This Is Not What the Southern 500 Deserves

One might have figured that long-time NASCAR fans would have been rejoicing this week thanks to the reincarnation of Darlington Raceway's legendary Southern 500.

The race -- a staple of NASCAR's top series for 54 years -- was traditionally held every Labor Day weekend at the gritty South Carolina track and produced some of the best-known races of NASCAR's modern-era.

It was a place where drivers made a name for themselves and was a place where legends cemented their status as such in stock car racing.

But in 2004, that all disappeared thanks to a track realignment by the higher-ups in NASCAR and International Speedway Corporation that sent the traditional weekend packing to the West Coast in what has turned into a lame, ill-timed attempt to gain fans in the Los Angeles market.

But now, with ratings dropping in 2007, attendance dropping in 2008, growth slowing, and sponsorship troubles occurring thanks to NASCAR being a tourism-based industry that has likely overpriced itself, the legendary Southern 500 at "The Lady in Black" is returning in a much different form -- with lights and in May.

Have you ever seen a more blatant exploitation of tradition?

For years, traditional NASCAR fans and those that have never been impressed by the races at the newly-named Auto Club Speedway and have clamored for the sport to reverse itself and actually make tradition and history a big part of the way it markets itself.

And what do they get? The watered-down return of what once was a great race.

I suppose I should look at this as a positive thing, but I really can't. I'm not excited. It doesn't appeal to me.

It's not really the Southern 500.

The Southern 500 isn't supposed to be in May. It's not supposed to be on a Saturday night. It's not supposed to be on Mother's Day weekend.

And it sure isn't supposed to be just another lead-in race to another NASCAR's big events -- the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte's Lowe's Motor Speedway.

Instead, the Southern 500 with all of the glory and fame it gained as a NASCAR staple for 54 years will return in all of those elements above for the second week of May in 2009 -- and it all tastes like a really bad knock off.

It's really not hard to connect the dots in this situation to see that the "Southern 500" name is coming back because Darlington Raceway is having a tough time selling naming rights to the race. For the past three years, Dodge -- on behalf of Chrysler LLC -- has been the sponsor of the event and now we all know how well that auto manufacturer is doing with the the downturn of the American economy.

In other words, it's a little too convenient and a little too cheap that the traditions and glamor of the Southern 500 are coming back in what boils down to little more than an attempt to drive hype and ticket sales, as well as mask the open wound that longtime NASCAR fans still grind on four years after racing on Labor Day moved to a region that simply doesn't care.

I've got to say, though, that things like this don't surprise me anymore with NASCAR.