On NASCAR: Kickin' Up Dirt on Asphalt
By Cathy Elliott
August 24, 2004 was a star-studded night at Darlington Raceway, in more ways than one. The track officially threw the switch on its newly-installed lighting system for the first time, and invited fans to come and watch the action, free of charge.
It wasn't a race; each participating driver was allotted just 10 laps, to be run individually. Darlington hosted the penultimate event in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup in November of that year, which was also the year of the Chase's inception. The August event was designed to give fans a sneak peek of what NASCAR Sprint Cup Series cars would look like under the new, modern lights at the venerable old track, and to generate some buzz for the upcoming race weekend.
Three of the biggest names in NASCAR history were invited to run the inaugural exhibition laps at Darlington, and all three of them accepted. Thousands of fans, some from as far away as Illinois, Ohio and Pennsylvania, turned out to watch their heroes -- Cale Yarborough, Jeff Gordon and David Pearson -- run that handful of laps around the track, all by themselves.
Midway through the planning stages, after the date and drivers were set, a fourth name was added to the lineup. To acknowledge the fact that the first event scheduled to be run under the lights at Darlington would be a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race, Bobby Hamilton, Sr. agreed to participate. A few sets of flapping lips questioned the well respected but not-quite-superstar driver's inclusion in such rarified company, but Hamilton zipped them up the old fashioned way.
He gave the legends one tough act to follow, thanks to 10 blistering laps followed by a burnout so spectacular that to this day, folks who were there that night still say -- and this is a direct quote -- was the most amazing they've ever seen.
Surprising? Not really. Hamilton, who won two of the four truck races run to date at Darlington, has passed on, but the Truck Series consistently maintains his legacy of giving fans a truly unique and memorable experience.
The Nationwide Series is often compared to AAA baseball, a training ground for NASCAR undergraduates before they move up to the grad school otherwise known as the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. That's understandable; there's a lot of intermingling going on there. The cars in the two series look basically the same, they generally travel together week to week, and the Cup races are densely populated with former Nationwide champions. Many of them still compete in both series, and any track promoter will readily admit that having those big names on the entry list definitely heightens interest and attendance for the event. When the stars come out, the fans will follow.
The Truck Series is a little different, but it certainly has its own claims to fame. It was an industry leader in what has now become one of the Cup Series' most popular policies. The trucks were the first to require that every race had to end with two consecutive laps of green flag racing, what we now call the "green-white-checkered" finish.
They're fast, too, as fast as the Cup cars at some venues. What is described as a little "nudge" in a stock car is more of an outright shove in the trucks. Let's just say that when these drivers rub shoulders with their co-workers, it isn't pretty. They're fierce, and they're hungry, and they go after what they want with single-minded intensity.
It's fine and inarguably appropriate to give the Nationwide Series its due as a place for up-and-coming superstars to cut their teeth, but some big names have also come up through the Truck Series. Former series rookies of the year include David Reutimann, Carl Edwards, Kurt Busch and Greg Biffle, and several current Cup Series drivers still like to "mix it up old-school." Elliott Sadler, Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch have all won Truck Series races in 2010.
But the Truck Series has made a name for itself based mainly not on its "who," but on its "how." Most of the series' drivers aren't household names, at least not yet, so they let their actions -- and their action -- speak for them. Boiled down to its essence, the bottom line is the quality of the product. The Camping World Truck Series offers more smoke than mirrors, more guts than glamour. Lap for lap and week-to-week, it is some of the most satisfying racing in NASCAR.
Who could possibly fail to get excited at the sight of 36 pickup trucks barreling around a racetrack at breakneck speed, muscling each other out of the way and scrambling for position like frantic parents at Target fighting over the last copy of "Guitar Hero" on Christmas Eve? Sure, it's a little rougher around the edges than its super-suave Cup Series sibling, but what's wrong with that?
Let's face it; the trucks are just flat-out cool, regularly reminding us that even on asphalt, it's still possible to kick up a little dirt.
Cathy Elliott, the former director of public relations for Darlington Raceway, is a syndicated columnist for NASCAR and author of the book "Chicken Soup for the Soul: NASCAR." Contact her at cathyelliott@hotmail.com.