Why is NASCAR's Darlington Raceway called The Lady in Black? How the nickname originated

In 1965, after Darlington Raceway was resurfaced for the first time since it opened 15 years earlier, hall of fame NASCAR sports writer Benny Phillips coined the phrase "The Lady in Black," to describe the 1.366-mile egg-shaped oval, according to NASCAR.com .

And it stuck.

The NASCAR Cup Series returns to Darlington Raceway in South Carolina Sunday for the Goodyear 400 (2 p.m. CT, FS1).

Why Benny Phillips called Darlington Raceway The Lady in Black

Phillips compared the dangers of the track to that of German spy Mata Hari, who doubled as an exotic dancer, while having the appeal of "Hollywood's most beautiful actress." It was, Phillips wrote, "as unpredictable as any woman," and therefore possessed the virtues of "The Lady in Black."

"In the half-century since, references to Darlington as “The Lady In Black” have appeared thousands of times in publications across the country," NASCAR.com's Michael Graff wrote in 2018. "But I searched through archives, and funny as it sounds, I found only one other instance when Benny wrote the phrase “Lady In Black” to describe Darlington, nine years later in 1974."

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Phillips, who spent 48 years with the High Point Enterprise (North Carolina), died in 2012. He also wrote for Stock Car Racing magazine and spent 12 years with TBS. Phillips was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2017.

Darlington Raceway was first NASCAR track paved with black asphalt

Another theory, according to former Darlington Raceway president Kerry Tharp, is the term Lady in Black came about because Darlington was the first NASCAR speedway paved with black asphalt.

"Whichever theory you want to accept," Tharp said in a video on the Darlington Raceway Facebook page. "Let's just put it this way, The Lady in Black is a nickname that has stuck for years and years and will continue to describe this mysterious racetrack."

Darlington Raceway is also known as The Track Too Tough to Tame

The Lady in Black isn't Darlingon's only nickname.

It is also known to many NASCAR fans and teams as The Track Too Tough To Tame.

That came about, according to the track's web site, because it is "... one of the sport's oldest and most challenging tracks on the circuit."

Reach Mike Organ at 615-259-8021 or on X @MikeOrganWriter.

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This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Why is NASCAR's Darlington Raceway called The Lady in Black? How the nickname originated