Race Report.(Motorsports)(Darlington Raceway)(California Speedway)

For the first time in 54 years, NASCAR was not running at Darlington Raceway on Labor Day weekend (page 45). The Southern 500, stock car racing's original superspeedway race and its longest-running event, has been dumped in favor of a second date at California Speedway, this one an early evening twilight race under the lights.

Like North Wilkesboro and Rockingham before it, Darlington has been thrown over the side in the name of growth. What is the legendary Darlington, "the track too tough to tame,'' compared to a major market audience in Los Angeles and a prime-time television slot? NASCAR marches into the future, as tradition takes another one for the team.

And someday perhaps, new traditions take root. Races on the two-mile oval at Fontana often come down to a contest between Roush speed and Hendrick muscle: These two teams account for six wins in the previous eight races here. Sure enough, Hendrick rookie driver Brian Vickers collected the pole with a lap of 38.417 seconds at 187.417 mph, barely a tick slower than Ryan Newman's 2002 track record. But surprise: Ray Evernham Dodges took three of the top-five qualifying spots. Jeremy Mayfield qualified second, the semi-retired Bill Elliott was third and Kasey Kahne slotted in fifth.

With the 500-mile race starting at 4:30 p.m. local time and running into darkness by the halfway point, track temperatures would begin at more than 120 degrees in the afternoon sun, then descend to less than 100 degrees by nightfall. Many teams deliberately started the race on setups so loose they were nearly undriveable, knowing the track would tighten up and come back to them as the track cooled. Mastering the changing track conditions, or rather some teams' failure to do so, was a big factor in the 11 caution flags, a new track record, as one oversteering race car then another got away from its driver.

This race was in the hands of those who stayed ahead of the track, who were fast throughout an entire run. Here that would be Elliott Sadler, followed by Kahne and Mark Martin. These three ruled the final quarter of the race to finish 1-2-3 respectively. When the green flag dropped, "It was the slickest I've ever seen a racetrack this size and shape,'' said Martin.

The last of the cautions came on lap 233, when Ken Schrader's Dodge blew up and Dale Earnhardt Jr. spun in his oil, setting up a final 10-lap dash to the checkers. Martin and Kahne mounted one last charge on Sadler, but didn't have quite enough for his flying Robert Yates Ford. "We didn't have time,'' said Martin. My car just didn't shine in the final 10 laps.''

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