington.

• “Turn 4 (now Turn 2) ... is the hardest corner we face in our sport,” Ricky Rudd said.

• “If I had to pinpoint the absolute toughest spot where you can get a ‘Darlington Stripe,’ I would say Turn 3 (now Turn 1),” Geoff Bodine said.

Get the idea?

If I doubted before, I don’t any longer.

If I ever believed those folks who claim driving a racecar at major-league speeds is a piece of cake, I know differently now.

Five laps around nasty old Darlington told me all I needed to know.

Patience the only secret. The re-paving job made stock-car racing’s oldest super-speedway smoother than a baby’s bottom. Speeds zoomed and NASCAR has quickly learned to pay proper respect.

The idea that passing would be rare on the quicker surface disappeared early and, like always, the track assumed a starring role.

In practice runs, the drivers struggled to adjust to the quicker speeds and regularly played tag with the walls. Track officials put the painters to work Saturday morning, but their work went for naught — practically every car tangled with the concrete in one way or another.

Elliott Sadler erred on the second lap and took Tony Stewart into the fence. Sam Hornish brought out the caution on the 11th.

I could have told them of the trouble spots, thanks to my laps with Brett Bodine, a former driver who now pilots the pace car, at the wheel.

“Really, this is a pretty treacherous track,” Bodine said. “The wall can sneak up on you everywhere. It’s so tight and you have so much speed coming off 2 and 4.”

Of course, the idea of slowing down irks drivers.

“Timing is everything,” said Bodine, who posted five top-10 finishes in 32 Darlington starts. “If you don’t do it just right, well, you’re in trouble.”

The secret, if there is one, centers on patience — a formula that served Pearson and Jeff Gordon (seven Darlington wins coming into Saturday night) well.

“You race the track,” Gordon said. “If you get impatient, you’ll be watching from the pits.”

Kevin Harvick knows. All alone, he tagged the wall at mid-race Saturday and his chances disappeared.

Taking laps alone can be taxing. Imagine the challenge with 42 others battling for the same space.

Bodine pushed the speedometer needle into the 120-plus mph range, far short of racing speed but plenty fast enough to send the message loud and clear: Darlington’s tough-guy claim is not false bravado and advertising hype. The old track is 58 years young and more ornery than ever. How sweet that is for those of us who treasure tradition.