Cook Out Southern 500

NASCAR Cup Series
Venue	Darlington Raceway
Location	Darlington, South Carolina,United States
Corporatesponsor	Cook Out[1]
First race	1950 (1950)
Distance	501.322 miles (806.800 km)
Laps	367[2] Stages 1/2: 115 each Final stage: 137
Previous names	Southern 500 (1950–1988) Heinz Southern 500 (1989–1991) Mountain Dew Southern 500 (1992–1997, 2001–2004) Pepsi Southern 500 (1998–2000) Dodge Charger 500 (2005–2006) Dodge Avenger 500 (2007) Dodge Challenger 500 (2008) Southern 500 presented by GoDaddy.com (2009) Showtime Southern 500 (2010–2011) Bojangles' Southern 500 (2012–2019)
Most wins (driver)	Jeff Gordon (6)
Most wins (team)	Hendrick Motorsports (12)
Most wins (manufacturer)	Chevrolet (29)
Circuit information
Surface	Asphalt
Length	1.366 mi (2.198 km)
Turns	4

TheSouthern 500, officially known as theCook Out Southern 500 for sponsorship reasons, is aNASCAR Cup Seriesstock car race atDarlington Raceway inDarlington, South Carolina, United States. The race distance is 501 miles (806 km) and consists of 367 laps. From 1950 to 2003, and again since 2015, the race has been held onLabor Day weekend. The Southern 500 is largely considered one of theCrown Jewels of the NASCAR calendar, and has been nicknamed NASCAR's "oldest superspeedway race." For decades, the race has been considered by competitors and media as one of the more difficult and challenging races on the NASCAR schedule, owing much to the track's unusual, asymmetrical egg-shape, rough pavement, and overall unforgiving nature. Darlington Raceway itself has a long and storied reputation as the "Track Too Tough to Tame."

The Southern 500 has a storied history, includingBill Elliott famously winning theWinston Million in1985, andJeff Gordon doing the same in1997. It is also the site ofDarrell Waltrip's final career victory (1992).

Through 2004, Darlington held two Cup series races annually, the Southern 500 in the fall, and a400-mile event in the spring. In 2004, the Southern 500 was moved to November and was run as the second-to-last race in the inauguralChase for the Championship. The following year, as the result of a settlement in theFerko lawsuit, Darlington lost one of its two dates. The 500-mile race was moved to the Saturday of Mother's Day weekend in May and renamed for the sponsorship ofDodge. The race was held as a night race under-the-lights during this period.

The event re-assumed the Southern 500 name in 2009, and in 2015, moved back to its traditional Labor Day weekend date. From 2015 to 2020, the race weekend has been themed "NASCAR Throwback," with many cars fielding"Throwback"paint schemes (the revitalized spring race has taken that role since 2021). Since 2020, the event is currently scheduled to take place as the first race of theNASCAR playoffs. However, in 2023, the race was announced to be the regular season finale in 2024.

The trophy features photos of previous winners at Darlington.^[3]

The race began in 1950, as NASCAR's first 500-mile race, and it was the only race of such distance until theDaytona 500 debuted in 1959. Through most of its history, the race was one of NASCAR's premier events, and was known as one offour majors on the NASCAR circuit. From1985–1997, it served as the fourth race of the popularWinston Million. Two drivers,Bill Elliott (1985) andJeff Gordon (1997), clinched the Winston Million with victories in the Southern 500.

The Southern 500 was one of the last races on the circuit to embracenaming rights in its title. In 1989, the race addedHeinz as a title sponsor, but kept the traditional "Southern" moniker in its official name. From 1992 to 2004, it was sponsored byPepsiCo products (Pepsi orMountain Dew).

From 1950 to 2003, this annual event was traditionally held onLabor Day weekend (typically the first weekend of September). In the years before 1984, the race was held on Monday, Labor Day itself.^[4]

From 1953 to 1996, there was a Miss Southern 500 beauty pageant where the event winner competed in theMiss South Carolina Pageant the following year. In the entire history of the pageant, only two Miss Southern 500s ever won Miss South Carolina (Amanda Spivey: 1995, Janet Powers: 1997).

