The Lady in Black has some new duds

With brand new pavement, and a new tunnel into the track, Darlington Raceway once again promises an exciting race on Saturday. Speeds of up to and possibly beyond 200 mph are possible there, and we will likely set new records in qualifying.

Darlington has always been the site for some of stock car's most exciting racing, and Saturday night promises to be some of the best racing ever at the legendary track.

Darlington Raceway is one of the oldest tracks in Nascar, and the tradition of hard fought racing carries on, this year with the fastest speeds ever.

Several drivers have had success here, including David Pearson, who holds the track record with 10 cup wins. Dale Earnhardt is second in the record book with 9 wins. Strangely enough, Darlington was never one of Richard Petty's best tracks, because even though he finished in the top 5 in 25 out of 65 starts, the King only won here 3 times in his career.

Among current drivers, Jeff Gordon has one 7 times at Darlington. Bill Elliot has won here 5 times, and just retired Dale Jarrett has won 3 times. Jeff Burton, Sterling Marlin, and Greg Biffle have each won 2 times. Mark Martin and Bobby Labonte have each won 1 time at the Lady in Black.

After a controversial finish at Richmond, Denny Hamlin must be looking forward to Darlington, having finished an average of 6.0 in his first two races at the track. Jimmie Johnson has an average finish of 6.8 in his 9 starts. Ryan Newman has finished on average 9th out of his 9 starts.

Darlington often proves to be a very challenging track for young drivers. Quite a few rookies have learned the hard way why Darlington is often called "The track too tough to tame."

Darlington also proves to be challenging to many veteran drivers as well. Kyle Petty has started 50 races at Darlington but has never had a top 10 finish.

Darlington would certainly be on the list of practically any driver to add to his win list. A win at Darlington looks good on anyone's resume.