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Darlington Record Club

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The Darlington Raceway's unconventional "egg" shape

The Unocal-Darlington Record Club was a club in the NASCAR Grand National and Winston Cup Series from 1959 to about 2001, based at Darlington Raceway. Membership was achieved by setting qualifying records during time trials for the annual Southern 500 held on Labor Day weekend. During its heyday, it was considered one of the most prestigious and exclusive clubs in motorsports.[1][2][3]

The club was sponsored by longtime NASCAR sponsor Pure Oil, which in 1965 was acquired by Union Oil, and later Tosco Corporation (1997), Phillips Petroleum (2001), and after a merger, ConocoPhillips. At some time after the 2001 season, the club was quietly retired, as NASCAR made rule changes that effectively eliminated its usefulness. The club ended permanently when ConocoPhillips ended its sponsorship and was replaced by Sunoco, and the Ferko lawsuit resulted in the lineal Southern 500 being removed from the schedule until the lineal changes of 2020, with the lineal Southern 500 returning to its fall date in 2021.

The original eight charter members were selected in 1959: Dick Joslin (Dodge), Marvin Panch (Ford), Joe Caspolich (Oldsmobile), Bob Burdick (Thunderbird), Speedy Thompson (Chevrolet), Richard Petty (Plymouth), Elmo Langley (Buick), and Fireball Roberts (Pontiac). Roberts was selected as the first president; Former Darlington Raceway president Bob Colvin contributed in creating the club.[4]

Membership qualifications

Drivers were awarded membership in the club based on official time trials for the Southern 500. The fastest single driver of each car make (e.g. Chevrolet, Ford, etc.) each won the membership. The general requirements for eligibility were as follows:[1]

  • Car making the qualifying attempt must be a current model year car.
  • At least three cars from each car make must be entered for that make to have an automatic berth in the club for that year.
  • The fastest single driver from each of the various car makes qualified for the club, provided their speed was within 2% of the fastest overall car in the field.

Special provisions were made for other cars:[1]

  • If only one car from a particular make is entered, that driver was only eligible if he set a track record for that car make; and was within 2% of the fastest overall car in the field (i.e., the pole position winner for the race)
  • If the car was not a current model year chassis, that driver was only eligible if he was the overall fastest driver for that make (i.e., faster than all the current model year chassis of that same make); and he was within 2% of the fastest overall car in the field.

By 2000, the "within 2%" rule was tightened to "within 1%."[2]

Drivers who qualified for the club attended a special dinner and reception and received a special blue blazer. Drivers who entered the club by setting an overall Darlington track record, however, received the more prestigious white blazer. A ring,[5] a plaque and a cash award were also presented. Entry into the club was a lifetime membership, but only active members participated in actual duties. The reception dinner was held on the Friday of Labor Day weekend (two days prior to the Southern 500), and would recognize the drivers who qualified based on the previous year's event.[1][2]

Only records set in the September Southern 500 were recognized for the club. Any records set during the spring race, or support races (added in 1983 to the Southern 500 weekend) were not eligible.[1][2]

Competition Board

Once the membership was established, the active members of the club were eligible for the annual Competition Board. All active members who qualified for the race within 2% of the fastest car in the field (later 1%) were placed on the board. The board's primary responsibilities were to assist NASCAR in training rookies for racing at each race during the season.[1][2]

Once the Competition Board was established, the board members voted amongst themselves to select the Club President and Club Vice-President. Each had a tenure of one year. The president's duties primarily were to lead the rookie training, and conduct the annual Darlington Raceway rookie orientation meeting and further rookie test that they had to pass (similar to the Indianapolis 500) before attempting to qualify at Darlington for either race. Likewise, they were not allowed to qualify on the first day of time trials, and were relegated to the second round only (starting 21st or lower).[1][2][3]

In 1977, Darlington Raceway began adding support races that helped inexperienced drivers gain experience in shorter events with less-powerful cars. The Baby Grand National series ran 150 kilometer (94.5 mile) races for four-cylinder cars, which ran until 1984. In 1982, the second-tier series (now the NASCAR Xfinity Series) added a 200 mile race for the Rebel 500 weekend, and in 1983 another second-tier race was run on Southern 500 weekend as a 250-mile race (owing to Blue Laws in South Carolina, the race was set to the state's 250-mile minimum for Sunday races). From 1984 to 2004, support races for the second-tier series were added to both weekends. Since these drivers had gained experience at Darlington through support races (up to 294 laps of experience in two lower-tier races each year), the rookie panel and NASCAR decided in 1993 to abolish both the rookie test and the first-round rookie prohibition, as Cup Series rookies had typically made four or more starts through support races, if they had at least two full seasons of support series events. When the rule was abolished in 1993, the three primary rookies had each made at least four Darlington starts through the two second-tier series races each of the previous two seasons. Since 2005, the second-tier series has run one race (two from 2020-2024) and the current tertiary Craftsman Truck Series also a single race at Darlington, annually since 2020 (two in 2021), allowing drivers to gain even more experience. [3][6] As of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series schedule, the Xfinity Series races on the spring weekend and the Truck Series runs on the Southern 500 weekend.

Record Club by car make

Note that in 1959 & 1960, the Ford Thunderbird was categorized separately from Ford.

Sources:[1][2]

Alphabetical member list

Bold indicates track record member (white blazer)

*Posthumous induction. Irwin won pole and set the track record in 1999 during Pepsi Southern 500 qualifying, but was killed at during Cup practice at the Loudon July race ten months later.

Sources:[1][2][7]

One of the award plaques presented to Bobby Allison was featured on the television program American Pickers. It was acquired for display at the NASCAR Hall of Fame.[8]

Club presidents

Tenure runs for 12 months, from September to September of each year.

See also

Sources

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i The Official NASCAR Preview and Press Guide 1994. Charlotte: UMI Publications, Inc. 1994.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h The Official NASCAR Preview and Press Guide 2001. Charlotte: UMI Publications, Inc. 2001.
  3. ^ a b c d Rudd, Ricky (2003-08-27). "Manic Monday". Sports Illustrated. Archived from the original on January 19, 2013.
  4. ^ "Dick Joslin Facts". Archived from the original on 2011-09-17. Retrieved 2011-10-07.
  5. ^ "Pure Record Club Members". FireballRoberts.com. Archived from the original on 2011-09-17. Retrieved 2011-10-10.
  6. ^ "Martin paces 2nd day of qualifying". Times Daily Tennessee Edition. Florence, AL. March 26, 1988. Retrieved 2011-10-07.
  7. ^ Racing-Reference.info - Race Results at Darlington Raceway
  8. ^ "NASCAR Challenge". Top NASCAR Races. Season 2. 2011-04-11. History Channel.
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