USAC LEGEND DAVE DARLAND ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT
By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Speedway, Indiana (October 6, 2023)………Dave Darland, one of seven USAC Triple Crown champions and the winningest driver in USAC National Sprint Car history, announced his retirement via a Facebook post on Friday night.
Darland achieved his USAC Triple Crown club status by winning the USAC Silver Crown title in 1997, the National Sprint Car crown in 1999 and back-to-back National Midget driving championships in 2001-02. Only Darland, Pancho Carter, Tony Stewart, J.J. Yeley, Jerry Coons Jr., Tracy Hines and Chris Windom belong to that exclusive club.
The first of Darland’s record 62 career USAC National Sprint Car victories came in May of 1993 during the Tony Hulman Classic at the Terre Haute (Ind.) Action Track for car owner Brent Earlywine. In fact, his total of 115 USAC feature victories (nationally and regionally) ranks fifth all-time, and also includes 30 National Midget triumphs and 14 with the Silver Crown series.
Darland, of Lincoln, Ind., recorded a total of 1,334 USAC National starts, which ranks first in series history, including 797 in the USAC Sprint Cars, 336 in the Midgets and 201 Silver Crown. His first USAC start came on September 29, 1986, with the National Sprint Cars in the 4-Crown Nationals at Ohio’s Eldora Speedway. His most recent start came at his home track of Kokomo Speedway in August of 2023.
The 2017 National Sprint Car Hall of Fame inductee has raced everywhere and won nearly everything in his long and storied career. He’s won on pavement and dirt, won from coast-to-coast, and titles upon titles, and was one of the most popular drivers to ever compete on the USAC trail, affectionately earning the nickname, “The People’s Champ.”
“Forty-two years of sprint car racing (52 years of being behind the wheel of a race car), that's a long time,” Darland stated. “One-hundred-plus races per year for many years, thousands and thousands of miles traveled, records set, records broken. Fans who became friends and family, great car owners to fulfill the need of racing and awesome sponsors who made it happen.”
Darland announced that the Friday, October 20, Kokomo Klash at Kokomo Speedway would be the last race of his career. But now, the 57-year-old has decided it’s time to step away from the cockpit for good.
“Now is the time for my family and my five grandkids; my time,” Darland explained. “I’m retiring. (There’s) no looking back; the memories have been made. I've fulfilled my dreams and plans.”
Darland initially gained fame locally on the Indiana sprint car scene, driving his father Bob Darland’s famed yellow number 36D. His first sprint car victory came at Kokomo, defeating the legendary Bob Kinser. Several track championships came his way in the ensuing years, including for at Kokomo in 1987-91-93-94 and at Lincoln Park Speedway in 1990-91.
He truly broke onto the national scene with a Hoosier Hundred victory in 1995 at the Indiana State Fairgrounds for car owner Galen Fox, then became a hired gun, winning the 1999 USAC National Sprint Car title for the Hoffman family’s Dynamics, Inc. team and the 2001 USAC National Midget points championships for car owner Steve Lewis, three of the most famed car owners in the game.
Any big name in USAC racing history, Dave Darland has more than likely won it. Among his numerous accolades are three Indiana Sprint Week titles in 1998-2001-2007 to go along with a record 20 victories in the ISW series. He won a whopping 14 USAC national events at Eldora, half of which came during the 4-Crown Nationals.
Furthermore, in USAC National Sprint Car competition, he captured the Tony Hulman Classic at Terre Haute in 1993 and 2014; the Oval Nationals at Perris (Calif.) Auto Speedway in 2005-2006-2013; the Western World Championships at Arizona’s Manzanita Speedway in 2005; the Border Wars title in 2012; and Sprint Car Smackdown at Kokomo Speedway in 2013-2014-2015.
It was at Kokomo’s Smackdown in 2014 in which he became USAC’s all-time winningest National Sprint Car driver, earning his 53rd win to surpass Tom Bigelow for number one all-time. In 2015, he captured USAC victory number 100 during a National Sprint Car event at AMSOIL Speedway in Superior, Wis.
In the USAC Silver Crown ranks, Darland was named the series’ Most Improved Driver in 1995 before going on to earn three Hoosier Hundred scores at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in 1995-1996-2004 and three editions of the Bettenhausen 100 at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in 1997-1999-2003.
Darland was mightily prolific in the USAC National Midgets, garnering marquee victories at the Belleville (Kan.) Midget Nationals in 1999 and 2002, plus the Hut 100 at Terre Haute in 1999 and 2003, in addition to 2003 and 2005 Buckeye Nationals points titles as well as a pair of Turkey Night Grand Prix triumphs on the pavement of Irwindale (Calif.) Speedway in 2007 and on the dirt of Perris Auto Speedway in 2013.
He also grabbed victories during the Joe James-Pat O’Connor Memorial at Salem (Ind.) Speedway in three consecutive years with the sprint cars in 1999 and the midgets in 2000 and 2001.
Darland also was the recipient of a myriad of special awards throughout his career, including the 1999 and 2015 USAC Super License/National Drivers Championship, the 2003 Jimmy Caruthers Award and the 2013 Jason Leffler Award.
One of Darland’s greatest attributes is his longevity of success, spanning an entire generation. In fact, Darland scored at least one USAC national feature victory in all-time record of 24 consecutive seasons between 1993-2016. All these years later, Darland has solidified his position as one of the all-time greats in USAC racing, a status he will retain for eternity.
“Who would have thought that a straggly kid from Lincoln, Indiana would have come this far?” Darland pondered. “Thank you to every person who stood beside me, with me and against me. You made me the person that I am, the career that I've had, and for that, I am forever grateful. Thank you for being the best fans, friends and family.”