For the2004 season, arealignment of the NASCAR schedule saw the race move to November. Track management believed the November date would allow for cooler, more comfortable weather for fans, who had increasingly voiced concerns about the hot, humid, weather. Also, it meant the race would be part of the new Chase for the Championship.Rockingham lost its fall date toFontana, and thePop Secret 500 was moved to the prestigious Labor Day weekend date.

In 2004,Francis Ferko, a shareholder of the company that ownedTexas Motor Speedway, sued NASCAR, saying they had violatedantitrust laws by refusing to have a second race at Texas Motor Speedway, as many other tracks had. The case was settled in his favor, and NASCAR was forced to give up one of its Darlington dates so that asecond race could be held at Texas.

Starting in 2005, Darlington was forced to contract down to one race per year. Officials replaced Darlington's two Cup Series events with one 500-mile race. The event's traditional moniker "Southern 500" was dropped for the time being. The race was situated on the Saturday ofMother's Day weekend in mid-May. Mother's Day weekend was a date that had been mostly avoided by NASCAR in recent decades. TheNashville 420 had used the Saturday of Mother's Day weekend for a time until it was discontinued in 1984. Moving the Darlington race to May loosely mimicked the period in which thespring race, once known as the Rebel 500, was held on or aroundConfederate Memorial Day.

Dodge, which had been sponsoring Darlington'sspring race at that point, took over sponsorship of the 500-mile race in May. The title of the race was based on various Dodge models including theCharger,Challenger, andAvenger. The race would be held under-the-lights and proved to be well-attended.

Without a title sponsor after 2008, the race re-adopted the moniker of "Southern 500". Track officials and fans were anxious to revive the traditional name.GoDaddy was signed as presenting sponsor, and it became known as theSouthern 500 presented by GoDaddy.com. The race was then sponsored byShowtime Networks from 2010 to 2011, andBojangles' from 2012 to 2019.

While enjoying renewed success in attendance and popularity in May, there was still desire by some fans, media, and others to move the race back to its traditional Labor Day date. Especially after replacement races (Fontana andAtlanta) failed to gain any foothold on the desirable Labor Day weekend holiday slot.Bruton Smith,CEO ofSpeedway Motorsports even offered to buy the Darlington track to return it to Labor Day weekend and "get it back where it belongs".^[5]

In 2014, the race switched dates with thespring Kansas race, and ran in the second weekend in April.^[6] This change, like the one ten years earlier, would only last a year. The 2014 race was still run at night, whereas the Kansas race on that date had been run during the afternoon.

A revived interest in moving the Southern 500 back to Labor Day grew over the summer of 2014. In August 2014, it was announced that 2015 Southern 500 would return to its traditional Labor Day weekend slot, the first time since 2003.^[7] To combat the issue of heat and humidity that had resulted in the race originally being moved, the race is currently run Sunday night of Labor Day weekend, under the lights, with temperatures being cooler than they are during daytime hours.

To celebrate the return of the race to its traditional weekend, a concerted and highly publicized effort among NASCAR, the track, and teams were made to theme the weekend a "NASCAR Throwback." Thirty-two cars in the 43 car field ranthrowback paint schemes during the event, with various other throwback aspects planned throughout the weekend.^[8] It was announced days before the race that legendary broadcastersKen Squier,Ned Jarrett andDale Jarrett would announce part of the race. Some hour into the broadcasting, Squier, and the Jarretts called the race lap-by-lap for about an hour. NBC, which also utilized its logos from the 1970s during the broadcast, was widely praised by many for bringing back old memories in the sport. The success of the event led to a nomination for Sports Event of the Year.^[9]

Due to the success and popularity in 2015, the "Throwback" theme for the weekend was run from 2015 to 2020. In 2021, with the reinstatement of the second weekend during the 2020 season, the theme was moved to thespring meeting in order to allow playoff teams to focus on the playoff.^[10]

Bojangles' ended its title sponsorship of the race after the 2019 race.^[11]

When the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series schedule was released, the Southern 500 was scheduled as the only race at the circuit, again onLabor Day weekend. It became the first race of theNASCAR playoffs' Round of 16 due to NASCAR ending the season a week earlier than usual, atPhoenix Raceway. The race was previously held in the playoffs when it began in 2004 as the ninth race. This schedule placement became permanent starting in 2021, except in 2024 when it was made the regular season finale because of a two-week break imposed by NBC Sports for the2024 Summer Olympics.

