MOORESVILLE, N.C. (Aug. 31, 2026) – The azaleas lining Amen Corner at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia provide a moment of zen for golf’s elite as they navigate holes 11, 12 and 13 – arguably the trickiest trio of holes in all of golf.
But the true Amen Corner lies 145 miles northeast of Augusta off Interstate 20 in Darlington, South Carolina, where red-and-white checkered walls line the path to victory at venerable Darlington Raceway.
“Riding the wall is the fast way around Darlington,” said Cody Ware, driver of the No. 51 ApexFX Chevrolet for Rick Ware Racing. “There’s a lot of risk versus reward there. If you want to be fast, you run right by the wall, almost kissing it. It’s the place to be, for sure, but there’s no room for error if something goes wrong.”
Darlington is one of NASCAR’s oldest venues. Built in 1949 by Harold Brasington, the 1.366-mile egg-shaped oval has hosted NASCAR Cup Series races since 1950, and Sunday night will mark the 77th running of the Southern 500 – one of the crown-jewel races on the 36-race Cup Series schedule.
Darlington’s egg shape, where turns three and four are definitively tighter than turns one and two, came about when Brasington plowed up fields formerly bearing peanuts and cotton and purposely narrowed the track at its west end so it wouldn’t disturb a minnow pond belonging to Sherman Ramsey, the man who sold Brasington the property.
The layout that debuted on Sept. 4, 1950, when 75 stock cars took the green flag three-wide for the inaugural Southern 500, is essentially unchanged today.
“They call it the track ‘Too Tough to Tame’ for a reason,” Ware said. “The way that place is built, it’s just tough, no matter how many times you’ve been there.”
Darlington’s asphalt is aged, and its gritty surface places a premium on tire management, something that’s easier said than done while barreling 180 mph into the track’s corners, where turns one and two are banked at 25 degrees and turns three and four are banked at 23 degrees.
“Darlington is always brutal,” Ware said. “There’s never a time where you unload off the trailer and fire off for practice and qualifying that you feel comfortable. Even if you have speed and you’re competitive, you’re still on edge. And when your car isn’t where you want it handling-wise, you’re even more on edge. You’re always white-knuckling it, sawing at the wheel, manhandling the racecar every lap.”
The Southern 500 is a long race. Its 367-lap distance takes an average of four hours and 15 minutes to complete.
“We’re racing the track as much as we’re racing the tire. We have more horsepower, less downforce, and the tires wear out faster,” Ware said. “Ten laps into a run and the car feels like it’s been out on the track for 100 laps. To stay committed and have the focus you need to hit your marks lap after lap is hard. It makes for a very tough race.”
The lead-up to the race begins Saturday with practice at 4 p.m. EDT, followed by qualifying at 5:10 p.m. TruTV and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will provide live coverage of both. The Southern 500 goes green on Sunday at 5 p.m. EDT with flag-to-flag coverage delivered by USA Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
About Rick Ware Racing:
Rick Ware has been a motorsports mainstay for more than 40 years. It began at age 6 when the third-generation racer began his driving career and has since spanned four wheels and two wheels on both asphalt and dirt. Competing in the SCCA Trans Am Series and other road-racing divisions led Ware to NASCAR in the early 1980s, where he finished third in his NASCAR debut – the 1983 Warner W. Hodgdon 300 NASCAR Grand American race at Riverside (Calif.) International Raceway. More than a decade later, injuries would force Ware out of the driver’s seat and into full-time team ownership. In 1995, Rick Ware Racing was formed, and with his wife Lisa by his side, Ware has since built his eponymous organization into an entity that competes full-time in the elite NASCAR Cup Series while simultaneously campaigning successful teams in the Top Fuel class of the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series, Progressive American Flat Track, FIM World Supercross Championship (WSX) and zMAX CARS Tour.
