By BOB SPEAR
Sports Editor

WHEN THE CURATORS of NASCAR’s museum in Charlotte begin their search for material to depict the history of the sport, they can step across the state line and find a wealth of material in South Carolina.

Indeed, if the fancy palace does not include Darlington Raceway and its founder, Harold Brasington, among the first exhibits, the powers that be will be guilty of negligence in the first degree.

That is without mentioning David Pearson, considered by many the finest stock-car driver to answer the familiar call of “Gentlemen, start your engines.” The Spartanburg native ranks second in career victories a generation after his retirement.

Don’t forget Cale Yarborough, a rugged son of the Pee Dee who collected Southern 500 trophies the way some people collect stamps.

And then there is Bud Moore, another Spartanburg native, who returned from World War II to become an owner and one of the slickest mechanics to twist a wrench.

If oddities figure in the mix, check out Greenville’s Larry Frank, who accepted the Southern 500 trophy a day late and before empty grandstands, thanks to a scoring mistake. Remember, too, Bill Elliott’s winning $1 million in one day at a time when $1 million amounted to more than pocket change in the world of athletics; a female driver from Greenville named Louise Smith; and Richard Petty’s first career victory in the big time at old Columbia Speedway.

In the twinkling of an eye, they could fill a wing with Palmetto State people and moments and still miss some South Carolina magic.

The first superspeedway. Fans can — and will — debate the merits of various drivers without reaching a consensus, but there can be no doubt that stock-car racing took its first step toward major-league status in a onetime peanut patch near Darlington, S.C..

Brasington had attended the famed Indianapolis 500 and wondered, “Why not here with stock cars?”

“Well,” his friends answered, “where would they race?”

From that discussion, Darlington Raceway emerged and accidentally came into being with a configuration that baffles the best drivers in the world. In order to keep a fishing pond, turns at one end of the 1.366-mile track are sharper than at the other, creating a nightmare for mechanics striving to set up their cars for maximum speed.

Today, the antique on state route 151 offers the ultimate challenge — 1950 engineering vs. 2006 technology.

Until Brasington and friends built stock-car racing’s first super-speedway, dirt bullrings that featured a lot of banging and a lot of dust dominated. Almost every community could offer a track, but only Darlington could offer a “big” track.

The big racing plants followed, and soon the circuit became littered with cookie-cutter layouts. The configurations became all too familiar, which served to illustrate the wonder of Darlington.

Cale and the Silver Fox. The first Darlington race unfolded Sept. 4, 1950, and a politician of some renown named Strom Thurmond suggested a name — the Southern 500. Good idea, the track’s fathers agreed, and the track made an impact from the start.

In a day when drivers raced streetcars with no safety features and Hudsons and Oldsmobiles dominated, Johnny Mantz averaged 75 mph in a little ol’ Plymouth to win.

Then as now, tire wear made the difference at Darlington, and none solved the nuances better than Pearson. He won 12 pole positions and 10 races.

Rivals called him the Silver Fox, and his performances at Darlington showed why. He was a finesse driver amid the sluggers, a racing Ali compared with a Marciano or Louis.

Like Pearson, Yarborough grew up in an era when competitors learned to race after getting a regular driver’s license. Today’s stars begin much earlier, gaining experience at young ages on go-kart tracks.

But the younger guys will be hard-pressed to surpass Pearson’s 105 victories. Only Jeff Gordon has matched Yarborough’s five triumphs in the Southern 500, which combined the heat of a South Carolina summer with the fickleness of Darlington to create the circuit’s toughest challenge.

Darlington has lost one of its two premier races to newer facilities with more amenities for fans and sponsors, but the competition on those tracks can’t match Darlington’s, and that’s a loss for racing.

A couple of years ago, officials invited Pearson and Yarborough to join Gordon in running the first laps under the newly installed lights at Darlington. Gordon would drive last, leaving the two old-timers to flip a coin for the honor of going first.

Pearson won and said, “Being first is always good.”

First is where South Carolina lore should be in stock-car racing’s new museum.