SO MUCH FOR TRADITION; Terry Labonte wins the last Labor Day Southern 500.(News)

Byline: AL PEARCE

You don't just happen upon Joe's Grill in Darlington, South Carolina. It's a few blocks and some turns from the main drag, and it takes some looking. It's a legendary eatin' and drinkin' hangout, a 50-year-old Southern treasure that needs some sprucing up. That can wait, though, because the Yanks out on I-95 couldn't find it with a GPS, anyway. Might not want to, in fact... but that's their loss.

In truth, Joe's probably isn't the kind of place for today's 20-something NASCAR fans. They'd rather swarm the cookie-cutter chain restaurants over in Florence, 10 miles east. You know, where you get a buzzer and stand around hoping it goes off. Pity them, for Joe's Grill represents the true heart and soul of stock car racing.

Right now, Joey Saleeby and his customers are hurting. The most recent Mountain Dew Southern 500 at Darling-ton Raceway was its last on Labor Day weekend. Next year California Speedway gets that coveted holiday date for a Sunday night race. After 54 years in late summer, Darling-ton and its Southern 500 are shoved to mid-November, likely to be overshadowed by football. It gets the date taken from North Carolina Speedway at Rockingham so California can have a second Cup date.

You should know that Bill France Jr. and his International Speedway Corp. own the three tracks. No question, he and his people can do whatever they want. That they also run NASCAR raises conflict-of- interest issues among owners of non-ISC tracks. But don't overlook TV's role in the trade that costs Rockingham a date and costs Darlington its tradition. If sacrifices are needed to grow the sport (we can hear France now), let it be fans, traditions and communities.

Which is why the folks at Joe's Grill are seething. Their town has hosted every Southern 500 since Labor Day of 1950. It was NASCAR's first paved-track race and its first on a superspeedway. Seventy-five cars started that one, aligned Indy style in 25 rows of three-abreast street cars. It took Johnny Mantz almost seven hours to win in a Plymouth owned by Bill France Sr., Curtis Turner and NASCAR official Alvin Hawkins. The 500 stayed on Labor Day until moving to Sunday in 1984. That suited the TV folks and businessmen, who had finally been allowed to open on Sundays. Then, no different from now, money made the wheels go 'round.

So scratch one tradition. Even so, nobody imagined France would steal all of Labor Day weekend. "When people heard rumors I always said, `You're crazy to think they'll take this race,''' said Tommy Britt, a Darlington native, longtime speedway loyalist and JG's customer. "I thought the 500 was sacred, so I told people, `Go to the bank with this: They won't take it because of the tradition.' Well, they showed me that you can't buck the system.''