Darlington's "Throwback Campaign" Will Return In 2016

Another historic celebration of the sport is in store for Darlington Raceway in 2016. 

The track has announced the return of its award-winning throwback campaign for the Bojangles’ Southern 500 race weekend on Sept. 2-4, 2016. As the tradition continues in 2016, the track will celebrate the 1975-84 era of the sport; a time of exceptional growth and exposure for NASCAR. 

“The track will be celebrating the 1975-84 time period of the sport during our throwback weekend in 2016,” said Darlington Raceway President Chip Wile today. “We had tremendous response from the industry last season, which included the race teams, NASCAR, NBC, Goodyear and the NASCAR Hall of Fame, to name a few. This is a fun and unique way to honor the history and heritage of NASCAR racing at one of the sport’s most iconic tracks on Labor Day weekend.” 

As the sport moved into the modern era, champions such as Cale Yarborough, Bobby Allison, Dale Earnhardt and Darrell Waltrip, among others, made a tremendous impact on NASCAR and will be celebrated during the Labor Day weekend festivities. 

The honoring of champions from 1975-84 is just one part of the track’s overall strategy to celebrate its history, which enters its second year. Darlington Raceway’s throwback campaign focuses on specific eras plus the historic moments and drivers that made impacts at the track Too Tough to Tame. 

A number of exciting announcements surrounding one of the “crown jewel” events on the NASCAR schedule will be made over the next several months. 

Last year’s throwback campaign last season featured a celebration of the early 1970’s (1970-74) including 32 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams competing with throwback paint schemes for the Bojangles’ Southern 500, Goodyear reverting to the original white lettering on its race tires, honoring 14 NASCAR Hall of Fame members including Cale Yarborough, Richard Petty, Rusty Wallace, Rex White, Dale Jarrett and Ned Jarrett, unique food offerings from the early 1970’s – including pimento cheese sandwiches, sausage perlo and fried green tomatoes – a pre-race concert by rock legends Grand Funk Railroad and a national anthem performance by Nashville recording artist Tanya Tucker and the return of the Southern 500 parade, which took place on Saturday night from downtown Darlington to the track. 

Ticket renewals will be mailed in January, so fans should check their mailboxes in the coming weeks to renew their tickets and/or camping for 2016.