Harold Brasington, a former stock car driver, was a farmer and construction business owner in the late 1940s. It’s only fitting, then, that he planted the seeds of a superspeedway 60 years ago and built one of the most storied tracks in motorsports history.

Darlington Raceway, which will host NASCAR festivities this Mother’s Day weekend, was conjured by Brasington in 1948. After attending the Indianapolis 500 that year — and seeing the hundreds of thousands of fans converge on the Brickyard — he decided to build a track closer to home, one that would showcase the talents of moonshiners-turned-racecar drivers.

So he bought 70 acres of farmland from a man named Sherman Ramsey and went to work on his project. The only stipulation was that the track not interfere with Ramsey’s minnow pond on the west side of the former cotton and peanut field.

No problem.

Brasington decided on an egg-shape design (he had to in order to save the pond), one that would feature steep banks and a tight configuration. It wasn’t called it at the time, but Darlington Raceway was going to be the first superspeedway.

It was built in a year, and in 1950 — on Labor Day weekend — it hosted a race with a record purse of $25,000. Johnny Mantz won the inaugural event driving a Plymouth, and the legend of “The Lady In Black” was born.

That nickname, so the legend goes, was given when early events would end with the track’s white walls covered in black due to contact from tires. To this day, NASCAR rookies are initiated by getting their “Darlington stripes.”

Recently the track got a $10 million makeover, the largest one-time investment in the history of the 1.366-mile raceway. The changes include a new racing surface, addition of SAFER barrier walls to the interior frontstretch and backstretch concrete walls, and extending the length of each pit box by one foot.

A new infield access tunnel in Turn 3 provides emergency and safety vehicles easy access in and out of the infield area of the track.

NASCAR drivers who will try their luck at Darlington Saturday are impressed with the upgrades.

“The basic transitions, the banking and walls haven’t changed,” said four-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon. “The bumps are gone, the grip level is high and it’s awesome — they did a great job.”

Greg Biffle, who won back-to-back races at Darlington from 2005-06, said, “I’m happy with the new surface. There aren’t any bumps or dips that we noticed. I was pretty impressed with how smooth it was.”

Fittingly, the driver who had the most success at Darlington is Spartanburg native David Pearson, who has 10 victories there — one more than the late Dale Earnhardt and three more than Gordon.

After the paving work was done Pearson and Carl Edwards climbed into the cockpit of a couple of stock cars and had something of a match race.

Pearson was piloting the refurbished 1971 Wood Brothers’ Purolator Mercury he made famous in the 1970s, while Edwards settled into his 2008 Ford Fusion.

The green-flag waived and after the cars had zipped around the 1.366-mile egg for a few laps, Pearson was declared the winner — by a nose.

“It was great to get back out on the track at Darlington Raceway and get my 11th win here,” joked Pearson. “I had been looking forward to this day for a long time and I am honored to have been invited to this event.”

Edwards would gladly settle for second in the exhibition if he could trade it in for a checkered flag on Sunday.

“Darlington is definitely my favorite track,” said Edwards. “A win at Darlington would be so cool because of all of the history at this track. This is a driver’s race track, you have to be on top of your game to run well here, not to mention win.”

The venue has seen many changes over the years. Once home to two Cup events per season, the Southern 500 held each Labor Day was the marquee event. But in 2003 California Speedway was awarded that date and by 2005 Darlington had just one stop on the Cup circuit.

Now Sprint Cup brings its show to the South Carolina city on Mother’s Day Weekend, and this year the event is known as the Dodge Challenger 500.

Victory in any NASCAR competition is important, but Darlington does seem to carry added weight, especially since there is only one shot per year at winning there.

Tradition, prestige — next to Daytona, finishing first at “The Track Too Tough To Tame” serves as its own badge of honor.

“I consider winning the 50th Southern 500 (in 1999) the biggest win of my career,” said Jeff Burton. “Winning at Darlington is more than a trip to victory lane and a trophy — it means your name goes down in the record books as a winner at one of NASCAR’s most historic tracks.”

It also means you’ve managed to make it through one of the most nerve-wracking days of racing the Sprint Cup Series has to offer.

“It’s the most challenging track that we have and that’s why I enjoy it the most,” Ryan Newman said. “You always are having to adjust there.”