The track was conceived by Darlington native Harold Brasington, who attended the 1933 Indianapolis 500 and sought to replicate that event's prestige in the American Southeast using stock car racing. After searching locations in Virginia, Tennessee, and Georgia, he settled on 105 acres of land in his hometown on a handshake deal with landowner J. S. Ramsey. Construction began in early 1950, though the exact start date is disputed between January 13 (per a contemporary newspaper account) and December 1949 (per later recollections). The project attracted skepticism locally, earning the nickname "Harold's Folly."
A key factor in the track's unique shape emerged mid-construction: Ramsey grew concerned that grading for turns one and two might drain a fishing pond he prized. Brasington accommodated him by tightening the radius of those turns compared with turns three and four — an asymmetry that became Darlington's defining engineering characteristic. The track opened on August 19, 1950, for qualifying, with the inaugural Southern 500 taking place on September 4. Johnny Mantz won the race. Capacity at opening was approximately 10,000.
In its current form Darlington measures 1.366 miles with 25 degrees of banking in turns one and two and 23 degrees in turns three and four, with six degrees on the straights. The first two turns carry a wider radius than the last two — a direct consequence of the fishing-pond compromise. The track surface is noted for being highly abrasive, and the preferred racing line runs close to the outside wall. Teams routinely sacrifice handling balance in one end of the oval to compensate for the opposite end, making setup a uniquely difficult exercise. Cars that brush the wall collect the Darlington stripe: a paint scrape running along the right-side bodywork considered an informal badge of survival.
Bob Colvin assumed the presidency of the track in 1951 after Brasington gradually severed ties. Under Colvin the venue expanded substantially: south-turn banking grew in 1953, grandstand seating increased from roughly 10,000 to 29,200 across the mid-1950s, a backstretch grandstand was added in 1956, and the track was fully repaved for the first time in 1965. Colvin also promoted the track's marquee events — the Southern 500 and the Rebel 400 — with open Confederate iconography, and maintained racially segregated seating policies throughout his tenure. Black spectators were barred from the grandstands; early Black NASCAR driver Wendell Scott was prohibited from competing at the track for most of his career. After Colvin permitted Scott to race in the 1965 Rebel 300, Scott requested the travel stipend given to white drivers and was refused with a racial slur. Colvin died of a heart attack in January 1967. Colvin's conduct is documented by historian Brian Donovan in Hard Driving: The Wendell Scott Story (2008).
Several drivers were killed at Darlington during the Colvin era, reflecting the danger of early stock car racing: Bobby Myers died in the 1957 Southern 500 after striking a stalled car, and the 1960 Southern 500 saw three deaths in a single incident on the backstretch pit road.
After a period of stagnating revenue under Colvin's successor Barney Wallace, the International Speedway Corporation (ISC) — owned by the France family — purchased Darlington Raceway in June 1982 for $70 a share. ISC undertook a series of major renovations through the 1990s, including a comprehensive repaving in the mid-1990s and a controversial reversal of the start-finish line in 1997: the frontstretch and backstretch were swapped, along with the turn numbering, a change NASCAR made to give the track a longer frontstretch pit road.
In 2004, as a consequence of the Ferko lawsuit — in which an SMI shareholder successfully sued over implied agreements regarding race dates — Darlington lost its fall Southern 500 date to California Speedway. The spring race was extended to 500 miles and moved to Mother's Day weekend as a replacement. The Southern 500 identity was preserved and eventually returned to Labor Day weekend in 2015, reinstating its traditional slot on the NASCAR calendar.
NASCAR acquired ownership of the track in 2019 after buying out ISC. As of 2021 the facility has a capacity of 47,000 following a 2018 renovation of the main grandstands.
The Southern 500 is considered one of the five Crown Jewel races on the NASCAR schedule and carries historical weight as the sport's first 500-mile race. It remained a Labor Day weekend fixture for decades before the scheduling disruptions of the mid-2000s. The race returned to its traditional slot in 2015 and is accompanied by a "Throwback Weekend" where teams run retro liveries, reinforcing Darlington's status as NASCAR's heritage venue. A companion Goodyear 400 weekend, first added in 1957, was also reinstated in 2021 after the post-Ferko hiatus.
The track also held AAA Championship Car races in 1950, 1951, and 1954, and USAC-sanctioned events in 1956, before focusing exclusively on NASCAR.
Darlington Raceway occupies a distinct place in North American motorsport as the oldest surviving superspeedway on the NASCAR schedule and the host of the series' original marquee race. Its asymmetrical layout — a product of a landowner's fishing pond — produces racing characteristics found nowhere else, making car setup and tire management uniquely complex. The Darlington stripe has passed into NASCAR culture as an emblem of the circuit's punishing nature. Despite the track's location in a small market and its relatively modest capacity, NASCAR has retained it as a permanent fixture, a recognition that the circuit's historical and sporting value outweighs commercial factors.