Because of theglobal pandemic, Darlington Raceway returned to having two race weekends, as2020 The Real Heroes 400 and the2020 Toyota 500, as part of returning to the track following a nine-week pause.

Cook Out, which had sponsored with Darlington Raceway as the official quick-service restaurant of the track, assumed naming rights for the Southern 500.^[1] As a result of pandemic changes, theNASCAR Camping World Truck Series moved a race fromCanadian Tire Motorsports Park (Mosport) to Darlington, making the Cook Out Southern 500 a doubleheader.

The Truck Series again could not participate at Mosport, so the Southern 500 returned as a doubleheader with the Trucks in the afternoon and Cup in the evening. In addition, the traditional Southern 500 parade moved to the Rebel weekend (which effectively confirmed the lineage swap), while a 5k athletics event was added to the Southern 500 events. The athletics race was originally a Thursday night event, but moved to Saturday night in 2025 with a record crowd of 501 runners doing either the 5k or the one-lap run.

• 1950: The very first running lasted over six hours and multiple cars blew tires.Johnny Mantz drove a conservative race and emerged with the win.
• 1960: In a race with 48 entries, numerous crashes occurred. Ankrum "Spook" Crawford was injured when a car crashed into the unprotected pit road area; laterBobby Johns crashed in the pits, killing three.Richard Petty led 106 laps but spun out with 50 laps to go. Pole-sitterFireball Roberts broke an axle and finished ninth, 11 laps down.Rex White was flagged the winner, but a reexamination of scoring showed White was credited with one extra lap he had not run, giving the win toBuck Baker.
• 1965:Darel Dieringer broke with 39 laps to go after leading 199 laps, leavingNed Jarrett alone by 14 laps en route to the win. The race saw a scary melee when youngCale Yarborough crashed withSam McQuagg in Turn One and Cale's car flew over the guardrail and landed outside the speedway; he was uninjured and interviewed forABC Sports byChris Economaki.
• 1966:Darel Dieringer passedRichard Petty with seven laps to go and stormed to the win. A scary crash erupted in Turn One asEarl Balmer smashed into the guardrail on Lap 186 and spun atop it, throwing debris into the open-air press box in the turn.
• 1967:Richard Petty wins his only Southern 500
• 1970:Buddy Baker joined his fatherBuck Baker in winning the Southern 500. Five of the top six finishers drove either 1969Dodge Daytonas or 1970Plymouth Superbirds, making this the only Darlington race won by the famed winged Chryslers.LeeRoy Yarbrough, due to compete in the event, withdrew after a last-minute offer of a ride in theCalifornia 500.^[12]
• 1974:Cale Yarborough became a three-time Southern 500 winner, edging sophomore sensationDarrell Waltrip. Crashes thinned the field and eliminated the likes ofRichard Petty,Buddy Baker,David Pearson, andBobby Allison; singled out for criticism wasRichie Panch, involved in three wrecks during the day. Allison accused Yarborough of wrecking him, a charge Yarborough angrily denied.
• 1976:David Pearson ended a career slump in the Southern 500, taking his ninth win of his magic 1976 season, his first Southern 500 after six wins in theRebel 500.Richard Petty finished second, the 60th time in their careers Pearson and Petty had finished 1–2 in a Winston Cup Grand National race (the duo would finish 1–2 three more times in their careers with Pearson holding a 33–30 edge). BothJimmy Carter andBob Dole visited the race while on thecampaign trail.^[13]
• 1977: A huge fight betweenCale Yarborough andDarrell Waltrip ended in a crash and Pearson grabbed his second straight Southern 500. Following the raceD.K. Ulrich, caught up in the fracas, asked Cale why he'd hit him; Cale replied "I didn't hit you, Jaws did; Jaws Waltrip" – creating a popular nickname for Waltrip.
• 1979: Pearson achieved vindication at the same track where earlier that year a pit accident cost him his ride withWood Brothers Racing. DrivingRod Osterlund's Chevrolet while regular driverDale Earnhardt recovered from late-July injury, Pearson made up a lap whenDarrell Waltrip spun out of the lead with 70 laps to go, then spun again some 20 laps later; he lost 12 laps and finished 11th after leading 165 laps. Pearson edged young driverBill Elliott for the win, his 104th career Winston Cup Grand National win.
