Dodge Dealers 400 Race History

The Dodge Dealer 400 is a NASCAR Nextel Cup race that is held yearly at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina. The corporate sponsor for this racing event is Carolina Dodge dealers and hence the name. This sporting spectacle was earlier known as Rebel 300 as the race was for a distance of 300 miles when the event began in 1957. The track length for the race was extended to 400 miles in 1966 and to 500 miles in 1973. Later, the race was fixed to 400 miles in 1994. The number of laps that the racer has to cover is 293 and the race was earlier known in various names such as TranSouth Financial 400, TranSouth 500, Mall.com 400 etc.

The Darlington Raceway is oval in shape with asphalt surface which is hard to tame for even experienced race drivers and this makes the Dodge Dealers 400 race a very exciting one for the race fans. The Dodge Dealers 400 race track is commonly known as “Lady in Black” and this egg shaped track gives immense satisfaction for the risk loving drivers. The racers Darrell Waltrip and Richard Petty are still remembered for their engrossing racing duel in the final lap of the Rebel 500 race on April 8th, 1979 as the leading positions interchanged between these two racers for four times with Waltrip winning the race.

More recently, in March 16th 2003, there was a similar engrossing duel between Ricky Craven and Kurt Busch that was decided on the final curve of the last lap with Craven turning out to be the victorious man with a lead of about two inches and this is considered to be the closest finish among all NASCAR races. The most popular winners of the Dodge Dealers 400 NASCAR Nextel Cup series include Dale Jarrett, Ricky Craven, Sterling Marlin, Dale Earnhardt and so on.