RIR a testament to power of light, racing at night

Back then it was the second race of the NASCAR season, a late February stop so often plagued by poor weather that series officials would move it deeper into the schedule the next year. Dale Earnhardt nipped Ricky Rudd at the finish by one-and-a-half car lengths, another step toward what would be the fifth of his seven championships. And then Richmond International Raceway began to change.

The lights went up following that event in the late winter of 1991, and what had been an overlooked little fairgrounds track was transformed. When Harry Gant won the first night race on the .75-mile oval, the seating capacity was 50,000. When the Nextel Cup field takes the checkered flag Saturday night, 112,029 people will be watching. Even with the addition of the new Commonwealth Grandstand that increased capacity by 5,000 seats, Richmond is sold out for the 31st consecutive time.

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And it's all because of lights, which saved Richmond by turning it into one of the most popular speedways in NASCAR. Visually it's far from the most impressive venue on the Nextel Cup tour, its asphalt racing surface encircling cramped infield facilities and surrounded by a sea of aluminum bleachers. At its core, it's a traditional venue with closer historical ties to places like Darlington and North Wilkesboro than anywhere else. It's a track that traces its roots to 1946, a place where nobody remembers what the first 11 races were called.

It's very much old NASCAR. But you'd never know that when the sun goes down, the lights turn on, and what was once a sleepy Sunday afternoon track becomes a spectacle. Other traditional venues may have lost races or shut down for good, but the specter of schedule realignment has never loomed over Richmond. It isn't a sparkling new facility in a major-league city. But it's been a lock-solid sellout for every race since Rusty Wallace outran Mark Martin in September of 1992.

The place is a steel and concrete testament to the power of night racing, a crucial but often ignored factor in the development of NASCAR's premier series. Saturday may traditionally bring the lowest television ratings of any night of the week -- not to mention directly conflict with NASCAR's local tracks -- but fans love the sparks that fly when the cars bottom out, the zero risk of sunburn, the way the paint schemes seem to glow under the moon. Lights helped make Bristol what it is today, turned the all-star race from a near-disaster into a hit, and rescued Richmond from an uncertain future.

And now the technicians at MUSCO -- the Iowa company that installs lighting systems at Nextel Cup tracks -- are working their magic at Darlington Raceway, a place that once so teetered on the edge of obsolescence it seemed only a matter of time before its gates were padlocked for good. Lights came to Darlington in 2004, the same year it lost its Labor Day race, as speculation over its place on the NASCAR schedule reached a crescendo. What were they doing, putting $4 million worth of lights around a track that hadn't sold out since 1996?

What they were doing was following the Richmond model, and proving once again how lights can reinvent a dated facility. Darlington, which hosts the Nextel Cup tour next weekend, is about 1,000 tickets away from a third consecutive sellout. It recently boosted its capacity with a new 3,000-seat grandstand. They're going to repave the racing surface, and eventually refurbish the garage area. And like its sister facility in the Virginia capital, it's all happening because lights went up, and fans responded.

Granted, as a short track, Richmond has an inherent advantage in attracting spectators -- beating and banging sells, day or night. But without lights, it's difficult to believe that its fall race would occupy such a coveted schedule spot as the gateway to the Chase. It's difficult to believe that Richmond would be on a 16-year sellout streak. And it's difficult to believe that this old fairgrounds facility could keep building grandstand seats higher into the sky, with a seemingly endless line of people waiting to fill them up.

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.

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