• 1980: Once again Waltrip and Pearson were keys to a shocking Southern 500; this time Waltrip, embroiled in a contract fight withDiGard Racing, led 196 laps from the pole while Pearson once again had to make up a lap, this time drivingHoss Ellington's Chevrolet. But a timing chain broke on Waltrip, ending his race 39 laps from the finish.Benny Parsons grabbed the lead while Pearson got back on the lead lap. A late yellow forCale Yarborough (who'd had a miserable day with a fuel fire and several earlier spins) set up a five-lap shootout between Parsons, Pearson, andDale Earnhardt; Pearson took the lead on the restart, Earnhardt passed on Lap 364 but Pearson retook the lead on that same lap, but with two to go all three leaders crashed, in Turn, One on oil from a backmarker; Pearson limped to the line, butTerry Labonte caught and swung past at the white flag, grabbing his first career win.
• 1982: The most competitive running of the Southern 500 took place as the lead changed 41 times among 17 drivers.Bobby Allison in the #88 led 88 laps before breaking, whileDarrell Waltrip inJunior Johnson's Buick led 23 laps before blowing his engine. In all 14 cautions flew and helped set up a four-car shootout involving the cream of stock car racing's old guard (Cale Yarborough andRichard Petty) and the cream of its up-and-coming new guard (Dale Earnhardt andBill Elliott). Cale edged Petty, Earnhardt, and Elliott for his record fifth Southern 500, and what would be his last victory with M.C. Anderson's race team.
• 1985: NASCAR'sWinston Million program paid out whenBill Elliott took the win in the Southern 500, thus winning three of NASCAR's four biggest races (he'd won theDaytona 500 andWinston 500 earlier in the year). Challenges byDale Earnhardt andCale Yarborough fell apart; Yarborough finished second despite breaking a power steering line. The million-dollar program made Elliott's winnings the highest in NASCAR history to that point.
• 1986:Tim Richmond andGeoff Bodine swept the front row and combined to lead 330 laps. Intermittent rain pushed the four-hour contest to darkness. Bodine ran dry and finished eighth whileBill Elliott's attempt to stretch his fuel came short with six to go and he finished third behind Richmond andBobby Allison. The win was the first at Darlington for crew chiefHarry Hyde.Dale Earnhardt hitRichard Petty six laps in and Petty was eliminated; "His mind goes out of gear," said an angered Petty.
• 1987: Rain-shortened 1987 running after just 202 laps; the battle for the win turned into a showdown between Earnhardt andRichard Petty; Petty gunned past Earnhardt on a Lap 188 restart but Earnhardt retook the lead on lap 191 just before rain brought out what would be the race-ending yellow at Lap 198. Rookie sensationDavey Allison won the pole and led 86 laps but crashed in Turn Four at Lap 164; the crash swept upLake Speed whileMike Potter spun behind them and was drilled byBenny Parsons.
• 1988: A classic three-way battle betweenBill Elliott,Rusty Wallace, andDale Earnhardt who led a combined 289 of the 367 laps. In the end, Elliott led 154 of the 367 laps, and took home his 2nd Southern 500 victory, en route to capturing the 1988 Winston Cup Championship.
• 1989:Darrell Waltrip had opportunity to win theWinston Million but crashed, leavingDale Earnhardt to his second Southern 500 win.
• 1990: Earnhardt,Bill Elliott, andGeoff Bodine timed together in the top three and combined to lead 286 laps between them; Bodine faded to eighth while Elliott finished fourth andErnie Irvan led 70 laps and grabbed second, but no one could catch Earnhardt en route to his third Southern 500 in his previous four starts. The race was famous for a vicious feud betweenKen Schrader andMorgan Shepherd; Schrader crashed early in the race after an encounter with Shepherd, then after getting repairs he sped onto the track and rammed Shepherd in the third turn. Shepherd finished 21st while Schrader was parked.
• 1991:Harry Gant won the Southern 500 for the second time, leading 152 laps while pole-sitterDavey Allison led 151 laps but finished four laps down. Gant's win began a four-race win streak, the first such in NASCAR since 1987.
