NASCAR’s history of racing on Mother’s Day

The NASCAR Cup Series is scheduled to race on Mother’s Day for the fifth straight year this Sunday at Kansas Speedway.

 

In the 77-year history of the NASCAR Cup Series, there have been 11 times where drivers went racing in a points-awarding event on Mother’s Day.

The history of the NASCAR Cup Series includes races on the Saturday before Mother’s Day at venues like Darlington Raceway and Kansas Speedway.

According to History.com, Mother’s Day was recognized as a holiday when President Woodrow Wilson signed a measure in 1914 to have it observed on the second Sunday of May annually.

The first race held on Mother’s Day was run in 1954.

Two-time series champion Buck Baker lapped the 16-car field at the half-mile Wilson Speedway dirt track en route to his first of four wins that season.

The tradition of running on the holiday continued for two more consecutive seasons, with Tim Flock lapping the field at the Arizona State Fairgrounds one-mile dirt track in 1955 and Buck Baker winning in 1956 at the nine-tenths mile Orange Speedway dirt track.

Nine-time Cup Series winner Bob Welborn was victorious when the series raced on the holiday in 1958. Welborn lapped the 20-car field at the Greensboro Fairgrounds third-mile dirt track.

The 1960s didn’t feature any races run on the holiday. During the decade, the series ran at Darlington the Saturday night before the holiday seven times.

NASCAR’s premier series ran a race on Mother’s Day twice during the 1970s.

Benny Parsons lapped the field in 1971 at the .357-mile South Boston Speedway in the Halifax County 100. In 1978, three-time champion Cale Yarborough picked up the win at Talladega Superspeedway. Called Alabama International Motor Speedway at the time, Yarborough led on 12 separate occasions for 81 laps.

It would be 29 years before the next race in the Cup Series would be run on Mother’s Day.

In 2007, the NASCAR Cup Series raced on Mother’s Day at Darlington Raceway. They originally planned to run the race Saturday night. However, they postponed it because of inclement weather.

Jeff Gordon led the final 22 laps to score his seventh and final win at the raceway.

Since 2021, the NASCAR Cup Series has raced at Darlington every Mother’s Day. Martin Truex Jr. won in 2021. Then, Joey Logano bumped William Byron out of the way for the win in 2022. Byron redeemed himself and won in 2023. 

A year later, Brad Keselowski cruised to victory, breaking a 110-race winless streak after Tyler Reddick pulled a divebomb on Chris Buescher that went wrong.