Amid all the speculation of whether Darlington Raceway will lose a race date(Cup), NASCAR’s oldest superspeedway is trying to add another one. Track president Jim Hunter said Monday that Darlington is pursuing a Craftsman Truck Series race for next year, with the lone remaining hurdle being whether the speedway can secure a favorable date. Hunter has offered three possible dates to NASCAR, although he declined to say when those dates are(Charleston Post and Courier)(5-23-2000)
UPDATE Truck Race at Darlington: The oldest superspeedway in NASCAR will host the sport’s youngest national circuit beginning next year. Darlington Raceway will host a Craftsman Truck Series event in the spring of 2001, a source close to NASCAR confirmed on Monday. The formal announcement will be made today in a noon press conference at the track. Although Darlington Raceway officials declined to comment, the source said the Truck Series race will be separate from the track’s two 2001 Winston Cup/Grand National weekends. The Truck Series race will likely be paired with an event from the NASCAR Goody’s Dash touring series to comprise a third weekend of racing at the 1.366-mile oval.(Charleston Post and Courier) AND Qualifying for the trucks and NASCAR’s sub-compact series cars will be on Friday, May 11, and the races will be run back-to-back the next afternoon, beginning at 1:00pm/et. If negotiations are successful, the car-crushing Monster trucks which appeared at Darlington earlier this summer would perform following the truck race(The State) UPDATE 2: Darlington Raceway will host its first-ever Craftsman Truck Series event the weekend of May 11-12, 2001, giving the track a third major racing weekend for the year, in addition to the two weekends of BGN and Cup activity already a part of the track’s storied history and tradition.The CTS race weekend will also include a NASCAR Goody’s Dash race and, hopefully, Monster Truck races. The weekend will begin with qualifying and practice for both the Goody’s Dash cars and the Craftsman Trucks on Friday, May 11, with a double-header (actually a triple-header including Monster Truck competition) race day on Saturday, May 12. The Goody’s Dash division ran at Darlington in the early 1980s. The Dash Series features six-cylinder cars such as Pontiac Sunfires, Mercuries, and Toyotas. Drivers like the late Davey Allison, Bobby Labonte, Larry Pearson, Michael Waltrip, and Phil Parsons cut their NASCAR racing teeth in this division. Reserved and unreserved tickets are currently on sale for the inaugural event, and may be purchased by calling the Darlington Raceway Ticket Office at (843)395-8499. NASCAR fans can purchase a ticket to North Carolina Speedway’s Winston Cup race on October 22, and a ticket to Darlington’s inaugural CTS race on May 12, 2001 for $100. The special ticket offer will run from Tuesday, September 12 until Sunday, September 24(Darlington Raceway PR)(9-12-2000)
