1969 World 600

1969 World 500
Race details[1][2]
Race 21 of 54 in the 1969 NASCAR Grand National Series season

Layout of Charlotte Motor Speedway
Date May 25, 1969 (1969-May-25)
Official name World 500
Location Charlotte Motor Speedway, Concord, North Carolina
Course Permanent racing facility
1.500 mi (2.414 km)
Distance 334 laps, 501 mi (804 km)
Weather Warm with temperatures approaching 84 °F (29 °C); wind speeds up to 6 miles per hour (9.7 km/h)
Average speed 134.361 miles per hour (216.233 km/h)
Attendance 75,000[3]
Pole position
Driver
Banjo Matthews
Most laps led
Driver LeeRoy Yarbrough Junior Johnson
Laps 274
Winner
No. 98 LeeRoy Yarbrough Junior Johnson
Television in the United States
Network untelevised
Announcers none

The 1969 World 600, the 10th running of the event, was a NASCAR Grand National Series event that took place on May 25, 1969, at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina.

The transition to purposely-built racers began in the early 1960s and occurred gradually over that decade. Changes made to the sport by the late 1960s brought an end to the "strictly stock" vehicles of the 1950s; most of the cars were trailered to events or hauled in by trucks.

Background

The race was held at Charlotte Motor Speedway, a 1.5-mile (2.4 km) asphalt quad-oval in Concord, North Carolina. The track, which opened in 1960, was built by Bruton Smith and Curtis Turner.

Summary

Four hundred laps were accomplished on a paved oval track spanning 1.5 miles (2.4 km).[3] After nearly four hours and thirty minutes of racing, LeeRoy Yarbrough managed to defeat Donnie Allison by two laps[4] in front of 75000 live spectators.[3] Five cautions would be given out for 45 laps along with 13 lead changes amongst eight different competing drivers.[2][3][4] One of the most spectactular feats of this race would be when LeeRoy Yarbrough would lead the race from lap 162 through lap 400; putting on a very strong performance to win the race.[4]

There were 44 drivers in the race; each of them would be racing for a racing purse that had a grand total of $132,100 ($853,855.08 when considering inflation).[5] Ed Negre would get the last-place finish in Don Tarr's 1967 Chevrolet due to a transmission problem on the second lap.[2][3][4] Allison would gain the pole position with a speed of 159.296 miles per hour (256.362 km/h) while the average race speed was 134.631 miles per hour (216.668 km/h).[3][4]

Dave Marcis would have a long career ahead of him after leading the laps in this race. However, this would be the final race for Gerald Chamberlain and Larry Hess.[4]

Top thirty finishers

Timeline

References

  1. ↑ Weather information for the 1969 World 600 at The Old Farmers' Almanac
  2. 1 2 3 1969 World 600 at Database Racing
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 1969 World 600 at Racing Reference
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 1969 World 600 at Race Database
  5. ↑ 1969 World 600 at Fantasy Racing Cheat Sheet
Preceded by
1969 Tidewater 375		 NASCAR Grand National Series season
1969 		Succeeded by
1969 Macon 300
Preceded by
1968		 World 600 races
1969 		Succeeded by
1970
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 12/1/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.