• 1992:Davey Allison entered the race with a chance for theWinston Million, but rain interfered, and cut the race short.Harry Gant andDavey Allison combined to lead 163 laps. With rain approaching the area, the leaders cycled through a series of pit stops around lap 292, but a scant handful of drivers stayed out. Allison'sCrew chiefLarry McReynolds sent a crew member to theNASCAR hauler to look at theweather radar. The crew member's misinterpretation of the radar led to Allison coming into the pits and changing four tires.Darrell Waltrip was among those who gambled and stayed out, inhered the lead just as the yellow came out for rain on lap 297. The skies opened up, and the race has ended after 298 laps. Davey Allison slid to 5th in the pit stop shuffle and was denied his chance at the million-dollar bonus. The victory would be Waltrip's 84th and final career win.
• 1993: After an intense battleMark Martin broke away fromDale Earnhardt and won the Southern 500, his fourth straight Winston Cup win. He and Earnhardt combined to lead 279 laps.Ernie Irvan finished fifth in his debut drive inRobert Yates after an acrimonious split fromMorgan McClure Motorsports;Jeff Purvis finished 26th in the McClure Chevrolet.
• 1994: Despite battling overheating issues in his car,Bill Elliott scores his 3rd win in the Southern 500, and the 40th overall win of his NASCAR career. It was the final victory for the team ofJunior Johnson & Associates and would also be the final win Elliott would capture in NASCAR until 2001, more than 6 years later.
• 1997: The initialWinston Million winner in 1985,Bill Elliott, leads a race high 181 of the 367 laps, but ultimately finishes 4th.Jeff Gordon would go on to win his 3rd (of four straight) Southern 500 overJeff Burton, and with this win (along with hisDaytona 500 andCoca-Cola 600 wins earlier in the year) would clinch the Winston Million in its final running of the promotion in NASCAR.
• 2003: In the last Southern 500 held on Labor Day weekend until 2015, Terry Labonte led the final 33 laps and held off Kevin Harvick for his last win in the Cup series. The race has been labeled by many as the most popular win of 2003 as everybody was always happy to see Labonte win.
• 2011:Regan Smith stayed out on a late caution when the rest of the field pitted and sweated out a late crash involvingKevin Harvick andKyle Busch to edgeCarl Edwards for his first NASCAR win. The win was overshadowed as Harvick and Busch collided on pit road when Harvick tried to throw a punch at Busch inside his cockpit; NASCAR fined the two drivers and put them on probation after the race.
• 2012:Jimmie Johnson stayed out during the final round of pit stops on the advice of crew chiefChad Knaus. Johnson would later hold offDenny Hamlin andTony Stewart to score team ownerRick Hendrick's 200th NASCAR Cup Series victory.
• 2015: 2015 marked several changes. Most notably, the race was rescheduled to its traditional Labor Day date. As part of this return to tradition, the race was dubbed a 'throwback weekend', and the majority of teams entered into the race drove cars with retro paint jobs based on classic paint schemes used in the 1970s and 1980s. Also, retro-style ads were placed on the outside walls, and part of the race was called by former NASCAR broadcastersKen Squier and father and sonNed andDale Jarrett. The race also utilized a new experimental rules package that took away downforce from the car. The new package resulted in a very intense race, which saw a record-breaking 18 caution flags, leading to the average green flag run only being about 14.7 laps long.Carl Edwards rallied back from two laps down to overtakeBrad Keselowski and take his second win of the year.
• 2024: 2024 marked the race being held as the regular season finale due to schedule issues regarding the2024 Summer Olympics,Chase Briscoe would win after holding offKyle Busch, getting just his second win of his career, and the final win forStewart–Haas Racing.

• 1969 and 1993: Race shortened due to rain/darkness.
• 1987, 1992, 1999, and 2000: Race shortened due to rain.
• 2005, 2011–2012, and 2014: Race extended due toNASCAR overtime.
• 2007: Race postponed from Saturday night to Sunday afternoon due to rain.^[90]
• 2019: Race started on Sunday but finished Monday morning due to rain.^[91]

• Darlington Record Club

• Darlington Raceway race results at Racing-Reference

• 1950 establishments in South Carolina
• NASCAR races at Darlington Raceway
• Recurring sporting events established in 1950
• NASCAR Cup Series races
• Annual sporting events in the United States

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