As the holiday marking summer’s traditional end is within view, old school traditionalists might still be missing something that goes together like peanut butter and jelly. NASCAR’s Cup Series is gearing up for the final twelve races and words that rolled off all of our tongues for so many years are not spoken anymore, “Labor Day and the Southern 500”.

Darlington Raceway in South Carolina was the host for the storied event for many years. The egg shaped oval was the first superspeedway a NASCAR sanctioned race was held at. Johnny Mantz scored the coveted victory in what was also NASCAR’s first 500-mile race.

The Southern 500 remained the only race with that special ‘500’ moniker until the inaugural Daytona 500 in 1959. As the years ticked by, more shiny speedways began to rise from the southeastern landscape. But Darlington, and in particular the Southern 500, remained crown jewels on NASCAR’s highest tour.

The final Labor Day holiday contest at the 1.366-mile course took place in 2003. Terry Labonte hoisted the trophy that overcast day.

The 2004-Cup season brought some date and schedule altering. Lawsuit and business decisions were the catalyst for the changes. The North Carolina Motor Speedway in Rockingham lost one of its dates, Texas Motor Speedway was granted a second, Darlington’s fall race was shifted to November, and Fontana, CA was scheduled for the Labor Day weekend.

Climate was one justification for the Labor Day alteration. The Pee Dee region of South Carolina was typically hot and humid in late summer. However the decision for the Los Angeles region to host the circuit’s new date made fans and teams suffer through triple digit dangerously high thermometer readings.

Darlington’s race dates were reduced to one per season in 2005 and the Saturday night of Mother’s Day weekend was the new home for the track’s single 500 mile race.

During this past May’s race, the topic of the Southern 500 name and Labor Day were brought up. Jeff Burton spoke during a press conference about how hot the former traditional date had been. On this same weekend, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was terse and short with the media during a question and answer session at the rear of the team’s transporter. He cited the heat had him in a bad mood. The race day high was eighty-eight degrees.

As the 2009 annual holiday nears, the Cup Series readies to set up camp in Atlanta. The Fontana event has been moved to October and Talladega was moved a few weeks later. The forecast for Fontana Sunday is a high of eighty-nine and sunny. Wednesday’s high is 102. Atlanta will be eighty-three and partly cloudy for race day. Darlington is looking at a high of eighty-six and isolated thunderstorms.  All three destinations appear to be sporting raceable weather.

A question that I posed in an earlier column was with all the date swapping why didn’t Darlington get its traditional date returned? If the weather and heat was a concern why is this week’s race being held slightly further south?

NASCAR is working hard to always attract new fans. In so doing they have been criticized by long time followers about abandoning tradition and changing too many aspects about the sport so many of us love. Holding the Southern 500 at Darlington this coming Sunday would have been a nice way to reach out to traditionalists. And at the same time show some newer fans an important piece of racing history. A piece that helped get this sport to where it is today.

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